Flashback:
"Wait!"
I couldn't help but snort.
"I wasn't even leaving yet, pussy cat."
She was now looking around anxiously as she asked a question that made my heart stop.
"Where are Talon and Akamaru?!"
Chapter 9: Find Those Animals!
Neko's POV
"I could have sworn they went on ahead while we were fighting… where could they be?! There's no possible way they could have gone through the wall, and… and…"
I was at the point where I was shaking in fear; Talon is one of the few beings in the world that had helped me through my early life, and I didn't want to lose her this early in my life.
Kiba was looking at me with what I thought was a worried expression.
"Yeah," he finally said. "I'm worried about Akamaru, too."
Then, he suddenly snapped out of it, looking angry.
"Where the hell could they have gone? They stumped us, I'll admit, but we'll find them, pussy cat. Count on it."
"We better... wait,"
My eyes opened wide in astonishment.
"Can't you pick up their scents?"
Kiba stopped and stared at me.
"...I was working on it."
"What?! Why didn't you tell me earlier?! I need to know where she is!"
I grabbed his arm, making him growl.
"Go! Lead me to her!" I begged him.
Kiba glared at me as he snatched his arm out of my grasp.
"I can't; this is where they last were, I'm sure, but now I can't-"
The last thing I was going to do was let him finish that wretched sentence.
I slapped him across the face, feeling my irritation rise to an all-time high.
"Find them! I can't stand this!"
Kiba just stared at me with anger in his eyes.
Honestly, though, I couldn't have cared less.
"He had BETTER find them, or he'll pay!"
Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist, pulling me along with him.
"Let's go."
I felt chills sear my hand at his firm and angry, yet soft and soothing touch, and I allowed myself to be pulled around for a moment.
"How the hell is his touch so soothing?" I asked myself.
"It hurts since his grip is so tight, but... I miss Talon, and if anything happens to her, I'll rip someone to pieces!"
Though, Kiba touching my wrist made me calm down. I don't know why, but I was a lot more calm than I would be if we were walking side-by-side.
Before I knew it, he was dragging me back down the steps.
"We should retrace our steps before we jump to any conclusions."
I stared at the back of Kiba's hoodie, feeling one eyebrow rise up.
"It seems like he doesn't want to go back down here..."
As soon as the thought hit me, I knew the reason why; he must be irritated about what the familiar-looking clerk guy had said to me.
"He must still be jealous." I couldn't help but stiffle a bout of laughter at the thought of it.
I stopped talking to myself when we hit the bottom of the steps.
Kiba dragged me up to the front desk, the way he was walking telling me that he was pretty angry as he stared down the man.
"What room number were we?" His voice was a lot more unforgiving than normal, and I flinched as I saw the corners of his eyes narrow.
The man looked up from the... inappropriate magazine... he was reading, and I couldn't help but notice how tanned he was. His green eyes shone in the dim light, and his dirty blonde hair fit his complexion perfectly.
"I don't think I'd guess he was such a jerk... he looks so innocent."
"So, the two of you are ready to go have some fun, huh?"
Kiba clutched my hand with such force that a faint cry escaped from my lips for a moment, until I bit my lip and suppressed the pain.
This made the clerk laugh a really creepy laugh and his green eyes pierced me this time.
"Your room is number 25. I'll drop by later, and maybe that's when we'll have some alone time. Just you and me."
The way he said it made these creepy chills slither up my spine and back down as this man's provacative smile reached me.
"It's so weird how familiar he looks... and how awkward this feels..."
My knees must have been knocking together, and I took a step back as the man leaned forward, as if he was trying to get all up in my face.
When he realized that wasn't going to work, he grabbed onto my shoulder, and I watched Kiba's teeth clench.
"...It's about to get intense."
Kiba's POV
I could literally feel anger bubbling up inside of me.
"Who the hell does this guy think he is?! Trying to seduce pussy cat or something..."
However, though, the moment this guy reached across the desk and grabbed her shoulder, I must have lost it.
"That's it."
I grabbed the clerk's collar of his shirt, letting go of pussy cat's wrist so I could hold my fist up to punch this prick.
"Do you want to die? Is that it?!"
Neko's POV
Kiba's tone of voice was different this time. Like... like he'd stop at nothing to kill this guy. What was the word for it...?
"Protective."
That was the first word that popped into my head. I couldn't believe it even if I tried.
"Why would he be protective of me? He even said that he'd let me die. He'd watch me die without doing anything. He'd never be protective of me."
