Author's Note: Oh my gosh!! I haven't updated in forever!! I'm so sorry!!! School basically ate me with time and papers, and homework… Plus, I've been kind of lazy so… gets whacked on the head by Guy Bad Ryu! Bad, bad, Ryu! You don't get lazy! rubs head Ow… So, anyway, I'm hoping that I can get four icons put together for the anniversary. Hope you like them! I'll be doing a Super Special Author's Note for it too. Happy reading!!

-Ryu

Darn the Dog

A week had passed since the night in which Kiba had come to Ryu's rescue. Him feeding her that night had made her think a lot to when she first came to the village. She had been in the village for about two months. So much had happened since then it nearly made her head spin thinking about it all. After her month of training was done, that would make it three months.

This was what she was thinking about on an early Thursday morning. She wasn't exactly looking forward to training with Neji today; he had nearly kicked her ass too many times for her to count already. It had only been the first three days of training with him, and everything was still sore from their many bouts on Saturday. It seemed Neji didn't have a merciful bone in his body as he insisted on fighting round after round with her, pulling new moves out to finish every fight. A frustrated and angry Ryu was finding it hard not to scream at him what she really thought of him when she couldn't beat him.

To sum it up, she had been training with Neji for only three days, and she already wished he would drop dead right in front of her. But the slightly daily visits from Kiba brightened her mood. Since it seemed they wouldn't be able to do anything together until after the chunin exam, he had decided to pop in on her at odd times of the day, usually around breakfast or lunch time. So she wasn't too surprised when she answered her door to find a breathless and disheveled Kiba that morning.

"Hey, Kiba-"

"He's gone!!!" he suddenly wailed. Ryu blinked.

"Who? Who's gone?" she asked as he trudged in to sit on her couch.

He looked at her, his face full of anguish. "Akumaru!! I can't find him anywhere!! He's completely disappeared!!!" he explained to her, nearly panicking completely.

Ryu couldn't believe it. Akumaru was missing? How was that even possible when he went everywhere with Kiba? She'd have to ask these questions after she got a hyperventilating boy to calm down. She sat next to him.

"Okay, Kiba? Kiba, look at me," she said. He looked at her with wide eyes.

"What?!"

She sighed. "You freaking out isn't going to help us find Akumaru. Tell me exactly what happened." she said in an even and smooth voice.

Kiba took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm himself down.

"Okay! Um… Uh… We were walking over here a little bit earlier this morning through the intersection between the restaurant district and the shopping district. You know where that is, right?" he explained. She nodded her head and he continued.

"And-and for some reason there was a crowd this morning, and we- at least I thought it was we- went through the crowd. But when we-I got out, Akumaru wasn't there anymore!"

Kiba nearly started hyperventilating again as he recounted his frantic search for the puppy. Ryu then had to get him to calm back down as Raikera and Al came over to see what was wrong. Ryu stood up.

"Alright, Kiba, let's go look for him," she said. Kiba took another calming breath.

"Right," he said. He then thought of something. "but what about your training? Don't you have to be there?"

Ryu shrugged. "It's not like I'll be missing much. Neji's just using it as an excuse to beat the crap out of me anyway." she said as they headed for the door. Kiba blinked.

"He's what?"

But Ryu ignored him as she called Al over.

She kneeled in front o the orange tabby. "Al, do you think yo can help look for Akumaru too?" she asked him.

He rubbed her knees in a visual way of saying yes. On the way down the stairs, Ryu caught sight of Lee heading down the street.

"Lee!" she called to him. He saw her and ran over to her.

"Good morning, Ryu-kun; Kiba," he said, acknowledging the boy with a nod.

"Akumaru's gone missing," she said to him. "I'm not going to make it to training today so I can help Kiba look for him. Can you tell Neji?"

Lee nodded once more. "Yes, but I don't think he's going to be too happy when he hears that." he said.

Ryu rolled her eyes. "What else is new?" she said. They started to walk away and Lee started on his way to training.

