Konnichiwa, everyone! Finally, here's chapter seven! Sorry it took so long, but, well, things happen. But hopefully the wait was worth it! This chapter will introduce the new pairing of Kiba and Temari! Why? I have no idea. It just seemed like a fun idea, and, to tell you the truth, I wasn't quite sure where to go after the last chapter. So please comment if you think the pairing is a good idea or a bad one. If you think it's bad, then I'll take it out and we'll continue from there. Sound good?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I do, however, own Michio, who was killed by Gaara. Rest in peace, Michio.


An awkward silence passed between the two groups of shinobi: the two under the tree, and the four that stood staring at them. Hinata was still frozen in the same position, with her arm outstretched and her hand buried in Gaara's hair. She was too shocked to even speak, let alone return to a normal sitting position. Gaara seemed pretty much unaffected by the sudden interruption and strange stares they were getting, aside from the fact that his eyes were slightly wider than before. Temari's bag of souvenirs lay on its side on the ground, its contents thrown in various directions from when it had been dropped. Basically, it was a very strange scene.

Temari was the first to speak. "Sorry, did we interrupt something?" she asked, disrupting the silence. At this, Hinata quickly pulled her hand back and clutched it tightly with the other. Her face had turned from a light pink to a bright red in a matter of seconds; the blush continued to deepen as she avoided everyone's gaze. "N-no!" she said, keeping her eyes glued to the ground. "I-it's not like that!" She glanced at Gaara for support, but he just sat there with his ever-emotionless expression. So much for that.

"Then what were you doing?" Kiba asked, his gaze drifting from Hinata to Gaara. He glanced down and saw that he had unconsciously squeezed his hand into a fist. Surprised, he unclenched it, staring at his hand as if it were some alien object that just happened to be attached to his body. What am I doing? He wondered.

"W-we weren't d-doing anything," Hinata stuttered, briefly lifting her gaze from the ground to look at the group in front of her. Her already-present habit of saying more syllables than needed always seemed worsen under pressure. "G-Gaara-kun had some sand in his hair, and I was g-getting it out for him." She returned her eyes back to the fascinating collection of grass and leaves in front of her, her face continuing to redden.

"Oh? But you've never cared about the sand in your hair before, Gaara," Kankuro said, a grin plastered on his face. Obviously, he was enjoying the scene in front of him. His face dropped slightly, however, when his brother glared at him.

"Well, I guess no one's ever pointed it out to him before," Temari countered. Unlike her brother, she thought the two were cute together. There was no way she would say it loud, though. No, that wouldn't be smart.

Shino was the only one who hadn't said anything (besides Gaara, of course). But, unlike his companions, he wasn't staring at the couple under the trees; he was looking at Kiba. His friend was also looking at Hinata, but with a different expression than the others. If he didn't know any better, Shino could have sworn that the look on his face was that of jealously.

Just then, Gaara stood up, the first sign of life he had shown since the other shinobi had arrived. He did a quick hand sign, and sand began swirling around him. A moment later, he was gone. The five remaining ninja stared at the space that he had just occupied. Throughout the whole event, he hadn't said a word. Big surprise.

Hinata blinked a couple of times before it registered that, now that the Sand shinobi was gone, the gazes of the other four were focused solely on her. At that moment, she wished she could disappear as well. She slowly turned back to the other three. Wait, three? She looked around quickly, wondering if she had somehow miscounted, but realized that there was indeed only three shinobi standing in front of her.

Kiba was gone.

----------

Kiba walked slowly down the roads of Konoha, Akamaru secured comfortably inside his shirt. He wasn't really sure why he had left. Something had bothered him about seeing Hinata and Gaara together, though he wasn't sure why. So he decided to take a walk to clear his thoughts. Not that it was helping much. The only thing that happened when he tried to think was that he gave himself a headache.

He sighed and sat down on a nearby bench. "What's wrong with me, Akamaru?" he asked his friend, petting him on the head. He let his mind wander, and eventually ended up wondering once again about what had happened to his female friend. Judging from her reaction, he could only guess what the perverted old man had done. He shuddered at the thought. "Sick bastard…"

"Who's a sick bastard?"

Kiba jumped. Literally. His butt actually left the hard wood of the bench and went about three inches in the air before coming back down. He turned to see Temari standing behind him, a small smile on her face. "Damn it, what the hell?" he muttered to no one in particular. He crossed his arms over his chest as he turned to face forward again.

"Seriously, who were you talking about?" Temari persisted, plopping down next to him. She had a pretty good idea, but still, it was always fun to tease people a little. Especially people you just met.

"None of your business!" Kiba snapped, startling the Sand kunoichi. What's his problem? She wondered, folding her own arms. Then something dawned on her. "You like her, don't you?" she asked. "That Hinata girl." She never was good at being blunt about anything.

