A/N: I really, really apologise if this seems rushed. I had this chapter perfectly planned in my head, but then when I went to type it out, it….… well, turned into this. Ugh. Oh well, It's an update, right?

I do not own Naruto. Everything belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Sakura was short for breath as she tried to fully register Kiba's words. He couldn't have just said what she thought he said. Her head was thumping, both with confusion and a type of panic, and when she went to speak nothing came out but silence. Was Kiba Inuzuka asking her to live with him? Surly her head was just playing tricks on her. He couldn't have said that, he just couldn't have.

"Sakura," he said after a draining moment of silence. Even Kiba was still trying to grasp what he just said. He couldn't help it, it just came flooding out like word vomit, but inside he knew that it would somehow help her. He couldn't help but think that maybe he was making a mistake. He didn't want her to keep copping this abuse but he didn't want Kankurou finding out that he must have, at some point along the way, developed feelings for Sakura. Fuck, this wasn't what he wanted to happen.

"I can't do that to you Kiba!"

"Bullshit," he stood up now, dragging the exhausted pinkette up with him. "Go and get your stuff. You don't have to live with me, but you can stay until you get yourself worked out."

Sakura started to feel a bit better but at the same time felt like he was pressured to ask it. Her mind was too clouded to make a clear decision, so she figured she would take him up on the offer. After all it was only until she worked something else out. Right?

"Kiba, are you sure? I don't want you to feel obliged to doing this, I'll work something out…"

"Just go and get your stuff ready. I'll head back home, and when you're ready to come over text me and I'll help you carry it all." He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek which wasn't covered in scratches. "It's the least I could do."

She nodded, and squeezed his hands one last time before walking back inside. She could tell he didn't want to do this. Kiba wasn't a person who had restrictions, or anything that weighed him down for that matter, and now he had to deal with living with a girl who had family issues, friend issues, and school and soccer commitments.

I guess… we can only see how this goes. It's not going to be permanent, but what happens if he gets sick of me? What will happen if he realises I'm not the kind of person he thought I was? Than he won't want anything to do with me anymore… maybe this isn't such a good idea…

She sighed with a frustrated sadness when she realised she was going to lose either way. She would either lose all self-esteem, respect or hope she had for herself if she stayed with her dad, or she could possibly lose the one boy she had such strong feelings towards if she moved in with him. She reached for a small suite case underneath her bed and pulled it out, before picking up clothes, soccer gear and possessions that were important to her and putting them in.

Darkness started to cover Konoha and Sakura corrected her jacket as she walked hastily through the streets. She hoped that she wouldn't see anyone she knew, because the last thing she wanted right now was to be questioned about why she was walking so fast with a suitcase at nine O' clock at night.

As usual, that familiar uncertain squirm turned and tightened in her stomach. Was she doing the right thing? If the right thing meant getting away from her father, than yes, she was doing the right thing, but if it meant moving in with Kiba and possibly getting her heart broken, than no, she was not doing the right thing. But as she stated before; this was possibly a lose/lose situation anyway.

Arriving at the doorstep of his mansion, Sakura looked up and stared in awe at where she would be living in the next few weeks, or months. The house was huge; the family certainly had money, and it was clearly obvious. She knocked softly at the door four times, and after only a short wait, Kiba opened it and gave her a confused expression.

"Huh? I thought I was going to help you bring your stuff over?"

She forced a smile, even though it hurt her cheeks to do so. "Yeah, I thought that you're already doing enough for me as it is, and I'd save you the trouble of walking all the way back over to my house." Although she would never say it, the real reason she didn't ask him to help was because she was trying to avoid all the situations where he might become annoyed with her. If he realised that she was self-capable than maybe he would stick around and not see her as a helpless, annoying girl who he was stuck with for the time being.

"I already told you that this is the least I can do. I'm trying to help, so just ask." He reached towards her and grabbed her suitcase before opening the door and welcoming her in. She stepped inside and glanced around, taking in how wealthy and opulent the house was. It looked so much different when it wasn't filled with hundreds of drunken teenagers.

"Wow," was all she could say as she continued to stare. "I only just realised how nice your house was." The furniture was immaculate, the TV was huge, the kitchen was massive and had the finest kitchen devices on the market, the carpets and tiles all looked incredibly expensive and the clean and almost perfect state it was in certainly was different from the way everyone had left it after the party.

"Yeah, it isn't anything to great." He mumbled as he walked past her. Sure his house was nice, but it wasn't like he had a family to share it with. "Anyway, did you need a shower?"

She felt awkward and a tad insecure when he asked that; the thought of sharing these kind of things with him made her feel nervous. Kiba must have picked up on this, and even though he would have loved to join her, he knew this wasn't the time or situation to go thinking about stuff like that.

