Warning(s): Harsh words, small crush that's not part of the main pairings (because I couldn't stop myself, sorry), and angsty Kiba. Not by much, though. The angst is very much toned down.

Tobirama thought that he could make the track team. Hashirama told him that as long as he trained, he'd undoubtedly get into the team on his junior year. And Tsunade just wanted to have an excuse to go to sporting events because Tobirama refused to go to them and all of her grandfather's were for universities and she found that boring for some reason.

Tsunade was an odd little girl. But she was adorable and intelligent. Kiba knew she'd get far in life with the way Tobirama and Hashirama were guiding her onto the correct path.

When he returned to school for the second semester, Kiba didn't feel as if he'd changed at all. He was still the same guy as before. Even though he now had three people in his life that seemed to care about him who didn't insult him every five seconds.

His teachers, though, thought he had changed for some reason. They didn't glare at him as much anymore. Just stared at him with this kind of inspection and analytic eye that made him feel as if he were some kind of mare on auction. He liked that phrase. He'd heard it on one of Tsunade's shows.

The students weren't any different. Just the teachers. As if they were able to see something inside of Kiba that he had no idea he held.

Well, that was a lie. Most of the students were the same. But Hinata hung out with him even more and asked him to go out with her with much more frequency. And because they saw him hanging around the girl, some of her other friends decided to start gravitating towards him as well. Not in friendship. But in a reluctant kind of acquaintanceship that only came from loving Hinata too much.

It was weird. But Kiba was sure that they saw him as a kind of 'fix up' project. They were always trying to get

him to try on new, much more colorful clothes.

It took him months to get into another fight. Which sucked, because it happened to fall on the same day that Hashirama had promised to take him and Tsunade out for their extremely good behavior until then.

"Because my father and I love to go fishing! He's a really good dad, you see. Even though he's not my biological father, he's great!"

Kiba despised Rock Lee with all of his heart. The bastard didn't know when to shut up. And he constantly talked about his perfect family life in front Kiba, taunting the Inuzuka.

His broken family was not a secret. There was no need to keep it a secret. But there was also no need for this son of a bitch to constantly remind him of it.

"Listen here, you sorry cunt." Kiba hissed as he grabbed onto Lee's shirt, glaring into the slightly taller teen's eyes. "You and I are going to settle this once and for all."

"Settle what, exactly?" Lee asked in mock curiosity, eyes blazing in defiance. "The fact that you'll never have a father that loves you?"

Rock Lee was a coward. He constantly picked fights with Kiba but then acted as if he were the innocent party. Whenever teachers talked to him, he insisted that he had no idea just why Kiba hated him so much. But the little bitch knew.

Kiba's fist tightened so harshly that he swore his nails would break skin. But he restrained himself from clocking the bastard right then and there because he didn't want to get expelled from school.

"You and me. Eight o'clock today. Back lot of the Kiri Market."

The dark haired gremlin had the gall to smirk at Kiba. And it took the Inuzuka all of his willpower to keep from punching that stupid smirk off of his face.

"See you there, Dog Breath."

~/~

Hinata didn't want him to fight. She insisted that Rock Lee had formal training, he could kill Kiba easily with his mastery of the martial arts.

Naruto just wanted to see the fight. He thought it'd be interesting to see both clashing fighting styles going up against one another. Because while Rock Lee was formally trained, Kiba was informally trained. The streets had taught the Inuzuka how to fight to survive.

Shino only went along because he was the only person smart enough to bring a first aid kit in case anyone went too far. He didn't want to be anywhere near the fighting, but refused to allow Kiba to get his ass kicked without having the proper medical aid nearby.

Kiba had a good feeling about the fight, though. It was in this secluded parking lot in the back of a small, kind of seedy market that the kids in the high school only knew about because of their inclination to forget about age with the right amount of money. There were no surveillance cameras that worked, they were only for show, and the owners didn't give a damn about what happened as long as it stayed outside of his market.

He knew how to fight on the streets. That is how he had grown up: scrapping against people much bigger than him to make sure that he belonged somewhere. He wasn't afforded the kind of luxury of not giving it his all. Every time he had fought, it had been to 110 percent. And if ever he gave any less, he had wound up with his ass kicked and his body a dozen different shades of black and blue.

When they got to the lot, it was to find Rock Lee wearing a sort of green full body suit. He was jumping around as if he were the star in a kung fu movie. And behind him were his only friends, Neji and Tenten.

When those two saw Kiba's own friends, they were stricken by surprise. Most probably because they didn't expect to see Neji's cousin hanging around the school ruffian. But why they were so surprised, Kiba would never understand. There was undoubtedly talk all along the school about Hinata and his friendship.