He would never understand the tension between Neji and Ryu. They just didn't seem to get along at all. Ryu and Kiba headed to the intersection where Kiba had first lost Akumaru. The two teens started to search the intersection from one side to the other, checking under carts and on top of walls for the puppy. Ryu and Kiba questioned different vendors, but no one had seem to have seen a tan puppy with with black markings around his eyes. After an hour of searching the square, the two teens met up once again.

"Find anything?' asked a tired Ryu.

Kiba shook his head.

"I just don't know where he'd go," he said, despairing a little.

"Okay, um…" Ryu thought a moment. "If we split up, we'll cover more ground. You go to the restaurant district and I'll go to the shopping district since I know my way around there. We'll meet at the intersection with the building with the big fishes on top of it. Okay?"

Kiba nodded. It sounded like good idea. "Alright," he said.

The both of them went their separate ways. With Kiba's strong nose guiding him through the rich scents of the restaurants, he could catch faint traces of Akumaru. He followed these and questioned people along the way. He stopped in restaurants that he knew Akumaru liked to sniff in to make sure he hadn't wandered in. The stray thought of a vendor cooking dog meat gave him chills.

Ryu, however, did not have Kiba's nose, but had god hearing. She kept her ears open for Akumaru's barks and whines. She also questioned the shop keepers and vendors she knew that were always out at that time of morning. She went into pet stores to check if he had been found and dropped off there. But she wasn't able to find any leads.

She looked down alleys and under discarded wood piles. She looked up at a certain point and saw KOnkuro's legs dangling from a porch. Oh yeah, they live around here… she thought.

"Konkuro!!" she shouted to him.

His legs gave a jerk and looked over the railing. His eyes landed on her.

"Oh, hey Ryu." he said.

"Have you seen Akumaru? He's missing." she asked. He shook his head.

"No, sorry. But I'll keep an eye out for him." He said to her.

"Thanks!"

She walked away and Konkuro looked inside as Temari asked him who he had been talking to. She walked around the district some more, stopping in at the crabby ramen cook's place to question him, and then moved on. She sighed as she came out of the district to the huge tiled building with the fish statues on top. She walked over to the building and leaned on it to wait for Kiba. She hoped he had had better luck than she had.

"Ryu!!!"

She looked to see Kiba come skidding out of the restaurant district. He was running, waving his arms in the air as he did. But what he was shouting wasn't what she had expected.

"Run!! Go! Go that way!!" he shouted to her while pointing behind her.

He ran to her, grabbing her hand as he went, and started pulling her with him. Ryu nearly fell flat on her face before catching up with his speed as he pulled.

"Ack! Kiba! Why are we running?!" she asked him, trying not to trip.

"Don't ask! Just keep running!!"

He ran harder as a series of barks and woofs were heard behind them. She looked back to see a pack of pursuing dogs behind them. She gave a small shriek, and ran as fast as she could. If she could outrun a raging tree guardian, hopefully she could outrun a pack of angry dogs.

Ξ

About twenty minutes and lots of close calls with sharp teeth later, both Ryu and Kiba were sitting on a dirt road, panting for all their worth. Ryu took a gulp of air before trying to speak.

"Wh… What was all that about?!" she gasped. Kiba shook his head.

"I don't know!! I got Akumaru's scent and followed it to an alley…"

He paused to get a bottle of water out of his pack. He took a couple gulps and then handed it to Ryu. She didn't really care about him drinking from it; it was water and she was thirsty! As she drank, he continued.

"And once I got into the alley, those dogs jumped me. So I got out there and started running. I don't know what I did, but they must of thought I was intruding on their territory or something…"

Ryu handed the water bottle back to him, half empty. She then flopped onto her back, her chest rising and falling like she had run a marathon. Kiba looked at her, a little worried, but his attention was drawn to the sliver of pink skin that had been revealed to be Ryu's stomach. Her stretch had lifted her shirt up a little. What the hek was on her skin?

His curiosity and concern overran his common sense and embarrassment as he bent forward to look more closely. Ryu looked up a little to see Kiba looking like he was going to kiss her stomach.

"Uh… Kiba?" she asked, a little freaked out. "What are you doing?"

He looked at her. "What are these things on your stomach?" he asked, poiting.

"Huh?"

