No reviews, eh? Well, I know someone read chapter three (FF has sold me your souls!) but I don't know WHO. Fine. I will seek refuge with Rukia-chan (which is what I have loving called my practical MP3 player). Review and help me feel NOTICED please. Reviews make my day!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KIBA & AKAMARU!
SIDE NOTE: I made a LJ to keep people up-to-date on these stories (for those that follow them). It won't just be when I update, because that would be stupid, you can get email alert on FF, but how far along on the chapter I am, when you can expect an update, and previews. Yeah, I hope it makes it easier for you guys. ONWARD, now.
Oh a second side note (goddamnit, shut up now Eveilae) for those who have a neopets account (and never use it because neopets don't do much, like me) there's a guild, which I think, is pretty interesting. The people are friendly, and there are missions and such to keep you occupied. Even villages. Plus, there may be a Temari layout next month. C'mon, I know you all love her. Well, if you think you might enjoy it, it's called Naruto Teenage Dirtbags. It's one of the only reasons I even go on Neopets, heh.
(x) means NOTE, which are below.
Title: The Dingo Ate My Baby
Chapter: Four
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Hinata, Kiba Kurenai, Dingo, Shinominor:Hiashi, Neji, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Hanabi, Hana
Relationships: slight HinaShino, KibaHina
Notes:
1. Some don't consider seventeen a kid, but in this story, I do.
2. I only watched the Hinata/Neji fight once, and I've forgotten how the whole Hyuga fighting style works. I'll look a bit up, I suppose.
3. For those of you who are reading/planning on reading my SasuNaru fic (White, Red, Black and Orange) and don't want spoilers, skip the next paragraph.
Dingo tells me he is a prisoner; that he is trapped, but he will not say by whom nor will he explain why. All I know is that he wants me to find him.
When I wake up, I question what these could dreams mean, anyway.
There is a loud knock on my door, and I wonder if I should just start leaving my door open .It has begun to irritate me, all this knocking. No Hyuga ever knocked on my door; they would just barge right in.
I am dressed by this time, having found a pair of faded brown pants and a dark green shirt that is tight enough not to get in the way. "Come on," I say, but he keeps knocking. I suppose he did not hear me with all the noise he is making himself. I end up screaming for him to open the door before he finally hears me.
"Hey, no need to yell," he says defensively as the door is pushed open. It does not even seem so strange that there is a boy in my room. It is just Kiba after all, the boorish eventual-alpha male. It is not like he would ravage me on my bed, or anything.
Glancing back at him, I give him a good once-over, just in case. No, he does not look very much like a rapist to me. I relax. "Will I n-need anything?" I ask him, staring down at my bed instead of at him.
"Nah, we've got a lot of shit down there." Crude as ever, it seems. I let him lead me down to the training ground, and the two of us wake in relative silence. Our feet make a lot of noise in the silence, which I am guessing is everyone sleeping off the hangovers they no doubt have. I find myself regretting once more not having joined in the festivities.
"So, how are you liking it here? Not too savage for you?" He says this slightly mockingly, as if I called him a barbarian, or something, which is not the case. I would never insult someone, even someone as vulgar and foul as him. I do not have the nerve.
"Of . . . of course not," I mutter, my two fingers finding each other in spite of my desire to stop that irksome habit. I pull them apart and stuff them roughly into my pockets. "It is w-wonderful."
He is looking at me closely, I can tell. I do not want eye contact with Kiba, rude or not, so I do not look up.
"You don't use contractions. I've just noticed." This startles me, and I realize . . . I do not use contractions. Hyugas do not, I suppose. Shrugging my shoulders, I sigh. I do wish that someone else—almost anyone else—had noticed before Kiba. Perhaps that boy from the day before . . . "Does everyone talk like that back in Konohagakure, or just you?"
I hate being interrogated, even when it is completely innocent and just curiosity driving it. "It is a . . . a conspiracy to make you f-feel s-stupid, Kiba," I retort in a rare show of sass.
I think he begins to understand that I really am not in the mood to talk to him—if I ever am. He does not say anything the whole way there. At last, we end up in a large courtyard, riddled with large trees. Loitering around were several kids (x) my age, and—
That boy. They all look over at us, but my eyes cannot move from his half-hidden face.
"Kiba! Hinata! At last! I was thinking you'd forgotten." Kurenai snaps me away from my dreamlike reverie, and I manage a small smile.