"Yeah… but, uh... Um, I…"

"Relax Sakura," he said as he gave her a reassuring grin. "It's not like I'm going to join you."

She felt a bit relieved and exhaled. She nodded and the Inuzuka walked her upstairs before stopping at the top of the stair case and looking towards the left. "You can either use the shower in the bathroom at the end of the hall, or you can use the one in the bathroom in my room,"

"Its fine, either one is good." She smiled warmly at the brunette. "I'm not picky,"

He returned the smile. "Alright, well I'll leave it up to you to choose. But first, where did you want me to put your bags? You can have my mum's room which is the one to the left, or you could, uh, share my bed with me."

He felt bad for offering, but it wasn't everyday a girl moved in with him. So why not offer? Having a certain pink haired girl to hold at night seemed like a pretty good idea to him. But of course, he didn't want to come across as his typical sleazy self. Much to his disgrace, his attitude towards this girl had changed. All of a sudden sleeping with her was not at the top of his priority list; making sure she was safe was.

"Won't your mum be mad if I'm in her bed?" she asked.

Kiba scoffed. "Pfft, she's never here so it's not like she'll notice."

She looked at him softly with a hint of confusion glistening in her eyes. "Where is she?"

He didn't answer to this. He averted his gaze towards the floor, then to his bedroom door, and then to the stair case railing to the side of him. He didn't want to talk about it, and it didn't matter anyway. "I'll put your stuff in her room, and then you're welcome to use the shower whenever you want."

He walked past her and into the bedroom to the left, leaving Sakura feeling a bit confused. She didn't know what the story with his mum was but she did figure out it must be a touchy subject with him. With that out of the way, she followed him into the room and thanked him, before grabbing her clothes and walking into the shower at the end of the hall.

After she had finished, she stood and stared into the mirror which the steam from the shower had caused to fog up. Sakura lifted her hand to rub a small circle on the mirror to clear away mist and looked at herself. She just stood there in silence, looking at a reflexion of a bruised and battered girl, wondering how she could let something like this happen to her. She thought of what she would be doing right now if Kiba hadn't asked her to stay with him. She would probably be falling victim to yet another punch or glass bottle to the face by her father. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about it, she was going to take this opportunity and make a new start for herself.

She dressed herself and opened the door, turning into the hallway carrying the clothes she was wearing before she showered. She got quite a surprise when she accidently bumped into Kiba who was carrying a blanket in his hands. They both dropped their items when they clashed and looked towards the floor, and then back up at each other.

"I just thought you might have wanted an extra blanket," he said, kind of awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. He didn't exactly know what to do; he had no idea how to cater to guests. Unless, of course, it was for a party, but all that really involved was supplying alcohol. The only person that ever really stayed at Kiba's was Kankurou and he pretty much treated the house as his own, so Kiba didn't have to do much.

"Oh, Thank you," she smiled. Kiba went to pick up the blanket and her clothes off of the ground, but before he bent down Sakura cupped his face with her hands and brought him up to her. She was so thankful for everything he was doing, she had no idea Kiba could be like this. Before she got to know him Kiba was just the guy at school who everyone swooned over, the energetic and sleazy guy who was always getting in trouble or smoking in the males restrooms. She had no idea that he actually was this helpful, generous guy who'd do something like this to help her.

She continued to look into his eyes and he stared back into hers, the gaze strong and passionate. She couldn't contain herself anymore and pulled his face into hers and kissed him, her way of thanking him, her lips moving and begging for entrance. He immediately accepted and kissed her back, standing over her and resting his hands on her fragile hips. His kissing started to get intense and she probably should have pulled away and stopped it there, but she couldn't. Their hold on each other got stronger and he stared to move forward causing her back to bump into the wall behind her with a thud. She was too busy concentrating on the kiss to notice the slight pain it had caused(she was still fragile from when her dad had beat her). They broke for a split second for air, both breathing heavily, but after looking into her eyes, he couldn't help but smash his lips straight back onto hers. After a few minutes of passionate kissing the grasp her arms had around his neck tightened and his hand started to wonder up to her breast. She should have known not to take it this far; she didn't want to sleep with him. Not tonight, anyway. Kiba was someone who would get carried away too easily and Sakura told herself that to make a move so abrupt was a bad idea. She pulled away, breathing heavily, and rested her hand upon the hand he had on her breast. She slowly pulled it away and shook her head, sadly. She could tell that the look in his eyes understood, and he kissed her on the forehead before she whispered "Goodnight, Kiba."

