They spent the next few days indoors, waiting on the snow to finish thawing. The nights were still very cold, but nothing like that night. As the snow melted and the weather warmed, the people of the village began to rebuild. It was slow work. The ground was soft and muddy, which made it nearly impossible to for the trucks and tractor hauling supplies to get around. It also ment that people had to wait to sure up sagging foundations and replants the many trees that had been uprooted and could still be saved. The shops stayed closed for nearly four days before they were finally able to reopen. Although the finaly cost estimates for the storm wouldn't be known for months, the human toll was all to aparent. 40 people lost their lives the night of the sotrm, mostly due to hypothermia. In the days that followed 25 people died from fire or fire related accidents. It seemed that some people chose ot to heed the words of caution about setting fires and payed with their lives...

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Naruto blinked sleepily and yawned. "What time is it?" He glanced over to the clock that sat on Kiba's bedside table. 7:30am. "Great..." he yawned again. He sat up as Kiba streached. "You're up early..." he mumbled sleepily. Naruto yawned yet again and lay his head back down on Kiba's chest. Kiba reached up and stroked Naruto's wild hair. "Let's sleep in today..." he sighed happily, "It's not like we have anything to do..." Kiba nodded and shifted into a more comfortable position.

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Hour later...

Knock

Knock

"Sunofa..." mumbled Naruto.

"Ignore it..." yawned Kiba.

Knock

Knock

"Just pretend someone's not there..."

Naruto put a pillow over his head.

Clink...a key was slid into the door lock...

"Crap..." muttered Kiba. "Has to be Shino, Hinata, or Kurenai. They're the only one's with a key to my house..."

Neither made any effort to get up.

"Don't worry. I locked the bedroom door. they can't get in..."

The door opens...

"Damn it..."

"Kiba?" Kurenai stuck her head in to look around. Kiba lifted his head off his pillow and looked at her. "Hey Kurenai. What bring you here?"

"Why didn't you answer the door?"

"I was asleep. I didn't hear it untill you had already come inside."

"Oh..." She noticed something odd about Kiba's bed. "Kiba, who's that with you?"

Naruto twitched. He was hoping she hadn't seen him. He pulled the covers off his head and smiled weakly. "Hello Kurenai-sensei."

She eyed him suspiciously. "Naruto? Why are you in b..." Her eyes widened and an understanding look passed over her face. She smiled and continued, "Well anyway...I was going to see if you wanted to go train now that the snow has melted, but I can see you're plenty busy here. I'll just leave you two alone..."

Both boys blushed as Kurenai turned and closed the door, smirking. They waited until Kurenai left before either said anything.

"Well..."said Kiba as he sat up, "Looks like the secrete's out."

Naruto sighed and stood up, "Yeah..." He yawned. "Better Kurenai than any of the others. At least she won't go blabbing to everyone."

"True...What do you want for breakfast?"

"Ehhhh...I'm not really hungry."

"Same. Anyhting you want to do today?"

"I can think of a few things..." "Naw, not really."

"She had a good idea with training. Let's go out and do a little sparing. I could use the exercise."

"Okay."