AN: This chapter is more about Kiba than Naruto, and some new charachters came out to play, so please treat them well! The first part is my small thanks to all of you who read/reviewed/fav'd/followed this story. Enjoy!

Story summary: Naruto meets a perfect stranger who turns out to be a bastard and keeps meeting him over and over again. And why does it seem that elevators conspired against humanity? Modern AU. SasuNaru, KibaNeji, slight KakaIru

Chapter summary: They say that restless sleep can only lead to a disastrous day, but to Naruto it seems...fine? Kiba begs to defer.


DAMN ELEVATOR


Floor 5. Bad dreams

Naruto was standing on the edge of a cliff enjoying gentle gusts of wind playing with his spiky hair and edges of loose sleeping pants, bare feet buried in cool grass. The water underneath looked calm and practically glowed, reflecting the moonlight and numerous stars. The ocean seemed to stretch far enough to become one with the endless sky above.

...Beautiful...

A couple of fallen stars crossed by as he watched, completely mesmerized by the view.

The blond breathed in deeply—air fresh and cool, and a bit salty—and took a step forward...

Instead of falling down, his body—light as a feather—slid up and he found himself floating, getting closer and closer to the stars. He never felt so free...

Another fallen star swished by, it swirled around him and gently brushed his cheek, it's warmth ticking the skin. Few more flew up to the grinning young scientist whispering something in his ears and making him laugh. Never before has he been so close to the stars, surrounded by them.

...Magical...

Suddenly there were glass walls around, separating him from the beautiful new friends. The walls turned into metal completely blocking the view and he panicked realizing that it was an elevator.

The hateful metal box was falling fast into the dark abyss. His hands frantically banged on the door, trying to force it open, but still unable to get out. He was trapped.

...Suffocating...

Out of the shadows, two strong pale hands appeared and wrapped around his wrists, thumbs brushing over both pulses. The touch was warm and gentle, instantly calming him down. A hauntingly familiar figure came to light and everything else paled into the background. Sasuke was the only thing Naruto could see.

All thoughts and worries disappeared as firm lips landed on his. Lightly at first, like a feather, but then pressed harder demanding a response. The blond melted into the kiss, a soft moan escaping him as a wet muscle pried his mouth open and explored—oh, god—every inch of it. The raven's hips pressed into his deliciously and suddenly everything felt right.

...Heavenly...

When Naruto snapped awake, sweat pouring off his body, heart racing, and chest heaving, he was certain of two things. One – he had a very uncomfortable problem beneath the covers. Two – a certain teme deserved to die a slow and horrible death.

He had trouble falling asleep, obviously. Even looking at the starry ceiling didn't help. Not even a tiny little bit. Nada. He would look at it and see beautifully black eyes looking straight into his soul. With every breath, he would sense faint fragrance of bergamot and a soft brush of nose over his. Hence the dream. Correction, nightmare. A highly terrifying one to that.

Groaning, he checked the time—quarter after 9pm. The driver from the lab usually picked him up at 9:30pm. Shit.

"Argh!... Damn teme!", he hurriedly jumped out of bed and into the shower with no time to spare.

What would normally be a slow start of the day ('morning' for him, 'night' for the rest of you people) turned into frantic hurdling around the apartment.

There wasn't any of his usual lazy dancing on the kitchen floor to the tunes of a North American radio while making breakfast. Instead—like a hurricane—he raided his fridge for anything edible. Anything. Because there were tons of stores open at 1am when he was having his lunch...and nothing in the universe would make Kiba share...

He also did not have a chance to carefully pack his research materials. Whatever paper laying on the desk was unceremoniously showed into his bag, some of it was most definitely what he needed.

Surprisingly, Naruto managed to get out of the building without too much trouble. The elevator was unusually fast and he affectionately plastered himself to the metal box in an attempted hug whispering 'Thank you, Thank you!'

The driver greeted him as usual, and everything seemed fine. Though, halfway to the observatory the young scientist realized that he didn't check the weather conditions for the night.

"Crap..." he drove hands through his hair and almost tore it off in frustration. Kiba will have his head off..


At the Konoha Observatory, to the tunes of old pop-rock classics, an energetic brunette was busy preparing the main telescope for the night ahead.

Kiba Inuzuka was a 23 years old graduate of the UofT and the lead mechanic of the lab. He took over this role from his mentor, Professor Sarutobi Asuma, who was forced to retire early by his wife. She recently gave birth to their daughter and was fed up with the 9pm-5am schedule her husband had to live by. Professor Sarutobi continued teaching at the university but entrusted the observatory to his brightest and most favourite student. Or so he loved to think.

