Chapter Ten

by Ember

A/N: Ack! Laaaagging updates. And this one's not my particular favorite, either. Mrr.I like the protective big-brother sort Sasuke is starting to become (unconciously imitating Itachi from years and years ago? I dunno, you're readers, you're supposed to interpret.) But aside from that... Mrr. Someone make me feel better about it?

But updating should get more regular, now. Thanks to all of you for your support. Oh, and my sister went to Anime USA and brought me back a ninja headband and a Naruto plushie, and authentic anime porn! XD To say I love her is an understatement.:3!

Review Replies:

N: Heheh. Those are my favorite lines, too... Thanks for the review. :D

ST: This fanfic has made me even more of an Ino fan than I was before. XD And yes, I love the cliffhangers. :3

nighinvisible: Whee! I love KibaSasu, it's another of my favorites, and another pairing you just don't see that much. I've been working on a KibaSasuNaru story for forever, but then my account on AFF died and now I have nowhere to put it. And yes, I agree that I should have dissected more of Naruto's feelings, but it is more Kiba-centric anyway... Thanks so much:D

Jasmine Starlight: Heheh... I'm glad you like it, and I'll happily deliver your yaoi fix. Soon. At least, if everything goes as planned, soon. Thanks for reviewing!

AlexTheLemming:)

Shades of Hades: They were supposed to kiss in that chapter... in the vague plan I eventually surmised they were going to have their first kiss in that chapter... and then they ended up not. / How annoying. Bad muse. Yay for cultish chanting for porn:3

Kanmoshi: XD I agree! But that bunny suit was hard to incorporate! It took effort, that perhaps I could have been using the develop a plot!

rabidbutterfly: Keheh, thanks! All your reviews are so nice:D

Jacob: XD Another review that made my day. Thank you!

--

This place was never the same again

After you came and went

How can you say you meant anything different

To anyone standing alone

On the street with a cigarette

On the first night we met

--

Sasuke was having a bad day.

Most boys in Konoha- or anywhere else, for that matter- would have cut off their right nuts for the amount of attention Sasuke got from attractive, giggly, popular girls. But Sasuke really, genuinely, hated it. The general opinion of Konoha was that secretly he craved it and only acted cool to get more attention- but the sad fact was, he really hated it, came dangerously close to hating the girls that dished it out, and sometimes wished he had tits, just to scare them away. (He never worked up the courage to ask Naruto to teach him Sexy no Jutsu, though. He never got that desperate.)

Today had stooped to a level that no day, no matter how bad they got or how much ill fortune they carried in their pockets, had stooped to before. Sakura had showed up on his doorstep at six in the morning, saying that she really wanted his help to learn a move she'd intentionally choked on the day before, just to get inside his house, although anyone who knew her knew she really had learned it almost the second it was taught. Temari had baked him cookies and wouldn't get off of him until he acknowleged how good they were, and thanked her properly for them. Ino had dragged her whole damn team to wait for him a block down the road from his house.

And then, once he'd escaped into the woods to train a little bit in the quiet solace he could only find there, of all places, Naruto careened out of nowhere on the very public road home, dressed in a bunny suit that was more fishnets than anything else, and threw himself full-throttle at Sasuke's legs, clinging to one just below the knee and wailing, loudly enough that three birds dislodged themselves from their trees and flew away with offended squawks, "Sasuke, I'm gay!"

Which was close enough to pushing Sasuke over the edge that he could almost hear the chirping that would have been Naruto's death, if this hadn't been a first offense.

Instead, he pulled his leg out of his teammate's grip and said, "That's nice." But if the blonde started wailing that he loved him, too, Sasuke would destroy something or someone and he couldn't make any guarentees as for what it would be.

Naruto sniffed in a vaguely offended way. "You're the first person I... told." Not counting anyone who might have been within hearing range that he just couldn't see at the moment.

"Alright." Sasuke started to turn away, caught sight of Naruto's watery blue eyes, sighed, and helped his teammate to stand up. "And who forced you out of the closet, dobe?"

Naruto blushed crimson, stared at the ground, and muttered "no one," so quietly it might have be some condemning speech.

"You just suddenly decided to come crashing through the woods and start crying on my shoes for no reason." Sasuke rolled his eyes, turned on his heel, and started to walk away. "Never mind. There's no helping you, idiot."

Naruto stood rooted to the spot, staring after Sasuke. For the life of him, he was more confused than if he had suddenly spurted a tail. He had gone from hating Kiba, to hating him more, to being about to kiss him, to suddenly being in love with him with no room for uncertainty no matter what he felt. He was Naruto, he didn't feel a little-bit any way, he lived completely off the strength of his emotions. And of all the things he'd been sure of in his life, there were only two that he would have staked his life on, and this was one of them, dammit.

He wouldn't have been able to tell Sasuke, if asked, why he had chosed to run to him, of all the people in Konoha. If he'd wanted someone who didn't care and didn't want to hear it, he could have gone to Tsunade, and spared himself the insults. But he figured that normal best friends told each other this sort of thing, and so he may as well go to Sasuke. They were supposed to be best friends, or only friends, or at least friends somewhere along the lines.

"It was Kiba," he said, quietly but without hesitation. Sasuke paused, sighed, turned around, and came back. "I love him."

Sasuke snorted. "I'm sure you do."

"I would know better than you would, fucktard!" He didn't need someone else to be sticking doubt into his mind, because he was absolutely sure of what he felt!

"Mm-hmm. Because your experience with love is so much greater than mine." He was seriously ticking off the blonde and pushed a little bit harder on the bruise he was gradually making. "So you want to let the dog boy fuck you? Do you think the Inuzuba clan gets off on picking the ticks off? Or do you think you'll have to pull out the rolled-up newspaper?"

