Kagome watched the blur of trees as they swished past her in flashes of green and brown. Every once in a while she'd count the animals she saw as a kind of way to pass the time. The trip to Sunagakure was three days and three nights. They were on their last day. Seeing as Kagome had no "chakra", as the ninjas called it, she was traveling via Sasuke Uchiha.

"This is such bullshit..." Kagome grunted from her position on her lover's back. Sasuke sighed at her millionth complaint since their journey began.

"Would you stop complaining? We'll be free won't we?" Kagome pouted and set her chin on his shoulder.

"This is way too good to be true, Mr. Giggles! A visit to your old gay lover in exchange for our freedom? Yikes! Watch the branches, would you?!"

Sasuke snickered as he continued traveling from limb to limb of the forest's luscious green trees. "My bad, Ms. Giggles. Maybe if you'd stop complaining so much, I'd make this ride a little more comfortable for you. Anyways, look, I see sand on the ground. We're almost there."

Kagome sighed, despite her brief feeling of triumph at being called "Ms. Giggles". "This guy sure does live far away. The sand village? What's that about? Do you actually like sand up your ass when you go to the beach?" He ignored her bait.

"Suna doesn't have beaches, it's a desert..."

"And, and, and!" She continued. "Not to mention, the man we're going to see is gay and is the king of the sand that would going up your ass! You must really have some kind of fetish... I don't care what you like, I'll do almost anything sexually, just not sand in my vagina! Ouch!" She looked over to the last ANBU escorting them to and from their destination, who was bound to be blushing under the white porcelain mask he was wearing. Or being stoic and unresponsive. Kagome would bet on a the first. She would also be correct.

"Hey, ANBU guy! Do you think Mr. Giggles has a weird fetish?" The man laughed, keeping a few paces behind Sasuke's quickened pace.

"You sure do know how to pick 'em, Uchiha!" The man laughed more from behind them.

Sasuke growled. "Shut up, Kiba! She's just showing off because she's mad at me." Kagome bit down on his ear.

"I am not!" she said, her voice muffled by the appendage caught between her teeth. She let go after being flicked on the nose by the ear's owner. "I would like to let you know, Kiba, that I happen to always act this way! Sasuke's just angry that I keep calling him gay. Which, he is. Partly, at least."

Kiba sped up to be level to Kagome's side. "You know, it makes sense. Growing up, I'd always thought he was the type."

An excited curiosity shone in Kagome's mischievous baby blues. "Really? You grew up with Sasu?"

Kiba raised his hand to lift his mask to the crown of his head. "Goddamn, they don't tell you how stuffy those tmasks are in training! Anyways, did I grow up with Uchiha?" He grinned largely, showing off his sharp canines. "Yup!"

"Don't just talk about me like I'm not right here..." Sasuke grumbled. Kagome shushed him.

"Shuddup, Grumpy-Gus! This guy is the most entertainment I've had the whole trip!" She backtracked hastily after pausing to think, "I mean, excluding that thing at the hot springs, that was lots of-"

"Kagome..." Sasuke trailed warningly.

She huffed impatiently. "Anyways, Kiba, what took you so long to speak up? I've been dying over here!"

He snickered. "Yea, I could tell with all of your blabbering."

She stuck out her tongue childishly. She was silent for a long moment. "Say Kiba..."

He hooted good-naturedly. "I knew that silence wouldn't last too long! What's up, Baby Blue?"

Kagome blushed at the nickname, ignoring the rumbling she felt on her chest from Sasuke. Everyone always focused in on her eyes, even as a child. "Baby Blue" was an addition to the many nicknames that pointed out her pair of sapphire gems. She whined loudly in her head. They could at least pick something original to tease her about!

"Tell me a story of Sasuke as a kid! A good memory or something. Anything to pass the time." She smiled and laid her head on said Sasuke's shoulder. Kiba took a moment to think of a good story to relay.