At that, I find I simply do not have the time to think about the boy. It is hard enough training without distractions making me miss with the kunai and loss my concentration.
I find it peculiar how strong I am compared to a good number of the others. At home I am usually so much weaker than everyone else, to my father's chagrin, but I do not even have to reveal my Byakugan here.
And the days pass like this, in a refreshing pattern. I train with the others and Kurenai in the mornings, I eat breakfast with the others—who are beginning to get more and more open with me, and vice versa--, I explore the rooms in the afternoon and evening, which are numerous and interesting enough to last me a lifetime, or two, and then I have dinner with the Inuzukas. Afterwards they always stay up and drink themselves silly—the adults at least—but I have never been able to force myself to stay.
Being shy is just short of being a curse.
Then, at night, I talk with Dingo.
"Dingo, why can't you be human? I can talk to you so easily, and I can never manage to do so outside these dreams with you." We are sitting in the garden, surrounded by the plants that are so beautiful so that I feel completely out of place.
He does not answer for quite a bit, and I am afraid I have insulted him. I have to hold back the apology on the tip of my tongue, though, because there is nothing that annoys him more. "Until you can free me, I can't appear to you in this form outside the dream realm." He looks sad as he says this, and this makes me sad.
"In this form? Do you mean that you can appear in another form outside the—"
"Beauty! Don't trust appearances so much. If I appeared to you as a human, would I, in essence, be any different?"
I look down, ashamed for thinking like this, but also just because he thinks badly of me.
I think he sees that I am feeling bad about myself—that is another thing Dingo cannot abide—so he rests his head on my thigh. I pet his head gently, and the silence is good.
"You make me happy, Beauty." I do not know if it is the dream intoxicating the two of us, but it is always so easy to say things here that would be impossible in the real world.
My stomach flutters a lovely feeling spreads through me. This is new, this feeling of making someone happy by just being myself.
"I love you, Dingo."
"Come on, Hinata! Hit me with your best shot!"
It is too early for this. I did not sleep well the night before, and now Kiba wants to scrimmage? Idiot boy. "Sure t-thing, Kiba," I mutter, and I activate my Byakugan.
He charges at me, and this is especially predicable of him, even without my Byakugan. I block his first couple of shots, and I kick out my leg to trip him. He manages to move away just before it connects and my foot only grazes him.
But this is not my plan to begin with. While he is preoccupied with keeping his balance I clip him in the chest with a chakra-charged fist (x). He moves make at least a meter, and he clutches his chest with one hand. "Damn," he says breathlessly. Still, before I expect it, he is coming at me once more. Before I can prepare myself, he has knocked me down, and there is a long scratch along my cheek.
It burns, but a little thing like that is not going to stop me. I push myself up, only to find myself face to face with an odd smell Kiba.
"Are you okay?" he asks fervently, his eyes wide with worry. What is this? It is only a scratch, after all, nothing he has done to others before. Why is he all worried?
A little smile spreads across my face, and flick his cheek with chakra-charged fingers, which makes a bright red mark appear. "I am not d-done, yet, Kiba." With a light push, I gain myself enough time to pull myself to my fight, ready to resume the fight once more. I do not notice that almost all the others have gathered and are watching attentively.
It goes on, with the two of exchanging light blows and carefully aimed attacks so as to not seriously injury the other. We are tiring, after a good while, and I decide the time has come to finish it . . .
I kick out my leg, and he falls backwards, barely catching himself with one arm. Somehow he manages to flip himself around and land on his feet, to my surprise. Damn him. I jump backwards to avoid another claw scratching my face. As he runs at me once more, I see my chance. My aim has to be perfect, but I have faith that I can do it.
I jump to the side quickly, but I keep one arm to the ground, keeping it in place with a small burst of chakra. I flip around, and before Kiba has the time to change direction, I slam into him leg with a chakra-charged fist. He stumbles, and trips over his arms, landing on the ground nearby in a small lump. I let myself fall as well, drained from the fight. I ignore the noise around me, simply allowing myself to be enveloped by the grass under me, soft and tickling against my bared skin.
"Hinata? Are you okay?"
The soft, feminine voice at my ear makes me pop one eye open. I find myself eye to eye with Kurenai, and she looks as worried as Kiba had been.
"I am fine," I respond tightly, unused to worry. I sit up, and immediately look over at Kiba. He is surrounded by a few toadying girls, who are praising him profusely with every breath. They try to help him up, but he only waves them away. Limping over to me, and shoots me a wide grin.
