Disclaimer: As pertaining to all chapters herein: I, Omi, do solemnly swear that I do not, have not, and will not ever own any claim to copyrights of Naruto, either in manga or anime form, or any merchandise thereof. I am writing this for fun, not with the intention to make money.
Pairing: KibaNaruKiba
Warning: You are reading this of your own free will. If yaoi or shounen-ai offends your sensibilites, turn back now. Failure to comply with this might result in your tender sensibilities being mortally offended, or incurring mental trauma on your behalf. Failure to comply with this also means that it's your own fault should that happen - you're the one who wasn't reading the warning.
If there was one thing Uzumaki Naruto did not, under any circumstances, do, it was run away. He didn't run away from the possibility of battle, he didn't run away from a fight that he was already in, and even though in his heart of hearts he desperately wanted to, he sure as hell didn't run away from his new job – babysitting.
"Why me?" he groaned softly as Konohamaru and the kid's two friends ran up to greet him.
Beside him, Kiba chuckled loudly, "I've never seen anyone this excited unless it's you at a foreign country's faire."
The blonde managed to squeak out "Are you here to help, or are you going to encourage them?" indignantly; then he found himself staring up at the sky because he'd been tackled by three people half his height.
"Naruto no niichan!" Konohamaru shouted in greeting, even though he was sitting on Naruto's chest, "Take us to the Forbidden Forest! We want to train there!"
"What!" the older shinobi screeched, "I'm here to make sure you don't get hurt – not get you killed! You'd never last a minute in there!"
"Mou ..." the headstrong boy whined and the other two joined in with making a general noise, "We're not kids anymore, Naruto no niichan. We're stronger than you think – we're probably stronger than you! And – "
The three children suddenly stopped and looked to the side, where Kiba had planted himself against the wall and was laughing heartily. They looked at each other, and, reaching the same conclusion, jumped off the blonde simultaneously and refocused their efforts on the Inuzuka.
"What's so funny?" Konohamaru demanded.
Kiba tried to speak, but had to abort the first few tries in order to catch his breath. He got himself under control and stared at the three speculatively, "You really think you could survive the Forbidden Forest now? Do you even know what's in there? I'll bet your teacher's never put you in for the Chuunin exams, has he?"
Sheepishly, Konohamaru and his friends looked at each other before shaking their heads.
"Thought so," Naruto muttered. Then louder, "So I'll train you, but there's no way I'm bringing you in there. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!" the kids saluted.
"Good. Now. We're going to ..." the blonde gave a caught Kiba's eye and gave a meaningful glance at his pockets, where the Inuzuka kept his seemingly endless supply of smoke bombs. The brunette grinned and slipped two out of it, and Naruto picked up again, "We're going to train your ability to track targets. Ready?"
Before the kids could blink and say 'yes', Kiba tossed down the smoke bombs, sending up a huge curtain of gray smoke, and they were gone. Leaning on the other side of the wall and listening to the indignant shouts of Konohamaru and his friends, they were hard-pressed to keep from laughing. They heard Konohamaru giving instructions, small feet on the opposite side's roof-tops, and then nothing. Kiba turned to Naruto.
"You realize this is just an over-glorified game of hide-and-seek you've got them into, right?"
The blonde grinned, pressing a kiss to Kiba's cheek, "Just get ready to run."
"Found you!" Konohamaru crowed, head popping over the wall.
"Haven't caught us!" Naruto yelled back, and he and Kiba dashed off.