"Hinata? What are you doing here?"

"She's here to make sure I don't kill Lee." Kiba barked back at the Hyuga to shut him up as quickly as possible, then turned to the still jumping Lee. "Are you ready to get your ass kicked?"

The kid in the green clad monstrosity actually laughed at Kiba. And that's when the Inuzuka decided that he'd had enough.

Quickly, Kiba shrugged off his jacket and stretched his arms out. His clothes weren't designed for fighting like Lee's own. But his arms weren't covered in cloth and his pants were loose enough. He knew how to maneuver under these conditions.

With his eyes narrowed and his lips in a scowl, the teenager stepped forward. And soon enough he and Rock Lee were circling one another.

The bowl haired kid was moving in a way that read of surety and analyses. He was most probably waiting for Kiba to make the first move so he could counter. And he was undoubtedly expecting a quick victory.

But this wouldn't be the first kung fu fairy Kiba had ever fought. And he wasn't about to fall into his 'trap'. Because it certainly wasn't if Kiba could read it so clearly.

"Come on, Dog Breath! Why won't you fight me?"

Kiba's scowl became an outright glare at the taunting coming from Lee. And just when he was about to move to strike, deciding to forget any kind of waiting to just kick the crap out of this bitch, he heard a sudden shout.

"Stop! Don't fight!"

Kiba was surprised by the sudden shout. It was a female's. And because of years of always paying attention to what the women around him shouted at him, Kiba turned his face to look to where the shout had come from.

He never saw the attack coming. He was too focused on the blonde teenager running towards them with blue eyes widened in fear.

Suddenly, before he could truly take note of what was going on, a fist connected with the side of his head. And in a quick succession, he found an arm wrapping around his neck and pulling him into Lee's body.

The bastard was trying to choke him!

With a growl of frustration and anger, Kiba tensed up his body, grabbed the arm around his neck with both his hands, and began to formulate a plan. Faintly, he noted a new touch by his right side. But he didn't think much of it, for that was most probably Lee trying to pull another trick.

As quickly as a snake strike, Kiba pulled his right arm back with as much force as he could to elbow the bastard. But the scream he heard wasn't the one he thought it would be. Instead, it was female.

Both he and Lee froze at the same time. And when Kiba turned to look at who he had hit, he felt his heard drop.

Ino was clutching at her face with both hands.

"Ino! Shit, I'm so sorry!" Kiba immediately moved to run towards the girl, already feeling guilt and disgust beginning to well up inside of him for having hit a girl.

Lee's arms dropped from around him as soon as Kiba began to move, apparently being smart enough to know that he'd gone too far.

But right when Kiba was about to reach Ino, the girl's hands flew away from her face to reveal a reddened and teary right eye. "God dammit, you dumbasses! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Do you want to get expelled?!"

Kiba's worry immediately stopped. And it only became guilt and regret when Ino went on a huge tangent about the trouble they would get into if Principal Morino found out about this out of school fight.

He'd never felt more like shit before. But he'd hit a girl. All because he'd allowed Lee to get the better of him...

Fuck... He was a screw up...

~/~

After he'd accidentally hit Ino, Kiba didn't want to face either Tobirama or Hashirama. He just knew that they would know what he'd done. He didn't know how. But he was pretty fucking sure that both men would know about his major screw up no matter what.

So he went back to wandering around the streets for a while. He didn't visit the usual places he would have gone, like that one dilapidated bowling alley where all the junkies hung around so he could try and steal some of their shit to sell forward. And he didn't go to that skate park where all the stoners went to trade beers and stories. He didn't want to go back to his old life. But he couldn't face the new one either. So... He just walked.

Akamaru accompanied him quietly, offering a silent kind of comfort that only he could give.

Dogs were usually better than humans. Dogs didn't question motives. They didn't ridicule for wrong decisions. They just loved and understood... They were a thousand times better than some of the humans Kiba had ever met.

As he walked past an abandoned laundromat on the edge of the city for what seemed like the tenth time, Kiba heard his name being called. And when he turned to look inside, he found his old partner in crime, Hidan, heading his way.

Hidan used to run around with him and his sister a couple of years ago. Along with him and a few other delinquents, Kiba and Hana had 'run' their area as the Wolf Pack. But one by one they had all left without a single trace, meaning that their Wolf Pack had eventually become a duo. Then Hana had gotten pregnant and only Kiba had been left... And he'd become the lone wolf he still saw himself as.

"Fuck! It's good to see you again, you stupid son of a bitch!" Hidan smirked almost evilly as he threw his arms out to hug Kiba.