Kiba and his team were responsible for cleaning, measuring, calibrating different equipment on the premises and also assisting researchers when needed. The word 'mechanic' might sound demeaning, to some, but he knew well enough that none of the 'stuck up astronomers' were able to progress in their research without his team around. And his team was lost without a proper leadership. Which made him practically irreplaceable...

He loved this word, 'irreplaceable', it had a nice ring to it and helped him get away with many things, including but not limited to making his aid Konohomaru clean bathrooms on any given day, showering Naruto with affection in the form of a bucket of water above the entrance, or bringing his dog Akamaru for the 'take your kid to work day'.

Ah, it is good to be me he thought, a satisfied grin plastered to his face.

The control room Kiba was in had a huge glass window that allowed him to see the main telescope in all it's glory, while he keyed in the starting coordinates and directed it to the right portion of the sky.

The Beast, as he called it, was almost 12m tall with a 3.5m wide mirror and was classified as a ground-based, advanced optical system for detection and tracking of faint objects in space, such as asteroids. It's innovative technology allowed for identification of precise location of discovered objects and extrapolate their course.

The brunette was almost done with setting everything up for Naruto when he heard a voice behind him.

"Inuzuka, when you are done helping Uzumaki, please come to the basement. Your assistance is needed in my lab."

God, Kiba loved this smooth aristocratic voice... He closed his eyes for a brief second in pleasure, then quickly turned around and showed his very best toothy smile to the scientist in the doorway.

"Sure thing, Neji" Damn, you look good in that white coat, as always.

"It's Professor Hyuga" pale eyes narrowed in annoyance. "How many times do I have to correct you?"

Neji Hyuga was what people call a genius. Graduated from the UofT at 18, got his PhD at 22, and now, at 24, he was teaching Astrometry during the day and at night he was here, at the lab, doing the most important job in Japan – measuring time and transmitting it to the whole country. He was well respected in the scientific community and admired by all workers of the observatory. Especially by the one lead mechanic.

Professor Hyuga was responsible for the Japan's own atomic clock located in the basement of Konoha Observatory. It was one of over 400 clocks that use resonance frequencies of atoms to measure time. Clocks work independently from each other, but broadcast the measurements in real time using GPS signals to the International Committee for Weights and Measures in France - an organization that then calculates a weighted average of timecodes received and transmits back to the whole world as the 'true' time. Japan, though, received the time directly from their lab.

Basically, if you ever need to ask someone for the time, Neji is your guy.

"Always so serious Professor Hyuga..." Kiba sighed. "As soon as everything is set up here, I will be right over"

He truly looked forward to joining Neji at the lab downstairs where all the time in Japan belonged to them. Literally.

"Thank you. I hope the blond idiot does not do anything that could delay you"

"Oh, you wouldn't want anyone to delay Kiba, would you? And who exactly are you calling an idiot here, pretty boy?" Naruto inquired from the hallway. "By the way, I can delay Kiba as much as I want to. He is not yours, he is mine!" seeing the pale eyes sparkle with anger was priceless.

"Did you know, Uzumaki, that this building was used as a prison during the Second World War?" Neji slowly put a palm of his hand on a white wall beside him, preventing Naruto from walking past him "Though now fully rebuilt and renovated, some may say that the basement—where most of the prisoner torture happened—was left pretty much the same" He pointedly looked at the blond—pale eyes cold and dangerous as the sky before a snowstorm. "Would you like me to show you sometime?"

Naruto laughed nervously. Perhaps he shouldn't tease Neji so much...

"Inuzuka" the young professor didn't move his eyes from the astronomer before him, but raised his voice enough for Kiba to hear "I expect you in my lab in no more than an hour, no delays"

"Ok!" Kiba shouted back excitedly, completely oblivious to what was happening in the hallway. At that the tall brunette turned around and walked away, leaving the frightened blond behind.

Naruto walked into the room and greeted his friend quietly, while trying to untangle his super long scarf with suddenly numb fingers. Hell, Neji knew how to make threats...

"What did you two talk about?" Kiba asked as he settled again behind the controls.

"Nothing." Naruto answered rather too quickly and decided to immediately change the subject "You better explain what the hell you're listening..."

"It's classics, man!"

