Series/Disclaimer: Naruto, which I don't own.
Pairing: Kankuro x Kiba
Warning(s): Lots of violence and sort of graphic in this chapter.
Chapter OST: Dear Diary + Family Portrait - Pink; Face Down - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus; Just Like You + I Hate Everything About You + Drown - Three Days Grace; Weak and Powerless - A Perfect Circle; A bunch of others that Shea can't remember.
Author's Note: This chapter has both its good and bad points in my opinion. But I haven't updated in a week and it's 11:41 and I sort of just wanna to go to sleep.

So yeah, it might need some editing but that's what I have Bloody and Burnt for! I didn't realize how long it was taking me to finish this chapter but I'm looking forward to the next few and I hope you guys are too. As well I would like to say there is a prequel to this fanfiction called 'Wrong Side of Reaction' that might have been over looked. If you're thinking that something bad went on between Kankuro and his dad that fanfiction elaborates on it a little more if you want to read it.

-yawns- As for now, I'm out. G'night!

---------------

Every time they visited this place Kiba always found at least one night where he woke up in the middle of it for no real reason. Partially, upon gradually migrating towards unconsciousness, he had hoped that maybe having Kankuro lying next to him would have helped him sleep. Not so much over the fact it was Kankuro was it was simply having someone next to him at all. Obviously he was beyond the point that he needed to sleep with his mother or sister and most of the time when he woke up he was able to fall back asleep within the hour. After lying there for a few minutes he began to wonder why he would have felt safer having Kankuro next to him in bed when the guy had pretty much just ousted himself as being gay. Kiba didn't think he was lying about the molesting thing and as he glanced over to the other he took in the fact Kankuro was very much asleep.

The brunette washed off his facial paint before going to sleep and Kiba had seen his real face beneath it for the first time. His black eyes scanned over Kankuro's surprisingly light toned, slumbering face. It seemed like people who lived in the desert wouldn't have been so pale but then again looking at his siblings he began to wonder if the sand their village was hidden in hid them from even things such as the sun. Normally, even without the paint, Kankuro's face seemed dark and drastic in a way that Kiba couldn't explain. Now, looking on him sleeping, he seemed like he would be an entirely different person were he conscious. The moonlight cut through the mist outside the windows with a sharp precision, as though its mission was to let Kiba see Kankuro as clearly as possible.

He slept without a shirt on but wore a pair of lose dark black pants that were hidden under the blanket the two shared. Kiba couldn't deny that Kankuro was handsome…his face seemed sharper but far from angular without the facial paint. It wasn't round but it wasn't evil looking like the villains in the cartoons he used to watch when he was a kid. For some stupid reason he was surprised by the fact that Kankuro actually looked peaceful in his sleep. Even if it was dumb to assume that he would look the same awake as he did sleeping the fact that Kankuro didn't look angry or serious seemed so strange. Everything about his face was really relaxed and calm, Kiba's eyes drifted over his thin eyebrows (was that natural or did he pluck them like Hana and his Ma did?) and medium sized nose. His eyes were small but not too small for his face, they seemed bigger without all the dark paint surrounding them.

Eventually his eyes descended to Kankuro's lips which were partially open to help with the process of breathing. He didn't snore, actually Kankuro slept more silently than anyone Kiba knew aside from Shino who usually looked the same in his sleep as he did awake. Much like the rest of his face, his lips looked a little thicker without the make up. They weren't 'pouty' like girls lips could be, but they just weren't as thin as some people's either. They were a nice size for his face; he noticed how his mouth seemed sort of smaller then anyone in his own family. Maybe it was because he was so quiet and frowned so much. The thought made Kiba's mind flash back to Kankuro's grin earlier. He still had his face paint on then and he bet Kankuro looked a lot lighter without all the paint when he grinned like that, not so evil.