"Okay, here's a good one. It was me, Naruto, Sakura, and of course, Sasuke! We were all on a mission. Not that I'd really consider it an actual mission. Just genin stuff, chasing cats and such. Except this one old lady's cat ran out the gates of the leaf. It turns out the woman was my neighbor, which is stupid on her part, because my clan is renowned for being kin to dogs. Anyways, she filed a report, which was soon sent to team seven- Sasuke's team. Well, the old broad had heard I'd just graduated from the academy as well and demanded that I go on the mission too. Something about how my dog could sniff out her "precious fuzzykins" since they were friends. I mean, sure, if she counted Akamaru trying to catch a bite to eat, then, sure! In that case, they were the best of buds!"

Kagome giggled. "Why isn't Akamaru with us? Sasuke," she patted his shoulder. "told me he's usually with you everywhere you go." Kiba frowned sadly, missing his companion.

"Yea, well, I guess he ate one to many cats this time. He got sick the day we were scheduled to depart for Sunagakure, so I had to leave him. But, so yea, I was bummed I had to go chase this old woman's stupid cat, and with team seven, no less. Sakura was annoying because of her obsession with Uchiha, Naruto never shut up, and Sasuke was an asshole." Both men smirked.

"He still is." They said simultaneously. Kagome glanced back and forth between them.

"Did you guys plan that or something? 'Cause it kind of freaked me out."

Kiba just continued with his story. "We searched high and low for this stupid cat. Akamaru was being a jerk about having to help a cat, so he just slept in the hood of my jacket the whole time. Sasuke, Naruto, and I were all looking together, while Sakura was with Kakashi. We'd been looking since sun rise and were miles away from where we started. We were getting pretty desperate when the weather got scorching hot. So, then there was a rustle in the bushes behind us, and we stupidly all jumped on them at one time. Well, it turned out there was a lake behind those certain bushes. So when we fell through, it was a huge surprise."

Sasuke chuckled. "Naruto was pissed about getting his headband wet for the first time, and I think Akamaru pissed in your hood from the shock."

Kagome scrunched her nose cutely. "Yuck yuck!"

Kiba grimaced. "Yea, that was, well, nasty as hell. I just sat there in the water from the shock of feeling something warmer than the pond water sliding down my back... It didn't help that Naruto was bitching as loudly as he possibly could. But, Sasuke, god!" Kiba barked out a laugh. "The look on his face! He looked like he wanted to kill someone!"

"I wanted to kill that infernal cat..." Sasuke glared as if he still did. "Then, Sakura and Kakashi came back to tell us that they hadn't found the mother fucker either."

"I still remember the way Sakura acted when she saw you all wet! She was as red as a tomato!" He pitched his voice an octave higher. "'Oh my gosh, Sasuke's all wet! He looks soooo dreamy'!"

Kagome humphed. "I hate that bitch." Sasuke thumped her nose again.

"Be nice, Kagome." She glared, look down at her aching nose.

"No! Besides, you've called her worse than I have. Hmph... Hypocrite..."

Kiba coughed. "Well, yea, we decided to call it a day and return to the village empty handed. The walk home was a bitch. Imagine being soaked from head to toe with a shit load of ninja gear and having to walk seven miles. I still feel the rash on my- uh..." He looked away and blushed.

"Balls?" Kagome supplied with a chipper voice.

He coughed again, embarrassed. "Uh, yea. Anyways, when we got home, we had to report to the hokage that we failed our mission before being allowed to go home and change. It was one of our first, so we were bummed. The hokage took one laugh at us and laughed his ass off. He shook his head and it turned out that the same fucking cat we'd been looking for since five in the morning had come home at about the time we left to find it!"

"We were pissed." Sasuke finished simply.

"'He'? So Tsunade-san is the new hokage?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, Sarutobi was the hokage before her."

"What happened to him?" She inquired. "I don't think that's a job you can be fired from..."

Kiba answered her sadly. "You can, actually, but it has to approved by a long chain of village councilmen. Sarutobi died, though. During a, uh, village attack."

He looked ahead and his face lit up. He skipped a few branches in front of Sasuke and Kagome then stopped on the last tree before a large chasm made of... sand? He stood from his bent position and held out his left hand in a sweeping gesture.

"And I welcome you, Baby Blue, to Sunagakure, the 'village hidden in the sand'! We still have quite a bit of desert to travel before reaching the city, but we're here alright!"

Kagome looked on wearily before responding.

"That thing looks creepy... Do we have to go through it?"