7: Warning—Painters At Work
Kiba panted from exertion. Damn! he thought. I used up too much chakra. After thirty minutes, Kiba began to realize how stupid his plan was. Akamaru had long since given up—said dog ended up sleeping in the shade for the rest of the time as Kiba continued to desperately finish a wall of the towering house.
Shino, however, didn't seem to be fazed at all, despite having called in a horde of incredibly large bugs. In fact, he barely even moved from his spot; he merely watched the bugs as they worked on painting the walls with much diligence and obedience.
True, none of the walls looked as nicely painted as Hinata's, but no one cared to mention that.
As for the prize of the bet, she had doggedly continued to paint the top of the house, despite her precarious position near the top of the house. She was nearly done too, although she did not have special clones or gigantic insects to help her with the job. She was a bit worried about the little competition that Shino and Kiba had going on, but she figured that it was just a "boy thing" and that really, they were only kidding about that whole date thing.
But from the looks of things, Hinata grew more and more concerned. For the past few minutes, after Akamaru had long given up, Kiba had been shooting Shino baleful glares that Hinata swore could've burned holes right through Shino's sunglasses. She had heard numerous throaty growls coming from his directions, and she could tell that that was not a good sign.
Although Hinata was a shy girl and uneasy about jumping into any sort of confrontation, she wasn't someone who'd just let something blow up in front of her. She also did not want her team to fall apart in the first mission.
"A-ano…" she stammered, trying to climb down the tall ladder, "Maybe we should take a break?"
This, evidently, was not the right thing to say.
"NO WAY IN HELL!" Kiba said, immediately jumping back to work, splaying the paint across the wall. "If I stop now, I'll lose to that bastard!"
"Besides," Shino said loudly from his side of the house so that Kiba could hear him. "My bugs tell me that Kiba already has taken one."
"I HEARD THAT YOU SON OF A—"
"M-Maybe we could go g-get some ice cream t-together?" she suggested, speaking as loudly as she could so that both Kiba and Shino could hear her. "I-I'll pay for i-it …"
But neither of them was paying any attention. Evidently, Kiba had immediately rushed over to Shino's side to personally shout in his face.
"I never really liked you, you bug-freak!" Kiba exclaimed, waving his paintbrush erratically so that flecks of paint landed everywhere. "You and your high-and-mighty attitude, thinking you're better than everyone! What happened, did your entire clan die, or something?! Is that why you're such an arrogant bastard?! Why don't you ever say anything?!"
"I suppose that means you're not having too much fun with this bet?" Shino said. "Is it because you're losing?"
"I'M NOT LOSING!"
"I don't think you're motivated enough. Maybe we should raise the stacks of our bet?"
Hinata squeaked.
"FINE!" Kiba declared, his face flushed from the shouting. "What do you propose?!"
Whatever Shino had in mind, however, was drowned out by Hinata's surprised yell. Their heads swung to the noise and both were shocked to see Hinata's ladder titter dangerously on one leg and Hinata hanging on for dear life. They rushed over to the rescue, grabbing onto the sides of the ladder from the bottom and steadying it.
"Hinata!" Kiba called. "Are you okay?! What happened?!"
She seemed more shaken than usual from the death-defying stunt. "S-Somebody, or m-maybe two people, r-ran down the street and k-knocked the ladder."
Although Shino's expression was unreadable, there was definite concern behind his words. "Come down from there. My dragonflies will paint on the top. It's too dangerous up there."
"A-ah," she said, "H-hai."
She tentatively reached out for the paint bucket and painting utensils when she heard an ominous sound in the distance.
"YOU BRAAAAAATS! I'LL KICK YOUR TINY NINJA-WANNABE ASSES!"
The orange storm bowled over Shino and Kiba, who landed onto the hard ground without much grace, and severely shaking the ladder further. Kiba let out a wild howl, but the person did not seemed to hear and continued racing down the street, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Hinata!" Kiba cried out, panicked. Hinata slipped from the ladder, which continued to tip over, and she began to yell out in surprise. Shino immediately jumped to his feet and the horde of dragonflies glided over to rush to Hinata's aid. Kiba watched with worry as they flew her gently towards the ground, preventing injury.
"Are you okay?!" Kiba exclaimed, rushing over to her as she came back down to the ground. He grabbed her by the shoulders, ignoring her trembles, and looked her over quickly. "Any bruises? Cuts? It doesn't smell like you're bleeding, but how's your head?!"
"A-ano…" Hinata stammered. "I'm f-fine, but—"
"What?!" Kiba cried, intense concern reflected in his eyes.
"I d-don't think S-Sasuke-kun looks too happy…"
Both Kiba and Shino turned to see where Hinata was looking. Kiba facefaulted.
Sasuke was standing next to where the ladder had crumpled onto the ground, completely shock still. Intense waves of anger emanated strongly off of him. Kiba immediately felt the temperature increase by at least fifty degrees.
"H-Hey… Sasuke," Kiba said as casually as he could. "How are… things?"
Immediately, Sasuke kicked the empty paint bucket towards Kiba, spraying paint everywhere. "I'm covered in paint, you idiots!" he spat. He pulled off his shirt, covered in the bright pink paint that they had been painting with, and threw it on the ground. Then he glared at the entire team, who simultaneously shuddered.
"One of you. Fight me. Now," he demanded, pulling out his shuriken and looking at whom to throw it at. Although covered head to toe in bright pink paint, Sasuke couldn't have looked any less terrifying. "I need to do some serious ass-kicking."
Hinata began to nervously push her fingers together, "A-Ano, S-Sasuke-kun… Sorry, it was really an a-accident. P-please don't b-beat us u-up."
Sasuke's shoulders relaxed slightly at this. But his eyes still held the fiery resilience from before. After Kiba and Hinata weltered under his gaze long enough, Shino patently looming in the background not saying anything, Sasuke heaved a great sigh.
"You guys aren't worth it," he muttered. "So which way did Naruto go?"
Hinata lit up slightly. "N-Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah, that idiot."
"Wait a second," Kiba said. "That DUMBASS who knocked Hinata down from the ladder was NARUTO?!" Even Shino seemed to straighten a bit in order to hear correctly.
Sasuke gave them a Look that said "well-why-else-would-I-even-be-here-you-idiots?" Kiba grew a Look of his own that said, "I'm-gonna-kill-that-little-midget-of-a-dumbass-thatis-before-I'm-done-siccing-Akamaru-on-him". Shino merely gave them his usual "everyone-is-stupid-except-me" Look. Hinata only trembled.
"I suppose he went that way, then?" Sasuke said, pointing. Kiba nodded fiercely.
"We're going with you," he growled. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"You hold, I punch?" Sasuke said calmly.
"Why don't we all just punch him?" Kiba said.
Sasuke shrugged. "As long as we get to beat him up."
---
Coming up...
8: Naruto Gets Beat Up. Twice.
"What the hell?!" he cried, looking behind him. "What do YOU guys want?!"
---