Once he caught himself staring he shifted his eyes back up and his brain registered the familiar sight so they slipped down instead. Kiba caught sight of the other's collarbone and his eyes continued to slide down his chest. Tsuyu's previous statement about Kankuro being fat was so far from the truth Kiba almost found it funny. Under the bulky clothes Kankuro was built firm, surprisingly firm for someone who mostly remained stationary during a fight. When he first took off his shirt Kiba felt the slightest tightening in his stomach and the urge to reach out and see if he really was as solid as he looked. Of course he resisted, but looking over the other's body as it disappeared into the blanket was just making it crawl up his spine again and his fingers twitched against his own thigh.

Falling asleep is even harder with him here, he grumbled mentally before rolling over to silently slip out of bed. Kankuro shifted a little on the mattress but didn't wake up and Kiba crossed the room silently to leave him behind and asleep. He glanced over his shoulder once he was closer to the door and saw Kankuro had moved onto his back with his arm lying over his stomach and atop the covers; it was his left one.

Before they had gone to sleep Kiba asked about why Kankuro's right hand shook when his left didn't but he'd just brushed it off. He didn't even offer an excuse, just told Kiba to drop it and forget he ever saw anything. Needless to say, curiosity doesn't just affect cats. He had dropped it for then but decided that he would try asking again seeing as he and Kankuro seemed to be getting unintentionally closer. Not that he didn't like it.

Silently he slipped out of the room and let the door partially close behind him but didn't bother latching it. He planned on returning after getting a drink from downstairs anyway and messing with trying to keep the latch quiet while sneaking back in would be a pain. The Inuzuka headed downstairs stealthily, glancing over all the doors as he did so. Everyone's was closed except for Akutenkou's which was open to expose a room without a single sliver of moonlight in it. Even squinting Kiba couldn't make out a thing in the older boy's room and didn't even have to think before deciding he wasn't going to venture in there to see if there was anything of interest. Instead he moved to continue his trek downstairs and to the kitchen.

He grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and ran some water from the faucet to fill it, chugging most of it as he turned to lean back against the counter. When the sound of his own swallowing left his ears they gave a soft throb when a sound echoed through the silence. It actually wasn't so much a single sound as something more like a voice. Black eyes scanned over the room and the moonlight from the window almost managed to obscure the light leaking from under a door down one of the hallways. Kiba set the glass back on the counter and made his way towards it just as silently as he had left Kankuro sleeping upstairs.

As he managed to get closer the voice didn't get louder so much as just clearer and Kiba identified the door as one of the ones he wasn't suppose to go in. Ma told him that it just lead to the basement but Arashi had stuff down there he didn't want the kids playing with so it was often locked and off limits for all of them. Except Akutenkou, which Kiba had noted a few times on previous visits when the other boy would go downstairs with his father and often didn't resurface for a while even when Arashi came back up hours before.

That kid's going to get it…Kankuro's voice sliced through his head like a kunai leaving an enemy's hands. Kiba felt a shudder shoot up his spine and had to check behind him to make sure the other teen wasn't really standing there. The hallway was empty and dark clear back to the kitchen where silver light from the moon lit up the end in a very 'light at the end of the tunnel' fashion. However, Kiba's thoughts were pulled from the tunnel idea as something resembling a stressed part of a lecture reached his ears. He crept slightly closer to the door and knelt down in a way that nearly resembled his position for his Down on All Fours technique.

Immediately Arashi's angry voice flooded his ears but he wasn't shouting, rather he was just talking in a very crisp and angry way. Kiba's ears gave a second gentle throb but he focused beyond it to understand something he soon realized he didn't want to hear.

"Not only are you a freak but you're a complete failure as well, aren't you? After how specifically I told you to do everything, the berating words and bullying. You think something like you would have been able to relate enough," he cursed. A soft and mottled groan was audible before he continued, "You really can't save anyone, can you? Why am I not surprised?"

On the word surprised Kiba heard the familiar sound of a jaw being kicked - he knew it because it sounded a lot like when someone hit Akamaru's snout. If their mouth was open the teeth would slam together and give a hollow echo which was the exact sound he had just heard before he heard a body collide with one of the walls downstairs. The resounding thud made him jump slightly and slide his foot back as though he were preparing to run. Yet at the same time he didn't know if he wanted to move and thoughts raced through his head; the first of which was that Kankuro had been right.