"Sure..." Naruto rolled his eyes. That boring sound was so not classics... "Did you watch that Guardians of the Galaxy crap again?"

Kiba was about to defend his most favourite movie of all time but got distracted by papers flying out of Natuto's bag. The blond cursed trying to pick up his stuff.

"What the hell? Are these your sketches?" The brunette picked up a few pages from the floor and looked through intricate drawings. He admitted that they looked kind of cool. "Did you skip work or sothething and now have to work on it here?"

"Shut up Kiba! I overslept today and basically grabbed whatever was on the desk" Naruto snatched the sheets from his colleague's hands and showed them back in the bag.

"Ok man, whatever you say. Which of these are your weather notes? I need to key in the coefficient of refraction" Kiba expectingly looked at the suddenly motionless blond.

"Urgh...about that..." Naruto started, one of his hands nervously scratching the back of his neck.

"You can't be serious!" Kiba threw his hands in the air "This is like the only thing you scientists need to do before coming here! Check the damn weather and bring me the calculated coefficient of refraction! dammit!"

"I am sorry ok?! This is all the damn elev-gah!-fault. I mean... w-well y-you know!"

Kiba tilted his head in interest, his friend was acting strange. "Your stuttering is weird. We'll talk about that later." He pointed a finger at Naruto to note that this conversation was not over, and then screamed "Shikaaa!"

"You called?" the answer came out of a corner of the room making Kiba jump in the air emitting a very manly and dignified scream.

"Jesus! You scared me man! How long have you been on this couch?"

"...not long" came a slightly delayed response.

Shikamaru Nara was one of the members of Kiba's crew. He was a tall man with light brown hair tied in a high ponytail. A man of his size would normally be hard to miss, but this guy had an incredible ability to blend in with the shadows.

"I've been here for the past half hour and didn't see or hear you coming in!" Kiba hissed at the man but didn't receive a reply. "Not long, my ass... Come, help us out. Dumb-face here forgot to check the weather today"

"Don't call me that, dog-breath!" Naruto slapped the back of his head.

Shikamaru unwillingly left his very comfy couch with a quiet 'Troublesome' and took Kiba's place behind the control computer. In just a few minutes, he entered all required parameters from what seemed to be memory but actually was the result of carefully done calculations in his head.

Both of his colleagues stared at him in awe. It was not the first time they witnessed the man at work, but still, it was a sight hard to get used to. If Neji was called a genius, Shikamaru redefined the whole concept.

"Shika, I don't get it." Naruto finally asked the question that he wanted to ask since long time ago. "You're as smart as Neji. Maybe even smarter. Hell, I am sure you can get any job you want. Why this, with this dog-lover here?"

The last comment earned him a glare from the lead mechanic, who decided to answer as the man in question was already fast asleep on the couch. "This way, if he sleeps during the day no one calls him lazy"

..But he sleeps here too... Naruto was about to add, but a cheerful and excited yell from the doorway interrupted him.

"Hey boys!" the two turned around to see a tall, blond young woman with her hair in four ponytails walking towards them "I made it!"

"This is great Temari!" Naruto quickly gave her a hug and helped her out of the coat. She was slightly taller than him, but he was still a gentleman. "How was you flight?"

Temari Sabaku was one of a few scientists in Japan specializing in planetary physics. Her team was known for several discoveries related to thermal processes on Venus and Jupiter. She was also the one that recruited Naruto to find an asteroid that was fated to collide with one of the planets in the Solar System.

"Oh, when we got delayed in Suna, I though we'll never make it—the snowstorm was crazy! I heard you had some here too, right? But then, the sky cleared and everything was just marvellous! I am not late, am I? When is the first passing?"

"Should be up in 22 minutes" came a bored response from Shikamaru who was suddenly behind the control computer again. When he got there, no one knew. Kiba looked at him questioningly, wasn't he sleeping on the couch just a minute ago? But then he just shook his head and asked the young woman how she got here from the airport—he got a very bad feeling about it.

"Oh, my little brother picked me up and drove me here." The blonde answered, making herself comfortable on the couch. "It is good to have some family in Tokyo"

"He dropped you off and drove away, right?"

"Um, no. He went to visit someone in the basement. Why?"

"Oh no he didn't! Damn Sabaku!" With that Kiba flew out of the room, all responsibilities forgotten.

"What's with him?" Temari asked Shikamaru as Naruto was in no condition to respond, trying to suppress a hysteric laugh and failing miserably.