Ryu sat up, and pulled her shirt up a little. That was when Kiba blushed. She looked at her stomach and part of her ribs, the bones nearly visible from her weight. There were little pink nods on her skin. She touched one.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed, pulling back at the sudden spike of pain that the motion brought forth.

They looked like hives, but hives didn't feel sore when you touched them. Kiba looked a little closer, still blushing a little. He looked at her.

"You said you were training with Neji, right?" he asked. She let her shirt fall back down.

"Yeah. What about it?" she asked.

That raised red flags to Kiba immediately. He recognized everything now from Hinata's fight with Neji. He wanted to rip that boy in half. Just what did he think he was trying to pull?!

"That's Neji's handiwork," he said, pointing to the pink nods. "His family's style targets the chakra system and blocks chakra points by hitting them. Neji's hit you so many times, your chakra points are completely blocked in some places. Didn't he tell you that?"

Ryu shook her head. "He didn't say a word. He just told me to dodge him as much as I could." she said. Kiba wanted to growl.

"Ugh! That idiot!" he nearly shouted. He looked back at her. "Ryu, you've got to take a break from Neji. If a lot of your chakra points get blocked, you could die."

"Die?!" Why the hell didn't that pale-eyed freak tell me then?!"

"I don't know!! Something's been wrong with him since the day I met him! He did this with Hinata too!"

Ryu groaned while flopping down again. Her dislike toward Neji flared into a hatred. Was he seriously trying to kill her? And if what Kiba said was true, how come she hadn't felt anything? Usually her body would start to freak out if something like that was happening. She was going to give Neji a piece of her mind the next time she saw him, if Guy wasn't there. If he wasn't, then she was envisioning several acts of violene she could choose from to get her point across to Neji. She sat up, and started to get up.

"Well, come on. The sooner we find Akumaru, the sooner I can go yell at Neji to stop using his chakra-blocker-thinger on me."

"Gentle Fist." Kiba interjected as he got up.

Ryu looked at him. "Gentle what?' she asked.

"Gentle Fist. It's the Hyuuga style of fighting." he said. "Hinata uses it too."

No sooner had he said that, Kiba wished he had shut his mouth. But it was common knowledge around here. At least it was to people who had grown up in Konoha, unlike Ryu. Even then, he had just given knowledge to Ryu on who might be her opponent in the final exam. I'm an idiot... he thought guiltily.

That's when it made sense to Ryu. Neji hadn't said anything so it wouldn't give her an advantage to her on Hinata. But still... If his attacks could kill her, he should of warned her! She turned to look at Kiba, but her attention was drawn completely away from him.

"Ooooh!" she squealed. Kiba froze.

'What?! What?!" he said, trying to figure out what he had done.

Ryu started jumping up and down. "Look! Look!" she said happily.

He turned around to see what she was pointing at. It was a field of sunflowers. She ran pst him, and over to them. They towered over her as she looked at them, completely beaming at the bright flowers. She back at him.

"I haven't seen sunflowers since I came here!!" she said excitedly.

He walked over. "You like them?' he asked. She nodded.

"They're my favorite!"

"Oh..."

He stowed that fact away in his head for another time. Right now they needed to find Akumaru. A yowl was heard down the road. Ryu turned to see Al running down the road to her. A familiar pack of dogs was behind him.

"Oh crap!!"

Ryu ran forward, grabbed Al, and then ran with Kiba to get away from the dogs once again. They ran into the sunflower field to try and lose them, but it didn't seem to help. Ryu yelped as a snout came too close for comfort. They ran together for a couple more minutes before Kiba looked behind them to see only one dog chasing them. He stopped, skidded around Ryu, and stopped in time to deliver a punch to the dog's nose,

The dog let out a high-pitched yelp, and ran in the opposite direction. He looked back at the wheezing Ryu.

"Piece of cake!" he panted.

Growls were then heard around them. Ryu clung to Al, edging closer to Kiba. It sounded like they were surrounded. Al tried to climb into Ryu's shirt he was so scared. A couple of sharp barks sent Ryu to Kiba's side, almost hiding behind him. Her light quivering told him she was pretty scared.