Both teens rested in separate beds, in separate rooms. Sakura was positioned on her side and used her index finger to draw imaginary circles on the bed sheets beneath her. Her mind thought of Kiba, actually it thought about him a lot lately, not that it was a bad thing; she was just starting to fall, way too hard.

What started off as a 'rebound' had now grown into something much, much more. Sasuke would have never done anything like this to help Sakura when they were dating. He knew about her parents but never said a word. Of course he didn't know about the abuse but she was glad she never told him, because he wouldn't have done anything about it anyway. For Kiba to do this meant so much to her, more than she could ever imagine. If only her friends could see this side of him then they would realise what it was that made Sakura stick around.

Kiba was positioned on his back with his hands behind his head. He didn't wear a shirt but wore a pair of black boxers. His head thumped with thoughts of his actions and the decisions he made today, about Sakura moving in with him, he was still kind of adjusting to the whole concept. What the hell had he done?

It was not meant to be like this. He only had one intention; to sleep with Sakura, and then act as if nothing had happened. Unless, of course, he was around Sasuke, then he wouldn't stop talking about it. But this wasn't meant to be something his feelings got involved with. Now that he was living with the girl how was Kankurou meant to come over? There was no way he could tell him about this, he would just remind him that 'he'd gone soft' and give him shit about it for months. He couldn't have that happen, he couldn't lose his reputation, but he couldn't just leave this girl with no home and no family. She had been through enough and leaving her alone would be the worst thing he could do right now. And even if he did leave her he wouldn't be able to make the feelings that he had developed for her disappear.

Sighing, Kiba rolled onto his side and attempted to get some sleep.

The next morning Sakura found herself lying in bed and staring at the ceiling not really knowing what to do. She knew she had to get ready for school but she felt awkward, and somewhat uncomfortable, walking around his almost empty home just didn't feel right.

When she had finally gathered up the confidence to drag herself from bed and got ready for school, she noticed Kiba still hadn't woken up yet. It was no surprise though, Kiba usually rocked up late to school anyway. But just to make sure she decided she had better tell him that she was leaving in case he woke up to an empty house and got worried about her. She highly doubted that though, of course, but she liked the idea of having a boy worry about her. A boy besides Shikamaru that is.

She grabbed her school bag and threw it over her shoulder before hesitantly walking towards Kiba's bedroom door. It was shut and she didn't know if it was locked or not. Timidly, she tapped on the wooden surface and waited for a response. "Kiba?" she said softly, "I'm going to school now, just letting you know –" as she knocked again the door slightly pushed open. Well at least she knew it wasn't locked.

She shouldn't have walked in, or even thought about walking in, but curiosity got the better of her. It's not like I'm going to snoop around his room or anything, I just simply have to tell him that I'm leaving… She pushed open the door a little bit more and flinched when it made an awful creaking noise. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Kiba sitting on the edge of his bed with his feet on the ground, scratching the back of head and staring at Sakura, shirtless. Wow, this was an even better view than the day he was running the cross country shirtless. But that didn't matter; he was awake and not sleeping like she thought he was!
His body was by far one of the best she had ever seen, besides having the perfect height Kiba was by no means lanky, but he wasn't buff either. That's not to say he didn't have muscles; He certainly did. He had the most perfect chiselled abs and he had back and arm muscles, it just wasn't to the point where it looked like he was pumped up on steroids and scary.

He definitely noticed her obvious staring. The fact that her mouth was slightly parted with an approving gap probably gave it away. He grinned and stood up, letting her get an even better view of his body. She blushed and her eyes started to shift to different points in the room, left and then right, up then down, trying to ignore that fact that he was only wearing his boxers.

"Something wrong Haruno?" he said with a vivacious and flirty grin. He knew she was staring and couldn't help but to make her feel awkward. As long as she was living with him, he could have a bit of fun, right?

"Uh, well, um…" she started, the shade of her cheeks darkening. "I just wanted to tell you I was leaving now, but uh, I didn't realise you were… uh, not dressed yet,"

"You could always help me?" he said with a wink. "But that would mean you wouldn't get to keep eyeing off this," he used his right hand to refer to his abbs, still smirking.

Trying to keep her composure, but still blushing, Sakura straightened herself up. "I need to get to school. Unlike you, I care about my education." She shot him a playful smile to let him know she wasn't exactly being serious. She turned around and was about to walk out of the room before his voice stopped her.

"Uh, Sakura?" he asked in a more serious tone. "If anyone asks about your… um… scratches today, what do I tell them?" He hated mentioning it. She didn't like to talk about it and quite frankly, neither did he. He did, although, want to tell someone what was happening to her. It felt like it was a weight on his chest he wanted to get rid of, knowing that someone could help her would make him feel a whole lot better. But he knew she wasn't going to budge. She was quite persistent with keeping this whole ordeal a secret.