"That was great, Hinata. Fucking—"he ignores the look Kurenai gives him—"awesome. But I'm definitely gonna beat you next time. Just so you know."
I lower my eyes, but I cannot stop the smile from spreading. "We sh-shall see."
"Well, Shino. Do you mind taking the two of them up to get themselves checked? You're the one who needs the least training, after all." She continues, giving the others a dirty look. "I'm sorry I can't say the same for you guys."
Kiba shakes his head vigorously. "Nah, I'm good. Just give me a bit to rest, and I'll be peachy."
I do not want to be outdone, so I shake my head as well, but Kurenai obviously does not believe me. "No, Shino, take Hinata up. You look a little pale." She gives me a warm smile before sending me off with Shino. I think that maybe I have made my feelings of Shino a touch obvious. Shino, that is his name.
The boy with a face as mysterious as he is. He is polite, and intelligent, and just about the complete opposite of that idiotic Kiba.
We walk through the castle in complete silence, which is not a new concept for either of us, I think.
"Are you . . . with Kiba?" The question is very blunt and sudden, and quite enough to make me stop in my tracks.
"W-what?" That is the best response I can think of with my brain all frozen and confused as he has made it. "With Kiba . . . do you m-mean . . ."
"I mean," he says slowly, and I think he is looking at me—it is hard to tell with the sunglasses and all, "are you sleeping with Kiba?"
I . . . blink, and then I blink a bit more. Perhaps this is getting my point across. No, some more blinking is in order. "Sleeping . . . with . . . K-Kiba?" Is he serious? Do we . . . do we act like lovers?
I suppose he takes my question for lack of understanding. "Are you having sex with Kiba, or not?"
"Sex! With Kiba?" I feel my face heating intensely, and I look down at the ground to avoid having to face him. "No. Of course not. No. W-what in the w-world would make you think that I . . . that we . . . that w-we are . . . "
"That the two of you are lovers? Well, he's obviously very taken with you." That earns him a sharp glance. Kiba . . . likes me? Likes me likes me? I cannot tell by his manner, rude bumpkin that he is. "Girls take a liking to Kiba almost instinctively, since he is an eligible bachelor of high-standing around here, so I thought . . . well . . . yeah."
There is more silence, and the two of us keep walking. "I . . . I never would," I finally say. "Kiba . . . he is too crude, and . . . he is a l-loud mouth, as well as b-being a troublemaker. He is always d-dirty, and he is more b-beast than human a good p-part of the time!" I am surprising even myself at how defensive I am getting.
Maybe too defensive?
Well, I must admit, that I like him. He has his kind moments, and he is determined to finish what he start. He is as loyal as the dog that always tags along with him. There are definitely good points about him, and at times he is almost . . . sweet. Like when he had been leaning over me during the fight, asking me if I was all right.
I am reminded of Naruto, actually, and I did have a crush on him for quite a while, did I not? Naruto, that cute, loud blonde that was completely Sasuke's in a way never even had to be said out loud (x). Even when they first came to Konohagkure at twelve—which was too young for them to actually have a relationship relationship—if that makes any sense—it was painfully obvious there would never be anyone else for them.
I had not expected Naruto to like me in the first place, anyway.
Was I falling another loudmouth? No, no, of course not. I liked Shino; I knew that.
"Kiba's not that bad, really," Shino murmurs monotonously.
"Oh, I-I know that. He is just . . . just not my t-type." Naruto was, though . . .
Eventually, we find Hana and ask her to check me over to make sure I am okay. She assures them that my chakra level is a bit long, and that I should wait until tomorrow until thinking about using it again. I agree readily—I am not in the mood to look Kiba in the face, right now.
Hana leaves us—she is called to check on someone else, and we say are farewells quickly—and the two of us sort of wander around, making small talk.
Don't trust in appearances.
Shino, as handsome as he is, does not have a whole lot to say. Neither do I, but that is beside the point. I like, and I would like to get to know him better, but . . . how can I if he never says a thing?
In the silence, I have time to think about things I have not thought about in ages. My family . . . Father, Neji, Hanabi. My friends . . . Naruto, Sakura, and all the others that put up with my bashfulness. Even Konohagakure in general, with its plentiful rain and the forests filled with lovely scents and beautiful sights.
I wonder . . . will I ever see any of them again?
"Shino . . . I think I-I am going to g-go lie down," I murmur in a low voice. He nods, and we go our separate ways.
I want to see them again.
Show me LOVE, please. T T