I had tuned out enough that I didn't hear what the guy said, but Kiba had pressed his face up closer to his.
"Say it again and the next thing you'll see is hell."
Kiba sounded really angry, more angry than he'd ever been at me, and his fist slowly began to rise as his eyes kept narrowing.
Realizing that this was about to turn dangerous, I pulled on his arm with the raised fist.
"Kiba, calm down. Please. I know he's a total jerk and everything, but we need to find Talon and Akamaru."
Kiba turned back to me, and I was taken aback by the fury and hatred that haunted his eyes as he said in a low, angry growl:
"Maybe if we know where our room was, then maybe we could get Shikamaru and Naruto to help us, too."
He turned back to the clerk, who was beginning to laugh again, and punched him square in the face. The clerk slumped forward, unconscious, and Kiba threw him to the side.
I stared at Kiba for a moment, feeling my mouth move, but no words would come out.
"I didn't know how TERRIFYING he could be when he's angry… I'm just glad he hasn't tried to punch me yet."
It wasn't until that moment that I realized I had been holding my hand to my chest this entire time. The area where he had bruised my wrist still hurt, but I wanted him to hold it again. It soothed me, but I suppose the same could have been said with anyone else.
Kiba was looking down at something on the desk, his eyebrows creased in deep thought.
He took a moment to look through it, and when he found their room number I guess, he put it back down.
"Pussy cat," he said as he passed me.
"Let's go."
Kiba took my wrist from my chest and dragged her up the stairs again, and I could feel the calmness sear my conscience.
"I... didn't know I could be this calm. I don't know if it's because I'm terrified of him, or if it's because he's beginning to treat me like a human being..."
Kiba's POV
Once we made it to our actual floor, which was the third one, I slowed down, loosening my grip on pussy cat's wrist. I had to admit, she looked pretty shaken.
"Maybe it's because of the way I was about to knock that prick's eyeballs out of his miserable face. How dare he lay a hand on her?"
I stopped myself as soon as I thought that.
"I only... no. No. I only thought that because if something happens to her, something even worse happens to me. Shik would kill me, Naruto would kill me, if we found our comrades, her damn cat would do worse than kill me... I don't want that to happen, and that's why I thought it."
No matter how much I kept trying to convince myself that that was exactly why, I couldn't. It didn't feel right... it was like I was lying to myself.
"But...if I'm lying to myself... then where's the truth?"
Honestly, I didn't know. It was that simple. I didn't know.
"Sorry for squeezing your hand so hard earlier. I did that to stop myself from killing that guy."
I could feel my body go into cruise control as I started up a conversation beginning with an apology to pussy cat.
She looked up at me with the most confused eyes I have ever seen, but she smiled at me.
"It's ok, Kiba!"
Her happy reaction made me have to do a double-take.
"...How can she be so forgiving...? If I was in her shoes, I would be pissed off."
"...And I'm sorry you had to see what I did to him. If he wasn't going to tell us what we needed to know, then I might as well kick his ass."
Pussy cat's head tilted at me for a long moment, but then she turned to face forward.
"No, it's ok. I-I thought it was kind of... cool, actually."
I did a second double-take.
"Am I in a Genjutsu or something? Pussy cat thought something that I did... was cool. Huh."
I could feel the smirk crawling up my face.
"You really think so?"
She nodded:
"It was kinda scary at first, but when I think about it, it was cool."
Neko's POV
Kiba smirked down at me with that cocky smirk that I had grown to live with during this mission. Though, it had been absent from his face for quite a while; two weeks, to be specific.
"The room number is 25." He was looking ahead now, concentrating pretty hard from what I could see.
"He's treating me like a human being..."
I smiled. A real smile. However, it disappeared as I thought about Talon and Akamaru being missing. A frown plastered to my face.
"What if we don't find Talon and Akamaru?"
Kiba's smirk had turned upside down now.
"Of course we will. If we don't find them, they'll find us."
I only sighed as we approached our room, Kiba knocked on the door.
Though, in between the few seconds that it took for someone to answer, I thought about how vacant the entire place was. The only living creatures we knew were in the building beside ourselves and our animals was the guy at the desk.
No sound could be heard from anywhere. It gave me a very... suspiscious feeling... but I decided to think nothing of it as Naruto answered the door.
"Where the hell have you two been?! It's been about thirty minutes! Shik and I have been sitting here on our lazy asses worrying like nothing else about you two!"
Kiba snorted.
"We've been out, Naruto."
