Okay, I was going to hold off on this story until my other story was finished, but I decided I didn't want to make you guys wait that long.

Enjoy this chapter! We've almost reached the end!

Chapter 14: The Forest

Driven by a maddening sense of self-loathing, I plunged through the dark forest, dodging trees, leaping over bushes, and stumbling over rocks. Never before had the forest seemed so vast and the trees so alive; they towered over me like giants, and when I slammed into them, they struck back with twice as much force. I didn't mind all that, though. What I hated, what really tortured me, were their voices, shrill and accusing, unwilling to listen to what I had to say. Every time I ran into their trunks, the trees reminded me why I was running away, why I would never get my body back, and they spoke in voices familiar to me.

"You take people for granted and think only of yourself."

"She's nobody's friend. Ikuko only cares about herself."

"She's a spoiled, selfish girl, just like her mother."

"People don't exactly come running when the name Ikuko Matsubara is mentioned."

"Nobody would've showed up if I'd said we were gonna look for Ikuko."

"They might be glad she's gone. Maybe they never wanted her in the first place."

"Nobody likes her. Everybody's glad she's gone."

"Ikuko, if you really are gone, I hope you stay gone."

"Ikuko, stop being so selfish!" Kiba shouted at me.

I slammed into the ninth tree again and again, wanting to hear more of Kiba's cruel words, and over and over, he repeated himself to me. "Stop being so selfish," he said. "Ikuko, stop being so selfish!"

After slamming into the tree for the sixth time, I collapsed to the ground and started sobbing. I can't do it! I don't know how to stop. I have to be selfish — I have to care only for myself — because they never cared. My own parents never cared!

I stood up and shoved my shoulder into the tree, just because I wanted to hear Kiba's voice, but the tall tree was silent. Still, pathetically, I tried again and again, stopping only when my shoulder began to throb, and then I switched to the other side.

I don't care what you say, just say anything!

I must have rammed into that tree at least twenty times, and still it refused to make a sound. I kept on trying; like a fool, I wouldn't give up, but the only voice I heard belonged to me, and maybe it had always been that way.

After all, trees couldn't talk.

I found myself looking back the way I came, and I couldn't help but wonder what Kiba was doing right now. Had he noticed my absence? Was he out looking for me? Part of me hoped he was, and a larger part of me wanted to turn around and go back to him, back to the only place that ever truly felt like home.

But then there was another part of me, an even larger part, that reminded me that I didn't belong there. I didn't belong with him. I didn't belong anywhere. I listened to that part of me, as much as I despised it, and I just continued on through the forest.

I hated the second part of the forest more than I hated the first. As I passed by the trees, I was being chased by multiple forms of me, each at a younger age than the previous. No matter how fast I ran, they just kept following me like fifteen little lost puppies, and they all kept begging me to take care of them. The little ones would clutch onto my fur and cry about how badly they wanted their mother, and the older ones would lash out at me and scream that they hated me for abandoning them.

And the entire time, all I could do was blame my mother ... for everything.

She appeared then, my mother; right in front of me, she stood with that same cold look in her eyes, with her arms crossed over her chest, refusing her child even the tiniest shred of affection. Those arms had probably never once held me, not even when I was pulled from her womb. No, I knew she'd rejected me right from the start.

"This is all your fault!" I growled at her. "You made me this way!" Then I turned around and screamed at the little girls following me, "She's the one you should be angry with, not me!"

But they just kept staring at me, like they couldn't even see our horrible mother in front of me.

I turned around again and glared at my mother, but it wasn't my mother's cold eyes glaring back at me anymore. They were my own honey brown eyes, as hard and unsympathetic as hers ever were.

It's not her fault, I realized. I can blame her as much as I want, but it won't change the truth: I chose to become this way. I'm not the only kid who's had a tough childhood. There are others who have had it way worse than me. I can't keep acting like the victim.

As I looked around me, I saw that everyone else had finally disappeared, and so I walked on to the next section of the forest.

While the previous parts of the wood were dark and dispiriting, this part was bright and full of life. A beautiful crescent moon was shining its light down on the leaves, making them glisten like fine silver. When a single leaf fell, it was like a little piece of the moon was descending to the earth.