"Look what you've done…" Arashi continued after a moment but his voice had become softer. Kiba's keen ears didn't have to strain to hear it but it sounded almost pleased, like he was on the verge of laughing, "You've gotten me so riled up I couldn't even wait until the visit was over. I certainly hope I didn't break your jaw with that…"

Kiba swallowed something thick and solid in his throat but he didn't know what it was, his eyes widened and his entire form felt tense. He wasn't even sure he could move. This had to have been a nightmare, what Kankuro had said had gotten to him. There wasn't anyway that Arashi was seriously downstairs beating Akutenkou. That was completely absurd, Kankuro's suggestion had been absurd, this really wasn't happening. Of all the stupid things to have dreams about, he knew he would just wake up and tell his Ma about this in the morning. She would laugh because parents didn't do this sort of thing, his certainly hadn't, why would anyone else's?

Before he knew he had done it the sight in the basement flooded the Inuzuka's dark slit eyes. In a brief moment of irrational insanity he had yanked open the door and ran down the stairs only to find the inevitable. Akutenkou, from being slammed back against the wall, had collapsed to his knees on the floor with his bruised and red soaked arms barely managing to support himself. The towering form of his father knelt in front of him with a pale hand sharply twisted in his black locks and keeping his face up.

Subconsciously Kiba noticed that Akutenkou's face and back were completely untouched - the parts of him that he had left visible weren't harmed at all. Arashi's fist that wasn't twisted in the other's hair was down at his side prepared for another hit and coated lightly in its own layer of Akutenkou's blood. The teen's jaw was clenched and blood coated his mouth but it must have been from the hits along his stomach because his jaw didn't look broken or cut. The loudest thing in the silence of the basement now were the strangled gagging sounds he was making from between partially open lips and clenched teeth.

He had never been compelled to worship Akuten as a hero but the guy had always been so powerful compared to him. Not once had he ever seen him at the mercy of anyone before and now here he was collapsed at the feet of his own father. The blood that ran from his shoulders over his arms, the dark bruises from previous attacks on his stomach, the scars along his chest…had Arashi done all of it? Done this to his son?

"Kiba," Arashi said with shock in his voice but not a hint of guilt or regret. He looked over at the teenager that stood at the base of the stairs, holding the railing tightly in his hand as though it steadied him, with a sense of amusement. Akutenkou felt panic flood his system at the name and despite the pain in his scalp holding his head immobile he turned to looked over where his father had turned. What's he doing down here? Don't just stand there you idiot, but he couldn't form words without his body wrenching by now. His organs were filled with an intense burn from the constant abuse hours before Kiba had arrived and vomit turned blood threatened to spill from him if he tried.

He looked back to his father again as Arashi's dark eyes turned towards him once more and he felt his expression faltering. His body hadn't shook in years and now he was finding he couldn't prevent it. He communicated with his eyes what his father had long since stopped listening to.

Arashi's eyes turned back to Kiba once more with a charming smile in place as he didn't hesitate to pull Akutenkou up by his hair enough to send his knee powerfully into the boy's sternum. Akutenkou felt it creak threateningly against the pressure and pain swelled through him once more before his father's foot crashed into his stomach with a chakra-amplified kick. His head, which had been thrown back, curved forward with the rest of his body as he spat up blood onto his father's leg and was then tossed back against the wall by his once long black hair.

The solid thud once more rang through Kiba's ears as Akutenkou collapsed to his knees then eventually his front side, body quivering and red. Arashi's hand entered his sight and he followed it back up to an almost pleased looking face, "Well isn't this a pleasant surprise? What are you doing up at this hour, Kiba? Don't you think you should be-"

"Have you lost your mind?" he shouted so loud he knew his vocal cords had woken up sometime during the past scene, "He's your son! What could possibly make you ever want to do something like this to him!"