He looked confused now. "Out?"
That's when he looked down at our conjoined hands and his eyes became very closed off and distant.
"Oh, well… welcome back."
I felt my heart drop into my stomach; Naruto really and truly cared for me, and I hated to see his heart break like this.
Then, Shikamaru suddenly appeared at the door behind Naruto, a frown on his face.
"Where were you?!" He demanded, glaring at Kiba like he was an accused criminal.
I watched as Kiba's eyes went from almost angry to really annoyed, like he was being defensive.
"We lost you guys and Akamaru and Talon! We're trying to find them, and thought we could get you guys to help."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"You lost Akamaru?"
Kiba nodded and Naruto burst out laughing.
"How did you lose him?! He's a dog; you can't lose him!"
Kiba growled and grabbed his jumpsuit.
"Listen, idiot. I'm about to rip your head off."
"Try it."
Shikamaru grabbed Naruto from Kiba's grasp and sighed, looking at me.
"Ok, we'll find them, even if it is going to be a drag."
I glanced at Kiba, and that's when he got this weird look on his face; as if he knew something.
"Kiba? What's…?"
But he just held my wrist tighter as he pulled me away from Shikamaru and Naruto.
"C'mon, we've gotta go!"
He took off running, dragging me behind him, and Shikamaru and Naruto ran behind us, too.
"What the hell is on your mind, Inuzuka?" Shikamaru growled through gritted teeth.
I didn't even have to look at Kiba to figure out that he was more furious than ever, mostly because he was holding my wirst; tightly and angrily.
Suddenly, Kiba stopped, making me fall forward. I shut my eyes tight, thinking I was about to face plant, but then I felt my face land on something soft, almost like fur.
"Sorry," I heard Kiba say.
I looked up and found my head resting on Kiba's shoulder with his arms around my waist, crouching on the ground. I blinked for a moment and saw a familiar emotion in his eyes as he looked at me. She had only seen it in Shikamaru's eyes when it came to looking at her, though… it was pure worry.
"Why would Kiba be worried about me? Maybe I'm just kidding myself. I'm just fanaticizing. I know it. Whatever, it's not like he'd ever take his precious time to like me anyway. He's KIBA! Besides, we have to concentrate on finding Talon and Akamaru!"
I, hastily, jumped away from him, and we continued to run.
We flew up three flights of stairs to what I believe was the top floor.
We had gotten to the end of the hall when Kiba suddenly stopped in front of a door. Room number 86.
"What's up?" Naruto asked, looking around like there were enemies all around the place.
Kiba was glaring at the door in front of us.
"They're in there."
I stood there, wondering what we should do, when I heard a sound from inside.
"Talon..." I thought, desperately, only an instant before my anger settled in.
Anxiously, I pulled out of Kiba's tight grasp on my wrist.
"Let… me… go!"
When he finally did, I hit the door as hard as I could, but this door was more reinforced than the others were.
Repeatedly, without thinking about it, I kept hitting it in succession.
Kiba's POV
"I've never seen her THIS angry at ANYTHING… I guess that damn cat means a lot to her, like Akamaru means to me."
I just stared at pussy cat as she punched the door a second time. Then a fifth time. Then a fourtenth time.
"Hey… pussy cat, I don't think the person who is in there is there…"
I tried to calm her down, but all it did was back-fire as she slapped me on the cheek, which was still smeared with dried blood from earlier:
"You tell me! You're the one with the almighty nose, for crying out loud!"
Her voice was unnaturally more angry than normal as she turned away and kept trying to open the door.
When she talked to me in that voice, I could barely keep my anger contained as I took a deep breath, trying to locate any human inside, but there was nothing except for the scent of our beloved comrades.
"There's no one inside, pussy cat." I was trying to sound calm, but, honestly, all I was thinking about was how to get Akamaru the hell out of that room.
This statement only seemed to make pussy cat more anxious and angry as she kept trying to bust the door down.
Shikamaru, finally, grabbed her by her waist and pulled her away from the door, which now had scratch marks on it.
"Neko," he said, sounding a bit exasperated.
"Let's think about this for a moment. What if there are traps in there?"
Pussy cat was now looking around, looking thoughtful, and she finally sighed. "I guess…"
Jumping away from Shikamaru, she took a seat on the ground.
Shikamaru knelt down on one knee and looped his hands to form a circle, like he always did when he was thinking.
Naruto sighed, put both of his arms behind his back and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes.
"Ah, this is going to take a while. We might as well sit back."