Most beautiful of all, though, was the handsome jōnin training beside the tree. Beneath the moonlight, Neji Hyūga looked like some kind of ethereal being, with that perfect face and those eyes that sparkled like sunlit snow in the middle of winter. For so long, I thought those were the most beautiful eyes in the world. For so long, I was consumed by helpless, senseless devotion to him. And no matter how many times he rejected me, no matter how many hurtful things he said, I still loved him. And one day, I hoped he would see that and return my affection. One day, he would.

But then, as the moonlight began to fade, I realized that Neji Hyūga was no ethereal being. He was just a boy. And his eyes didn't sparkle like sunlit snow. And my feelings for him were nothing close to love. They were shallow and one-sided. If he was the one missing, would I have searched for him? If his life was in danger, would I have put mine on the line for him? If I couldn't answer yes to those questions, then I couldn't call it love.

Just like that, he vanished before my eyes like a fleeting dream, and I felt nothing when he left, but I couldn't help but wonder, Why do I do it? Why do I waste my time chasing after people who don't care about me, and push away the ones that do? I just don't understand.

"Ikuko?"

I felt my body stiffen as my ears twitched to the sound of his voice, but I dared not turn around out of fear that he was just another illusion of my mind, a cruel trick of my heart. When he spoke my name again, I still denied the realness of it, but I couldn't deny the urge to peek over my shoulder, and so I did.

For a long time, I just stood there staring at him and blinking my eyes, trying to dispel the illusion and save my heart the pain. But no matter how many times I blinked, his image never faded. When he stepped towards me suddenly, I panicked and backed away a few paces.

"Ikuko, what's wrong?" Kiba asked, his tired eyes filled with concern and confusion. "What are you doing out here? It's cold."

He really is here, I thought, unable to believe it. He came to find me, just like he said he would.

He took another step forward, but he kept his voice low so as not to startle me again. "Why did you run into the forest by yourself, hmm? You don't belong out here. You're a member of the Inuzuka family now, remember? Come on, let's go home." Then he smiled that warm, perfect smile, a smile I certainly didn't deserve but still longed to see for the rest of my life because it made me feel like I belonged somewhere. It made me feel like I belonged with him.

But I didn't.

His shoulders sank. "What is it, Ikuko? What's wrong?" His eyes and voice were full of worry, like he feared with all his heart that I didn't want to be with him after all, just like Hikaru said.

"Look, I know the house gets crazy sometimes, but we all really like having you around ... so you can't leave."

He came toward me in short, stuttered steps, and then he dropped to his knees and threw his arms around me, pulling me into a tight embrace. "Please, don't go. Don't leave me. I can't lose you, too." His voice was shaky, like he was on the verge of tears.

Kiba ...

I had never seen him like this before, and it was strange to think that I was the source. Until now, with his arms wrapped so tightly around me, I hadn't realized just how important I was to him, or he to me. For so long, he was just this stupid, arrogant fleabag who would torment me with his dog and ruin my sad attempts at finding romance. But during my stay with his family, we'd gone through so much together, and I'd learned so much about him, seen so many different sides of him, sides I really liked ... maybe even loved. And now here he was, with his arms around me, begging me not to leave him, and I didn't want to.

I wished for human arms at that moment because, more than anything, I wanted to be able to hug him back, but I couldn't. All I could do was rest my head on his shoulder.

I won't leave you, I promised. Even if I have to spend the rest of my life as a dog, I'd be happy just to spend it with you.

And then a loud howl ripped me from my thoughts.

Perhaps my life wasn't going to be as long as I'd originally thought. The forest was home to countless wild animals, and although most were perfectly harmless, a particularly aggressive pack of wolves was making people worry. It was this worry that prompted them to set up all the wolf traps, just like the one that had caught me.

The traps helped, but they didn't completely eliminate the problem, and now the remaining pack members had shown up for a little midnight snack. There were four of them from what I could see, but each time I blinked, it seemed like another was silently creeping out from the shadows. The biggest among them, a terrifying grey wolf, started inching toward us, and his amber eyes were focused on Kiba.

Slowly, Kiba got to his feet and took on a defensive stance. "Don't worry, Ikuko," he said confidently. "I'll protect you."