That pleased look slipped from Arashi's face as he looked to Akutenkou who seemed to be trying to move but couldn't manage it. His eyes were closed tightly in agony when Arashi brought his blank face back up to Kiba, "I believe how I handle my son's problems are of my own choice. I don't need your judgment."

"His problems? The only problem that would call for this would be him trying to kill you!" Kiba argued, "Nothing else could possibly call for you to do this to him."

"E-"

"Nothing."

Thinking yet at the same time not calculating the consequences, Kiba ran forward to help Akutenkou. The able jounin lashed out a long leg that Kiba slid under before reaching up to dig his claws deeply into the skin. Arashi's eyebrows furrowed in pain but he jerked his leg down hard and it collided with the Inuzuka's shoulder. Kiba crashed onto the hard dirt floor but lashed out his other claw scratch it severely into Arahi's thigh before toppling him off of his standing leg.

The jounin's other leg proved to still be quite able as he caught Kiba on the side of the head and sent him flipping over the previous leg. Kiba's head smashed into the ground before he rolled a few feet away and shakily pushed himself back up. But by that time Arashi was already up and making his way in Kiba's direction. The teenager's breath came in a rush and his head spun as he fought to get himself back up without collapsing unintentionally. His sprained wrist throbbed agonizingly in time with his head as he tried to ready himself again yet was finding it increasingly harder. Black eyes followed as Arashi's blurry form continued in his direction with a hand reaching towards him but suddenly fell from view; quite literally.

The fingers of Kankuro's outstretched hand twitched and pulled to make Arashi topple to the ground none too gracefully. The taller jounin turned around to glare something threatening over his shoulder but found himself facing the two Inuzuka women as well. Tsume grabbed him by the front of his shirt before yanking him more upright and shoving her snarling face in his own, "If you ever touch my son again I'll rip out your throat."

Hana moved past both of them to help her little brother back to his feet once more and Kankuro walked over to help steady him, "Can you watch him while I help Akutenkou?"

"Sure," Kankuro replied as he slipped a hand around Kiba's slim waist and allowed the Inuzuka to lean against him; which Kiba seemed perfectly alright with doing. The throbbing in his head began to calm back down once again as Kankuro's scent, which he was becoming increasingly accustomed to, filled his nose once more.

"Get out of here and don't ever come back," Tsume threatened with Kuromaru at her heels ready for attack. Arashi tried to argue but before Hana had even managed to get Akutenkou onto his back she was dragging him upstairs to quite literally throw him outside. Much of the rest of the household had been woken up by the commotion but only Raikou and Kiri stayed to witness it.

"I think I'm okay," Kiba said as he pushed off to try and stand on his own only to find that he wasn't 'okay' yet. Kankuro's hand shot out with an intent quickness to wrap his arm around his waist once again and ease him towards the ground where Kiba sat for a few moments with his hand pressing over his eyes to the point they began to ache.

"That kick had chakra in it, didn't it? If it went straight to your head it might have messed you up a little worse than a normal kick. Just wait for a while, you've got no where better to be," Kankuro instructed. Kiba gave the slightest of nods and held onto the material of his sleep pants tightly but keeping near the warm form. He relaxed back against Kankuro's leg braced against his back and took a deep breath before exhaling it smoothly.

"You were right…" he mumbled softly, eyes still closed. Kankuro tore his eyes away from Hana across the room to fix them on Kiba once again. The teenager opened his eyes partially to squint at Kankuro with an inquisitive look, "How did you know Arashi would beat him? You sounded so sure of yourself…"

The Suna jounin watched the other's expression for a moment without answering because he didn't want to answer it. He didn't know Kiba anymore now then he had last time they had come close to having this conversation. Kankuro wasn't ready then to tell Kiba anything about something as serious as what had happened between him and his father. Considering Kiba's previous ignorance and apparent shock about the situation, maybe it wasn't only that Kankuro wasn't ready to tell; maybe Kiba wasn't ready to hear either.