She paused and remained have her back facing him. "Tell them, it's a soccer injury."

He nodded unwillingly, and watched as she walked out of the room with glassy eyes.

When she arrived at school she cringed when she realised she had PE first. Usually one to love sport, Sakura sighed, for today she wasn't in the mood. Well, not in the mood to share her first class with Ino.

A more than awkward atmosphere filled the female change rooms. What made it worse was that Ino and Sakura were the last to get ready. She tried not to look at her, even though she could feel her strong blue eyes burning at her from behind. It had been almost a week since they had talked and it was by far the longest period of time the two had ever not spoken to each other. Ino, the girl she had been best friends with since primary school, was now almost a stranger. Sakura hated it, but in a way she didn't want to go back to the way they had been before the incident either, no way would it ever be the same.

"Sakura," Ino said softly, breaking the silence. She tried to sound stern but her shaky voice muffled the attempt.

Not even bothering to wait around and answer, Sakura stormed out of the change room, leaving the blonde standing in the change room alone.

Arriving late as always, Kiba walked the near empty corridor. He entered through the gates at the front of the school and the gym was inconveniently at the back. There weren't many students hanging around their lockers at all, mostly because the bell had rang some time ago. But the halls weren't all empty. One student leant against his locker, waiting, until he at last spotted Kiba walking alone down the corridor.

"Inuzuka."

Shikamaru stepped out in front of him, causing Kiba to slightly stumble back. He was taller than Shikamaru, so he slightly looked down at the not so popular teen in front of him with an eyebrow raised. "Got a problem, Nara?"

Although he wasn't as tall as Kiba, Shikamaru was by no means intimidated. He continued to glare at the sleazy brunette with a serious expression. "What's your game?"

Kiba frowned even more. What was this guy's deal? Since when did losers approach Kiba Inuzuka?

"Game?" he asked, not registering that Shikamaru was indeed talking about Sakura.

"I know you just want to get her in bed. But I seriously didn't think a guy like you would invite her to live with him to do so."

The brunettes' brows furrowed even more. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about Nara, now back off before you make me do something stupid."

"Hear this," Shikamaru slammed his locker door shut. "You hurt her, and I'll hurt you. You're not all that you think you are, Inuzuka. This girl doesn't need any more heart breaks in her life."

Kiba was speechless, but furious at the same time. Who the hell does he think he is! Fucking jerk, I won't hesitate to lay a punch straight to his face the next time he wants to get all up and confronting with me!

He watched as Shikamaru disappeared down the hall. Threats from losers, from nobodies, didn't scare him. But his words did pull at something within Kiba. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists before continuing to walk to the sports hall in anger.

The day had drained and completely exhausted Sakura. Emotionally, that is. Besides the fact almost every student was asking what happened to her face, her frustration had built up with her having to explain the same lie over and over, to the point she started to reply with "nothing" towards the end of the day. It wasn't their business, they didn't need to know, hell they didn't even need to know the lie. She just wanted them to ignore it. She didn't want to be looked at differently and she certainly didn't want anyone treating her differently either.

She thought about waiting for Kiba, but again he hadn't said much to her at school so maybe she should just meet him back at his house. Sakura was a bit confused at this, seeing as he didn't want to keep her hands off of her at home, but she wasn't going to ask why he ignored her at school. Maybe he thought people would look at him differently if they found out he actually liked a girl instead of just sleeping with them? He also looked somewhat pissed off today which wasn't usually like him at all. Either way, it was no big deal.

As she was walking along the not so familiar foot paths that lead to Kiba's house she heard footsteps come thudding up behind her. She smiled, hoping it was Kiba, but when the small hand jaggedly grabbed her wrist and spun her around Kiba was not the person she was looking at. Instead she found Temari, tears pouring down her face and her cheeks red from crying. She was breathing heavily and had a look of guilt glassed over her eyes.

"Temari?" she asked, trying to release her arm from the blondes grip. "What are you doing – why are you crying?"

The blonde looked like she was choked for words as she tried to speak. "I can't take it anymore," she managed to spit out.

"Take what, what's going on?"

Tears started to fall from Temari's eyes. Sakura was so confused; she actually had never seen Temari cry before. She was usually so strong, so open minded, so stubborn. Upset and fragile had never ever been a trait of Temari's.

"I can't stand seeing you and Ino like this. You were best friends…" her voice trailed off again in guilt.

"Temari, what's going on?"

Her storm grey eyes focussed on jade ones. "It wasn't Ino that kissed Kiba, Sakura," her grip tightened with regret. "It was me."

:O

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