My eyes flickered back and forth between Kiba and the wolf. I didn't know if Kiba was capable of fighting off the wolves by himself — maybe he was — but that thought never really crossed my mind. Honestly, I wasn't really thinking at all. All that mattered was that Kiba was in danger, and I just ... I didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

Without a care for my well-being, I rushed ahead and placed myself right between Kiba and the wolf, and I challenged his menacing snarl with equal ferocity. He loomed over me like a monster, and even his shadow seemed to dominate me, but still I held my ground.

Once he took another step closer, I sprung forward and nipped at his legs. He retreated, but just for a moment. He came at me again just seconds later, so I launched myself at him. We started rolling on the ground, fighting for dominance, but I wasn't strong enough to overpower him. I managed to get in a few scratches and bites to his back, but his claws ripped through my left hip, and his teeth caught several areas on my back and part of my neck. Then he kicked me away like I was nothing, and I skidded across the dirt, leaving blood in my tracks.

I got up just in time for his next attack, but this time he didn't move alone. Two brown wolves appeared at either side of him, and together they started backing me into a tree, and all I could do was snap at them and growl.

When one came at me, I went for his legs, but then the other caught one of my back legs, and his bite was much stronger than mine. This went on until I was trapped against the tree, and I barely had the strength to stand let alone fight, so I mustered up the courage for one last growl.

What came out of my mouth was a sound much deeper and more threatening than anything I was capable of. It definitely wasn't my voice — it was the voice of a much bigger dog.

Like a knight in furry, white armor, Akamaru came to my rescue just in time, and he towered over them all like a mountain standing over a tree. All three wolves attacked him at once, the giant one leaping for his back while the other two went for his feet, and he knocked them all away like he was flicking away a bunch of pesky gnats. Once thrown, the three wolves quickly retreated, and then Akamaru went to chase off the rest of them.

Thanks, Akamaru, I thought as I slumped to the ground and dropped onto my side. I owe you one.

I was in a great deal of pain, and I knew I was losing a lot of blood, but I was happy because Kiba was safe. In fact, he probably didn't even need me to save him because I'd seen him fight off two wolves with hardly any effort. And here I couldn't even handle one by myself. Turns out, I was useless even as a dog.

I'm glad I got to help him at least, I thought as I felt my eyelids grow heavy and fall. Even though I screwed up, I'm glad I got to help.

The pain started to lessen then, reduced to a warm, tingling sensation that took over my whole body, starting at my hands and feet and then working its way up. A cool breeze swept across my face, and as it left, I heard Biyoku's voice in my ear, whispering a quiet chant. Then her voice faded, and the tingling sensation gradually diminished. When I forced my eyes open again, I saw the light pink flesh of my arm and the five long, dainty fingers of my hand, covered in blood but still the most beautiful things in the world.

I smiled. I did it ... I can't believe I actually did it.

"Ikuko?" Kiba was standing a few feet away from me, his eyes wide like he'd just seen a corpse rise from the dead. His quivering lips tried to form words, but over and over, they failed. Finally, he just gave up and stumbled over, dropping to his knees beside me. "How? — How? — I should have ... Why didn't I figure it out sooner? I should have known!"

"How could you have known? ... Idiot." I giggled quietly, something that brought great pain, but still I was glad to hear the sound of my own voice again.

"I'm sorry," I said weakly. "I'm sorry for everything I said to you, for everything I did. I didn't ... I didn't mean to ..."

He shook his head. "Shhhh, it's okay. It doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is that you're safe now."

As he spoke, his eyes passed down the length of my body, and I didn't have to look to know I was in bad shape, but he seemed hopeful, foolishly hopeful. Next to him, Akamaru was trying to lick some of the blood off the wounds on my legs. I would have petted him if I'd had the strength, but I could only manage a smile.

"Don't worry, Ikuko," Kiba said as he gently scooped me into his arms and climbed onto Akamaru's back. "You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you help."

Without a word, Akamaru sped off, moving quickly and carefully through the forest. During the entire ride, Kiba held me close and promised over and over, "You're gonna be okay, Ikuko. You're gonna be okay."

I clung to his jacket with my hand, clutching him as tightly as I could, and I refused to let go, even as my vision began to blur.