When She Meets His Friends
(A/N: Since this is already explored in 'The Inu and The Okami', I introduced another of the Leaf ninja she never met in that fic. Enjoy!)
Luna shifted, only slightly on edge in her current situation. Had it not been for the familiar and comforting presence of the Inuzuka sidled up on the bench beside her, she probably would have weaselled her way out already. They'd been 'dating', as the others labelled it, for a while now, so she supposed it was okay for her to admit that she was glad he was there. Admit to herself, at least.
To say she still hated these social gatherings with Kiba's generation of friends wouldn't be completely accurate anymore. In truth, they had all managed to grow on her in their own, quirky little ways. Even Neji with his near ever-present expression of discontent, and Choji who she had absolutely nothing in common with.
Ino still scared her considerably when her mind was set in detective girl mode, but Luna was fonder of the blonde than she cared to admit.
The whole group of friends were meeting at an animal friendly restaurant and bar, most of them having already been there a while. They had managed to squeeze themselves around a table that was clearly only meant for six to eight people, with Luna mushed between her favourite friend, Hinata, and Kiba, who sat on the end beside Akamaru.
The Hyuga mumbled a gently apology for the hundredth time as she bumped into Luna's side when Rock Lee had arrived and shuffled them all along a few inches. The she-wolf snickered as Tenten scolded him for his lateness, but ever the enthusiastic ninja, Lee reasoned that he would train extra hard the following day by way of apology. Tenten did not accept.
"So, who are we still waiting for?" Choji asked, voice strained with impatience as his eyes followed a waitress passing their table and carrying a tray of barbeque.
"Who do you think?" Ino tutted, crossing her arms and leaning forward to see past Sai, Sakura and Shikamaru to address the Akimichi on the opposite end of their bench. "The village idiot and prince of brooding!"
"Watch it, Pig!" The pinkette glared, jumping to defend their knucklehead teammate and her life-long crush. "They'll be here soon, they've been training really hard lately… And that's Hinata's village idiot you're insulting there, too!"
"Oops, sorry, Hinata." She sobered momentarily, flashing a vaguely apologetic smile in Hinata's direction, then shot back with the same amount of ferocity as before. "Now shut up, Forehead. Lee doesn't get away with that excuse so neither should they!"
As the girls bickered among themselves over an increasingly more uncomfortable Sai, Luna leaned into Kiba slightly to murmur under her breath, "Um, sorry but, who is the prince of brooding?"
"Oh, right. I keep forgetting you haven't met Sasuke yet."
"He's coming tonight?" The she-wolf blinked, surprised, then rolled her eyes at the anxious expression the Inu shot her. It was no secret that she already had an extremely low opinion on the illusive, reinstated Uchiha. She nudged her shoulder against his and teased, "Relax, I'll play nice."
"Yeah, I've heard that one before, Princess."
Finding no suitable retort, she stuck her tongue out childishly, then whipped her head around to engage in a suspiciously spontaneous conversation with Shino before Kiba could call out her immature response. It was a little trick Luna had learned that was handy to escape unwanted discussions, and the Aburame was only too happy to engage.
The dog trainer sighed at the sly move and rubbed the back of Akamaru's ears absently. Luna knew he'd never call her out on what she was doing, for fear of offending his overly sensitive teammate. And the one time he'd suggested she was just using Shino as an excuse, she'd given him a mind-numbingly long-winded lecture about hypocrisy, that he was the one who had wanted her to branch out and make more of an effort with other people.
Shino had been one of the harder of his friends for the she-wolf to warm up to, but now, Kiba would go so far as to say she sometimes preferred the bug-summoner's company over his. They had a mutual respect for each other that Kiba admired, so he supposed it wasn't hurting anyone for her to 'use' him as an excuse to dodge certain conversations.
"Hey guys! Sorry we're late… We were–"
"Training, yeah we know. Sit down, you moron." Sakura deadpanned, shooting the newcomer down before he could finish.
Whatever words Luna had been saying to Shino died mid-sentence, her gaze flickering over to Naruto and the unfamiliar male trailing after him. She felt Kiba tense slightly beside her, but ignored him in favour of non-too-subtly giving the Uchiha a once over with her – unintentionally – intense stare.
After much debate and a round of musical chairs, the group were 'politely' relocated by the restaurant staff to a larger table further away from the bar.
It was because of their inability to arrange their own seating plan like adults that Luna ended up sitting directly opposite Sasuke.
"You're new." He addressed her, finally seeming to notice her presence, his dark eyes completely emotionless.
Luna raised an eyebrow. "And you're old?"
He barely reacted. "I was born here."
The hybrid bristled at the subtle reminder that she was the outsider. And while it was true, this village had not always been her home, Luna couldn't help being offended by the comment. She was about to snap back some rude response when she felt, rather than saw, Kiba's intense warning stare from her left.
She glanced at him with narrowed eyes. Oh, ye of little faith, mongrel. Fine, she'd show him. Luna could be perfectly civil when she wanted to be.
"We haven't been formally introduced. My name is Luna, of the Hangetsu clan."
"Hm. What are you, anyway?" He gestured vaguely to her ears, sat proud and upright atop her silvery hair.
The Inuzuka made a regretful noise in the back of his throat. Well, they almost made it through the introductions.
He spared a moment to notice that the others had fallen into tense silence as they listened anxiously to the conversation unfold. Even Akamaru was cowering a little. If there was one thing the Leaf ninja had learned about the she-wolf, it was that Luna was incredibly proud of her heritage and, little did the Uchiha know, he had just signed his own death warrant.
But Luna was also stubborn, and fiercely competitive. She knew Kiba was waiting for her to blow up at this arrogant prick, and she'd be dammed if she had to give him the satisfaction of being right.
So instead, she leaned back against the backrest of her chair, crossing her arms leisurely across her chest. "I'm a lizard. What are you?"
Sasuke blinked. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha."
"Should I know what that is?" She fired back, undeterred by his lack of emotion.
"You tell me."
"I may have heard a tale or two."
"Ah, then your hostility towards me as a perfect stranger is unsurprising."
"On the contrary, I've only ever heard versions portraying you as an innocent. I just learned to read between the lines."
"Did you learn that during your stay with the mongrels then?"
Kiba barely got a second to even start to look offended, before she leapt to his defence with bared teeth, whether she intended to or not. The Inuzuka begrudgingly figured it was most likely because it gave her a decent excuse to notch up the already unfriendly atmosphere, rather than actually defending him.
"Wow, that's rich coming from the traitor who abandoned his village and left his friends without even a backwards glance." Arrogant, self-absorbed son-of-a-bitch. It was one thing to insult her like that, but no one called Kiba and his family mongrels except her!
The Uchiha said nothing in response, but held her angry gaze steadily as though nothing in the world would ever phase him.
Finally, in an attempt to sever the incredibly awkward silence that had now descended, Choji cleared his throat.
"Well, now that we're all acquainted… Let's eat!"
Thankfully, it seemed to do the trick, distracting the group enough to hike up the noise again, all of them now hyper aware to keep Luna and Sasuke deeply involved in their own completely separate conversations.
A/N: I finally remembered to post a new chapter to this when I got a super lovely review from nillacat who also has a fab KibaxOC fic out, called Like Fire and Ice, and are now posting a oneshots fic too! So go check them out! :D