And even though Kiba had no idea how to react to suddenly seeing this man again, he allowed himself to be hugged. Akamaru sat down a few feet away from both humans to look at them, as if silently wondering if he should attack Hidan or just stay put.

"It's been a while..." Kiba murmured quietly against the elder's chest, dumbly raising his right arm to pat at the silver haired man's shoulder.

If he remembered correctly, Hidan was about a year or two younger than Hana. So he had to already be in college... If he'd chosen that path, of course... Maybe he'd ended up becoming a priest like he had always raved on about doing when they had been younger.

"When I heard you and the bitches had moved away I thought I'd never see you again, mutt." Hidan pulled away to look Kiba over, then nodded to himself. "At least you're not starving anymore."

"Hey! I was just a scrawny kid... I didn't starve."

Hidan rolled his eyes and ruffled Kiba's hair, making the teen move away and slap his hands away.

It was such a familiar feeling... And just like it had so many years ago, Kiba felt his heart flutter at Hidan's touch.

"Whatever, mutt." Hidan rolled his own eyes, then moved so he wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders. "Why don't you and I head on over to that one restaurant you loved so much? You know, the five star one with all the greasy burgers and soggy fries?"

It made no sense to feel so okay with Hidan. But Kiba felt just like he had years ago, before Hana had gotten pregnant and all of his friends had left. He felt good.

"Oh, you mean the one where you shit your pant-"

"Shh." Hidan interrupted immediately by covering Kiba's mouth up, then smiled down at him. "Let us go down to the fuckingly amazing shit hole then."

Kiba's heart began to beat loudly just like it used to do back when they had been children and still ran around as if they were in control of the streets they lived in. But he didn't really think much about it, just like he hadn't back when he'd been a kid.

~/~

Oddly enough, Tobirama and Hashirama didn't tell him anything about the fight. If they knew, they'd remained quiet about it. Because Kiba found it hard to believe, in a childish sort of way, that they hadn't heard about the fight at all. He was sure they had. But they'd just chosen to keep quiet after he'd ended up groveling at Ino's feet to get her to forgive him.

But they did question him as to why he had decided to go back to hanging around a lot by the 'bad side' of town. To which he answered that he'd found an old friend that he wanted to visit.

Hashirama had smiled at the prospect of meeting one of his friends and asked him to invite Hidan over.

Tobirama had just frowned.

So Kiba and Hidan one day wound up accompanying the small Senju family to a little picnic that Jiraiya's parents had set up.

At first Hidan didn't feel like going. He'd never been one for family. Being an orphan adopted by a surly old man that was (apparently) not in the picture anymore hadn't helped him grow any kind of fondness for family activities. But he'd ended up deciding to go when Kiba had told him that there would be free food. Because if there was anything all college students loved (because he was currently attending college, a second year), it was free food.

The older male was awkward around kids. Even as a child, he'd been bad at dealing with people younger than him. But he didn't have to deal too much with Tsunade, so Hidan didn't screw up too badly. Just a little by cursing in front of her. But that was a mistake that was quickly rectified by Tobirama scowling at him and warning the young girl off from ever repeating the word.

As Tsunade ran around with her white haired friend and a black haired kid Kiba could faintly remember having seen before, the rest of their small group sat on top of a picnic table. Hidan was munching on some of the little sandwiches he had snagged from Jiraiya's mother as he answered some of Hashirama's questions.

"I'm studying criminology."

"Really? Why's that?"

For a second, Hidan seized up and his whole composure became strained. But soon enough he relaxed his body and gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. "Only thing I found interesting..."

Kiba immediately knew that this was a lie. They hadn't talked about what he was studying, but Kiba knew that if Hidan was trying to end up working in a field like this, then he had a real reason for studying it. A personal one. But Hidan had always been the kind to shy away from talking about his own life most of the time, so he was also aware that the older male wasn't the kind to talk if pushed.

They'd just have to wait and see if he ever told them the truth.

"Alright..." Hashirama murmured after a few seconds of Hidan munching away at his food, then turned to Kiba, "Have you finally decided to allow Tobirama to train you for next year?"

"Yeah." Kiba nodded, "And, yeah. If you guys think I'd be good at running, I can train or whatever."

Tobirama huffed softly from beside Hashirama as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Then you will have to start as soon as possible. And we shall be meeting during the early morning so that this does not interrupt with my job."

Tobirama, Kiba had found out, was a kind of grumpy man. Even when things went his way, he didn't seem all that happy. But Kiba didn't mind that too much. His mom was just the same.

"Sure thing, old man."

..~..~..

Hope you all liked this brand new chapter!