"You work with dogs, right? " she whispered to him. "Can't you do something?!"

"Not exactly," he whispered back.

More barking was heard and then the dogs jumped out of the stalks in a circle around them. Al then did jump inside her shirt as two dogs jumped right in front of Ryu, separating her from Kiba. She sent him a fearful look. He tried to get into some kind of stance to ward off the dogs. He could at least try to protect Ryu; with her chakra the way it was, he wasn't sure if she could use her wind to get away.

The dogs growled on either sides, the ones in front of him salivating. Kiba tried to get as close to Ryu as he could. It looked like the dogs were getting ready to jump on them. Suddenly, a whirl of cloth and wood jumped right in front of them, clattering like teeth on ceramic. Ryu screamed, and fell over.

The creature whirled, sending the dogs running by the sudden intrusion of their attack. Kiba let out a held breath, recognizing the almost unrecognizable mass of wood, hair, and cloth. It was Konkuro's scarecrow. He looked to Ryu, and in seeing her limp form, ran over to her.

"Ryu?!"

She was completely and absolutely out cold.

Ryu moaned as she came to. She saw Temari, Konkuro, and Kiba leaning in to see her face. Konkuro smiled.

"Hey there! Did ya' sleep good?"

She groaned as she sat up. She rubbed her head. "What happened?" she mumbled.

"You fainted," Kiba said in short explanation.

She heard a familiar bark, and Akumaru suddenly jumped into her lap. She laughed.

"Akumaru!" she said as she grabbed him. She gave him a small hug before the puppy started to lick her cheeks.

She looked at Konkuro. "When did you find him?" she asked.

"After you told me Akumaru was missing, I sent Crow out to look for him," he said, pointing at the heap of wood and cloth that was set on a stool in a corner.

Ryu felt exceptionally stupid then; she should have recognized the puppet from the preliminaries. Instead she had freaked out and fainted. Then again, considering the conditions, she was too surprised. Al leapt onto her lap as Akumaru jumped off to go to Kiba. The boy picked his companion up and the puppy scrambled onto his head.

Ryu looked around the apartment. "Where's Gaara?" she asked.

"He's still out training with Baki," said Temari. "Do you want something to drink? You don't look too good…"

Ryu said yes and the two girls started to talk. Konkuro motioned for Kiba to come with him onto the porch. Once out, he looked at him.

"Okay, I've saved your ass twice now; you owe me an explanation." The puppet master said. Kiba gave him a confused look.

"An explanation for what?"

"I saw you leaning over Ryu through Crow on the road," Konkuro said plainly. "What the hek were you doing?'

Kiba immediately blushed. "I-it's not what you think!!" he said quickly. "You see… Uh… Neji's training her right now and she's getting all these bruises from it on her chakra points. I was just taking a look at them."

Konkuro rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure you were…"

Kiba turned even redder. "It's true!!!" he insisted. "It's dangerous for her to be running around like that! She didn't even know about them until I saw them!!"

"Alright, alright! I rest my case!" Konkuro said, holding up his hands. "No need to flip out on me."

Kiba looked out across the view, his blush fading. "And even then, if I did feel that way about her, I would of told her by now," he said, sounding serious. "I'm just a friend."

Konkuro shrugged. "Well… You're lucky she's not my age. I would of jumped on her by now if she was," he said, taking a stick of gum out. Kiba looked at him, exasperated.

"Wha-?! Then what the hek's stopping you?!" he said, a little perturbed by this fact. "The way Temari chases Shikamaru around, what does age have to do with anything?"

The puppet master shrugged once more. "That's a different story… I'd feel like I was robbing the cradle or somethin'…" he said as he chewed.

The fact that a certain red head would want to murder him if he made any moves on Ryu kept him away too. He just didn't say anything to Kiba. And even then, Gaara wouldn't even admit it to himself, never mind to Ryu, that he liked her in a more affectionate way. If his instincts were correct that is, but he might be completely wrong… So Konkuro just chewed on his gum as Ryu said she had to go.

Kiba left with her, stewing over the strange conversation he had with Konkuro. What a strange day it had been for the both of them…