"One could say say that him and Gaara both have a certain appreciation for time"


Kiba ran frantically through the endless corridors towards the elevator leading to the basement. That evil raccoon Sabaku! Every damn chance he got, the red-headed bastard would try to get in between him and Neji, always making advancements on the oblivious professor and making the mechanic look as bad as possible in the process.

It all started about a year ago, at a Christmas soirée.

Who in their right mind would call a Christmas party a soirée? Kiba knew right away it was a bad idea to go, but his mentor, Sarutobi-san, insisted. It was an annual black-tie event hosted by the university for the elite of the Tokyo scientific community: widely known professors, prominent scientists, patrons of science (aka sponsors), top students with promising futures (aka kids of the earlier mentioned), and the regular employees of the Konoha Observatory, where the event took place.

It was the most grand and looked forward to event of the year, or, in Kiba's words, the most devastatingly boring event of all... If he were to hear one more 'what a wonderful winter we're having' he would drown himself in the sparkly disgusting drink that was passed around. He looked at the tall and narrow glass in his hand and quietly wondered if it was shaped that way just to prevent him from doing exactly that.

As the evening progressed he found himself at the back of the room, bored out of his mind. Surprisingly, he was not alone. A young redhead was standing not far from him, looking rather unimpressed by the crowd. Sensing the kindred spirit in the man, Kiba approached him and started a conversation that turned out to be quite fun.

The man introduced himself as Gaara Sabaku, he was in his final year at UofT and was dragged to the party by his older sister. Just like Kiba, he did not enjoy formal gatherings like this and admitted to spending the first half hour here searching for beer. Did no one here knew about beer?

Seemingly emotionless, Gaara would make comments about people around them that would make Kiba break out into a loud snort and clutch his gut laughing with his entire body. They made fun of the food, the waiters, and dancing couples that just didn't fit together. Talked about poor wardrobe and make up choices and how some people tried just way too hard to make an impression on others. They seemed to have a lot in common, from how they take their coffee to how they choose a partner, both admitted to loving long dark hair that is so rarely seen nowadays.

All in all, Kiba concluded, Gaara was a fun guy, in a creepy kind of way, but totally up his alley. It may not have been such a boring party after all.

They were in the midst of talking about sports (both rooted for the same baseball team, obviously), when Kiba's train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

"Oh my god, I just saw an angel walk in" he admitted to his new friend, eyes on a couple by the entrance.

The couple—a charming young woman and a handsome young man—was slowly moving through the crowd, exchanging pleasantries with other guests. The way they resembled each other clearly indicated that they were related, which allowed Kiba let out a breath. They were dressed impeccably: both wore white with a touch of silver that highlighted incredibly pale eyes and contrasted with long dark hair, making them look unearthly, angelic.

"Ah, that would be Hinata and Neji Hyuga" Gaara clarified. "Cousins. She is the heiress of the Hyuga, Hyuga and Associates (a lawyers firm). Don't be fooled by her pretend timidness, she is as sharp as shark's teeth in the courtroom. And he is a Professor of Astrometry at UofT and recently got a position here at Konoha Observatory"

"I think I am in love..."

"Neji is very overprotective of Hinata, why don't I distract him while you ask her for a dance?"

"Oh, no, that's okay" Kiba blushed. "Why don't you dance with Hinata while I-I distract N-neji?" God, he love this name already...it created a tornado of butterflies in his stomach making him stutter like a schoolgirl but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered in this world anymore aside from the beautiful man that was actually walking in their direction. For real?

Green eyes suddenly turned cold at realization.

"I would rather not" he said curtly and stormed pass Kiba towards the couple. The brunette rushed after him not quite grasping what just happened.

"What do you mean? Will you at least introduce me to them?"

Once both of them reached the Hyugas and wished them a good evening, Gaara has made the introduction:

"Neji, this is Kiba Inuzuka, Sarutobi-san's apprentice. He made some inappropriate comments about Hinata's cleavage. I, of course, told him off, but beware of this mutt"

Oh, how short lived their friendship has been...

Kiba could only gape at his now clearly ex-friend and was forced to close his mouth by blushing Hinata who slapped him with the strength not fitted to a lady.

That day, that party, that soirée marked the start of The Great Inuzuka-Sabaku War.


Another AN: this is it so far! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it :) I love Kiba and Gaara fighting over Neji. Does anyone know of other fics where they do that? If you do, please share with me through a review or PM. I would like to read it!