The kitsune's cheeks were just a little flushed, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Stop it, Sasuke."

"Oh, no, I'm sure you're right," the Uchiha purred. "I'm sure he can do things with leashes and collars I've never even thought of."

He saw the fox's punch fifteen minutes away and caught it effortlessly out of the air, jerking Naruto closer by his wrist. "Turn around now, idiot. Turn around and go talk to your dog, make sure he knows how you feel, figure out how he feels. It's not hard; you've been living with him for weeks, now; you'll be fine no matter what fucking happens. But don't ever come fucking running to me whever something like this happens, because it's not like I can do a damn thing for you, and I'm not going to waste my time trying. I just don't care." Which was, Sasuke fully acknowleged, a complete lie. If he hadn't cared, he wouldn't have stuck around this long, or said this much.

"I made an idiot of myself," the blonde wailed.

"It's not like that's a new and shocking thing," Sasuke acknowleged blandly. "I doubt he noticed the difference."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Then find some balls and go talk to him."

"Or, y'know, not." The voice, slightly broken with shaky laughter, heralded the enthusaistic approach of a small tan dog, followed closely by Kiba, who looked a little nervous about the impending confrontation. "I guess it doesn't take much balls to just stand there."

"You have no idea," Naruto said with a small and very forced smile.

Kiba gave a small and very forced laugh.

"You know," Sasuke drawled, sounding a little bit annoyed, "if it's alright with everyone else, I'm gonna go now."

"Yeah," Kiba said quickly, in complete chorus with Naruto's just as hasty, "That's fine." Sasuke rolled his eyes and retreated straight up, landing neatly on a tree branch that was hanging over the road and disappearing into the dark grey dusk that was hovering in the forest around Konoha.

"So," Kiba started, when it was clear Naruto was close enough to the break-and-run point that he could smell the sulpher on the other side. "That's... a nice outfit."

"It itches," the kitsune said, slowly. The corners of Kiba's mouth twitched and he was suddenly really ticked off at his roommate. "I did it for you, y'know!"

The canine-nin looked torn between contrite and amused, and then started snorting uncontrollably. An older woman, having shuffled out to hang a sopping wet white skirt on a clotheline just outside her front door, turned over to stare, and caught herself gaping uncontrollably at the blonde playbunny standing indignantly in front of her home.

--

Ino and company were still hanging around Sasuke's house when he finally trudged up there and, lacking the energy to avoid them, he continued straight for them, catching Shikamaru's eye and not bothering to interrupt Ino's speech that she continued without hearing him approach.

"So I think it'll work," she was saying, and Sasuke was suddenly just a little bit curious. "After all, they're not hard to toy with, of all the people in Konoha."

"Not hard to manipulate, you mean," Choji said disapprovingly. It was clear he hadn't noticed the Uchiha's approach, either.

Ino frowned and shoved a lock of pale hair behind her ear indignantly. "It's not manipulation if you have their best interests at heart," she protested.

"Of course not," Shikamaru sarcastically drawled in response.

Sasuke wondered, vaguely, if he could make it around them, to his home, without being caught. He didn't want to get involved. He really didn't want to get involved.

But he was already involved.

This sucked.

"What did you do?" he asked Ino, pressing his fingers to his temples in exasperation. She jumped and stared at him for one long, paralyzed second, then started to talk.

--

"What're you laughing at?" Naruto snapped, self-conciously touching one ear of his outfit. "I did it for you, y'know! I was trying to help!"

"Why did you think that dressing up... never mind. You know what? Never mind." The canine-nin seemed in perfectly good spirits, though, snorting insanely, shaking his head with every word. "You're ridiculous, did you know that?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, already irrated, his embarassment vanishing in place of indignation. As the situation happened to fall, however, he wasn't entirely sure of a good retort he could make. "Yeah, well, at least I'm toilet trained."

"So'm I." The insult didn't seem to have the desired effect; that stupid smile seemed unable to be erased from Kiba's face.

"Newspapers don't count."

Kiba smirked. "Well, but you love me, so it's all okay."

The blonde eyebrows furrowed. "Hey, don't make fun of that. I'm sorry, alright; I didn't mean for you to hear."

Kiba didn't say anything, just stood there, head tilted slightly, a ridiculous grin plastered on his face. Naruto's insides squirmed; the moment stretched beyond where it was pleasant and to the point where it got really uncomfortable, but he figured he couldn't really just walk away. Kiba watched his blonde shift from one foot to the other, unsure, uncertain, then stepped forward, grabbed his shoulders, and kissed him, suddenly and without hesitation, or regret.

They weren't experienced so they were clumsy and sloppy and fumbling, but there was something behind the kiss that fueled it beyond the stumbling intermingling of teeth and tongues, made it better than Kiba'd ever imagined a kiss could be. Not that he'd spent overmuch time imagining it before the previous night. All he really knew was that there was something moving him, something strong and invisible and potent in every pore of his body, pouring through him, as he and Naruto stood in the middle of the street in an old training outfit and a bunny suit, making out, and ignoring the puzzled look of passerbys as if the entire world had disappeared around the two of them.

And that was perfect and wild and insane and stupid and fit the two of them just right.

--

E/N: ...Friggin' squee, neh? There was a time when I had just started this fic that I was trying to figure out where to go with it and I closed my eyes and I saw Kiba making out with Naruto-in-a-bunny-suit. That has been my muse and my goal (much like the Mt. Hokage scene was for me for Fireworks, anyone whose read that one...); through all patches of confusion and writer's block, I've held to Kiba making out with Naruto-in-a-bunny-suit, and fought long and hard to work it in here. Mind you, it's not an easy thing to do! Giving characters an excuse to dress up like a bunny and snog other characters is never easy! I believe this may be my high point of this fic; perhaps, my high point as a writer. I present myself one trophy.