I growled and leaned against the wall as well.
"Damn. We had BETTER get Akamaru out of the room. I swear if anything happens to him..."
Not even wanting to think about it, I ground my teeth together anxiously.
Looking to my side, I watched as pussy cat was slowly unravelling before me; her normally annoyingly-gray eyes were black in fear as she widened them, and her claws were sheathing and unsheathing every few seconds.
"...Man, do I feel sorry for her."
I stared at her for a few more moments as she held her legs close to her chest as she sat against the wall.
"Wait, what the hell? Sorry for HER? Please."
Although, the more I thought about it, the more sorry I was.
"The damn cat must be pretty important to her..."
Naruto had opened one eye as he looked at me now.
"So, what'd you two do while you were out?"
Honestly, I was surprised that Naruto would ask something like that. I looked up to answer the question, but I paused when I noticed the look in his eye.
"He must be jealous or something. It's not like I'm going to take pussy cat away from him. He can have her. I don't care. Why should I care?"
When I asked myself that question, my heart seemed to nearly stop.
"Pussy cat is just as annoying as Naruto. They're perfect for each other. But... what is...?"
I shook my head, erasing the question I was about to ask myself as I answered Naruto's question:
"We were avoiding that prick of a clerk, trying to find you two, and fighting."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"Fighting?"
Pussy cat looked like she was going to pull her hair out as she sighed.
"We're always fighting, Naruto."
"Yeah," I added, although I couldn't help but glance at her as she ran her hand through her midnight black hair.
"She scratched me…"
I glared at her, which caused her to huff.
"Which is exactly why you shouldn't be jealous of how well I get along with other people, dog."
Again, I suddenly felt my anger rising.
"I wasn't jealous. He was only trying to get into your pants, pussy cat, like I said before. That's why I knocked his lights out."
Naruto's eyes opened even wider. "You knocked out the guy at the front desk?!"
Neko sighed, looking up at Naruto. "Yeah, he did."
I couldn't help but smirk as I looked back on it.
"Yeah, and I thought it was pretty well done."
Shikamaru was glaring at me now, briefly pausing in thinking about what to do in this situation.
"You do know that he can kick us out of this hotel, right?"
"Shit," growled Naruto and I at the same time.
Shikamaru seemed to go back to thinking, and pussy cat looked up at me.
"So, I have a question for you."
I suddenly felt my heart skip at the thought of what that question might be, but stopped myself just in time.
"Ask." I nearly ordered.
She stood up, looking me in the eyes, and I was surprised how sharp they had gotten over the course of this mission.
"You guys asked me earlier if I liked anyone… so... who do you like? You too, Naruto." She glanced at the blonde idiot, and I felt my world stop at the question.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever really thought about it. I mean, sure, there are some pretty good looking girls in Konoha, but I wouldn't say I feel anything serious for anyone.
"I-I don't like anyone. The only one who has any affection from me is Akamaru, and he's my best friend."
This made Naruto cough, "Forever alone."
Feeling an angry blush make it up to my ears, I growled at Naruto:
"Ok, Uzumaki, who do you like?"
Naruto's face turned red as he looked around the hallway, nervously.
"Uh… um… no one! Kiba, why are you so nosey?!"
Suddenly, pussy cat burst out laughing.
"Nice pun, Naruto!"
Naruto looked confused, but Shikamaru seemed to get it because his face was screwed up, as if he was trying not to laugh.
I shook my head slowly, thinking.
"Why did I even go on this mission if this is just going to keep happening?! Stupid puns, Naruto is riding my ass whenever I so much as TALK to pussy cat, Shikamaru with his thinking-pose that takes half past FOREVER to think of ONE plan… when will we just get the damn scroll and leave?"
Suddenly, pussy cat's eyes widened, like she was feeling pain at the moment. She had shot up and started hitting the seemingly nearly-indestructible door.
"What the hell is your problem, pussy cat?"
I growled, kind of disturbed at the thought of her normally annoying-yet peaceful nature turning into this savage, beastlike attitude. Just like me.
"just.. like me."
The thought made my vision go blurry for a moment, but I regained it when I saw how shaken pussy cat was.
She had stopped hitting the door, but she was breathing heavily and shaking.
"Talon and Akamaru… they're being tortured, Kiba! Can't you hear them?!"
Alright, this is getting really intense, trust me… shout out to my first review, glad you like the story :) Rate/Review! :)
9/7/12: Also... heh, nevermind :D Rate/Review!