Kiba turned bright red. "What the hell are you talking about?" he said, trying to sound angry. But her words had hit deep. He supposed that he knew it all along; he had just been too blind to fully notice it. When had he started looking at her just a little bit differently than before? When had he started noticing the beauty of her smile, even if was usually was directed at Naruto? Naruto…Maybe that's why he had never noticed it before. Hinata's passion was always directed at the blond-haired shinobi. And for what? That certain ninja was always drooling over Sakura Haruno, and never paid her any attention. He found himself becoming angry at the thought…

"Hey, are you alright?" Temari asked, a touch of worry in her voice. Kiba looked up, and figured that his anger must have shown though. Add that to the other feelings that were probably visible on his face, and he must have looked very strange. Still, what did she care? A moment ago she was acting like a spoiled little brat who liked nothing more than to toy with people. Now it was almost like she was worried about him. What was her deal?

"What do you care?" the confused ninja asked, voicing his thoughts out loud. He glanced at her, and saw that she looked almost hurt by his words. She hastily stood up. "You're right, what do I care?" she muttered, and began to walk away. Kiba could have hit himself.

"Hey, wait!" he yelled, reaching out and grabbing her wrist. Temari turned, a look of surprise on her face. She stared at his hand for a moment before realizing that his grip was so tight, she had lost most of the circulation in her hand. "L-let go!" she said, pulling her wrist out of his death grip. She massaged it with her other hand, noticing the red marks he had left. Does he have claws or something?

"S-sorry," Kiba muttered, looking off to the side so as not to meet her gaze. "And…I didn't mean what I said before. I just…didn't think you were serious." He noticed that he was stuttering a lot. Not that he could help it; he wasn't really used to apologizing.

"I am capable of compassion, you know!" Temari snapped. Her fiery gaze burned through the Leaf genin. She hated it when people thought that, just because she was related to Gaara, she was just as emotionless as him. But no one knew her; no one even bothered to know her. He's the same as everyone else, she thought, a hint of disappointment surging through her.

Kiba, feeling the heat of her stare, turned to finally face her. Their eyes met, and Kiba noticed just how pretty and blue hers were. He stared at them for a moment longer before muttering, "I'm sorry," and running off.

----------

Hinata sighed. She had been looking for Gaara for over an hour now, and still hadn't found him. She figured she should probably apologize; after all, it was because of her that he had been put in such an awkward position. Besides, he had come to see if she had been alright when she had run off; she wanted to do the same for him.

She was wandering through the forest outside the village now. She had looked around most of Konoha and hadn't found him, so she thought he might have been hiding there somewhere. She was just about to give up and go home when she saw the one and only Gaara sitting in a tree, staring at her.

"Gaara-kun!" she said happily, running over to the trunk of the tree. They looked at each other for a moment. "D-do you mind if I come up there with you?" The Sand ninja muttered his traditional "Hn," which Hinata took as a yes. She jumped up and sat next to him. An uncomfortable silence followed.

Surprisingly, it was Gaara who broke it. He had glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw a familiar brown substance embedded in her hair. "You have sand in your hair." He said the sentence without any emotion, though the fact that he had said anything was cause for celebration.

Hinata ran a hand through her hair. "I guess I do," she said, giggling slightly. She recalled the events from earlier, when he had disappeared in a swirl of sand, and figured that some of it must have landed in her hair. She almost burst out laughing at the irony of it all.

For reasons unknown to both the male and female ninja, Gaara reached out a hand towards Hinata. She was startled at first, and almost fell out of the tree. "Don't move," he said, placing a hand in her hair and picking out a small brown particle.

It was his turn to take the sand out of her hair.


Author's notes:

After looking at many pictures of Temari, I saw that in some her eyes were blue, while in others they appeared black. I'm assuming that this is due to a change in light, or something of the sort that caused them to appear darker instead of the blue that they seemed to be. I also apologize if she's OOC; I've never done anything involving her and don't know her personality that well.


Wow, Gaara was way OOC in that last part, huh? I think it worked out, though. I'm trying to keep them in character, I really am! Heh. Anyway, once again, please tell me if you think the Kiba/Temari pair is a good idea or not. It was just something I decided to throw in to make it a little more interesting. :3

And, as always, thanks to everyone who's reviewed! As of right now, this story has 50 reviews! –insert loud, obnoxious cheering here– And I realized that I haven't thanked any of my anonymous reviewers yet. Because I haven't answered any of them since chapter one and it would take too long (and because I'm lazy), I'm not going to answer you individually, but I just want you to know that I really appreciate all of you! Now, speaking of reviews, go ahead and press the pretty blue button. You know you want to.