I needed to introduce Kiba and Eri's kiddies, but then I decided to go ahead and introduce the kiddies puppies.
And here we are.
Eri supposed that it was a little sad that the sounds of fighting and yelling did nothing to affect or worry her as she opened the door to the little home she and Kiba had shared with their sons for the past eight years -in fact it probably was something that actually reassured her. She had no idea what she'd do if the boys were actually quiet. But with each of her three boys having inherited every single one of Kiba's competitive, alpha male, and domineering traits, the sounds of shouts was all too normal.
Hanging her jacket up on the peg by the door Eri decided to go ahead and deal with the little devils before she changed into more comfortable clothes than what she wore for work since all of her boys were slightly intimidated by her when she was in her work mode. Walking through the house to get to the back, Eri sighed at just how loud the boys were being. Even though the Inuzaka were more tolerant of it since they were all just as rowdy, she knew that it would still annoy the neighbors and she did not want another lecture from the elderly lady who lived next door.
She'd punch her if the woman dared to start talking about how her work was keeping her from being a good mother again.
Opening the screen door that led to the tiny little porch, Eri stepped out and watched her three little precious angels for a moment before crossing her arms calmly and imposingly over her chest.
"Boys, what do you think you're doing?" She asked in a cool voice that carried across the yard to the mud pit her three darlings had made with the hose that was still sluggishly pushing out water -and that was certainly something to be worried about since they did not own a hose, and never had.
The eldest of the three boys jerked and froze, stuck in the compromising position of holding tight to the collar of his brother's T-shirt with one fist while the other was posed to strike in the air, the third son watching just a few steps away, waiting for the opportune moment to join the scuffle. Slowly the three boys turned their faces towards their mother, the rest of their bodies frozen under her scrutiny.
They smiled slowly and with the same wild charm that their father had, sharp canines flashing at her as the three boys tried desperately to win their way out of the situation with nothing but smiles.
It wasn't going to happen. Kiba could have easily told them that if he had been there.
Eri raked her eyes over the trio, taking in the mud and grass stains that covered them from head to toe, the shorts that were being worn by two of her children in the chilly November air, though at least Arata had had the presence of mind to pull on now ruined jeans. Katsu had a scratch over his eyebrow while Takashi had a split lip, and while Arata was unmarked she knew that if she hadn't appeared that fact wouldn't have lasted more than a moment.
Wild and untidy looking hair framed three identically sharp faces, two of them sharper with the influence of their father while Katsu's smoother features held more of his mother's influence. Three sets of similarly gleaming dark gray eyes were set in their tanned faces, and had it not been for the softer set of Katsu's face and his lack of the Inuzaka clan markings and Takashi's more demanding and fierce nature, Eri knew that even she would have had a hard time telling them apart. Most still did anyways.
"Ah, Mom, we were just playing." Takashi said, letting go of his brother and helping him up so that the three of them could stand there as a single -and filthy- unit.
"Yes, I know." Eri sighed, knowing it was true. She couldn't really understand it, but for some reason her children bonded with one another by beating each other up. She supposed it was a testosterone infused Inuzaka thing, so she usually left it alone until one of them got seriously injured. Kiba certainly treated it all like it was normal, even joining in for some of the playful tussling at times. "I was asking about the mud, young man. Not only is that not out hose, but it is cold out here and none of you are wearing sufficient covering for how cold it is."
"Sorry." They one by one muttered, looking guiltily down at the ruined ground. Eri sighed and rolled her eyes skyward, moving back to hold open the back door for the trio.
"It's fine. Now take your shoes off before you come inside and go upstairs for a bath. I'll let you get in together, but if you make a mess again," Of course they would, "You need to make sure you clean it up." With a united whoop of joy -at least the boys enjoyed baths, something that made up a bit of the frustration their constant ability to become dirty at the toss of a hat came with- the boys threw their promises back towards her as they hurtled across the house and into the bathroom where they promptly piled into the bath she drew for them in the sizable tub they could practically swim in (a necessity for bathing Akamaru).
Knowing that she didn't want to actually cook anything and also knowing that the boys could probably use something warm after playing in the cool weather, Eri simply got out a couple of cans of soup and poured them into a pot after she had changed into a pair of sweats and one of Kiba's old shirts that she had stolen. A few minutes later the man himself was walking into the house, smiling at her when she looked up at him and the forgive me, I'm too cute written on his expression as obvious as it had been on the boys earlier.
"And where were you?" She asked mildly as he sat down at the kitchen table, watching her make her tea for a moment.
"Hana gave me a call to tell me about a couple litters of pups that are about to be born. She figured that since it's about time to find partners for them it would be a good thing if I came down to start getting everything set up." He shrugged, "So I went down there to check it out. The pups will be born in a week or two, and after another week we'll introduce them and see which ones want each other."
"And if there aren't any dogs that accept one of the boys?" Eri asked as she sat a cup down in front of Kiba before taking her own seat, truly curious but also a bit fearful. She didn't want her boys being hurt anymore than they had to be, and she had a feeling that if they didn't find their partners on the first try they might very well be brokenhearted and feel as if they had let her and Kiba down.
"We'll wait for another bunch to be born. It has happened, you know, and if it does it will be fine. A partner was always found in the end." He assured her. She sighed and nodded, shoving that away to focus on the other question that had been bothering her.
"Alright. But what made you think that leaving our sons alone with a hose was a good idea?" He blinked at her question, his eyebrows knitting slightly in confusion.
"I asked the lady next door to keep an ear on things to make sure that they didn't get too quiet or too loud since I knew that I'd only be gone about five or ten minutes, but I didn't leave them with a hose. I'm not stupid." He sighed, shaking his head. "...What did they do with the hose?"
"Not too much," Eri said, hiding her smile behind her cup, "They just made a mud pit in the backyard and wrestled with each other for a little while, and now they're cleaning up in the bath. Speaking of which, can you go check up on them and make sure they clean everything up while I finish with dinner."
After Kiba had done as she had asked and after they had all eaten, Eri watched each of the boys' faces light up at the fact that they could very soon be getting their own ninken and she couldn't help but smile at their too loud and overly excited questions, and their absolute sureness of their acquiring a partner that made her forget about her reservations.
Eri watched from the window as dozens of puppies wrestled with one another and ran around the enclosed yard of the Inuzaka's veterinary clinic and kennel, keeping one eye on the three boys who were sitting by themselves on a fence separated from each other by about five feet of distance, while the other eye remained on the dogs as she wondered how all of it was all going to work out. There were too many dogs out there and she couldn't figure out how one would suddenly mesh with one of her sons magically.
"Calm down," Hana murmured beside her, watching through the window as well, "It'll happen."
"Okay..." Eri said doubtfully, still unsure. "It's just-" But even as she spoke she saw a ball of white fur with a curled fluffy tail and slightly bent ears bound away from the pack all the other puppies had formed, skidding to a stop in front of Takashi to stare up at him for a moment before yapping at him. Takashi grinned and puffed out his chest a bit at the fact that a dog had chosen him first and knelt down on the ground in front of him. He was just about to introduce himself -something his mother had told him was the best and most polite thing to do when meeting someone new- when the puppy jumped up and bit his nose.
Falling backwards he lifted his hand and covered the bleeding wound, forgetting about everyone else as he glared at the puppy who seemed to be glaring right back at him. Sending it a murderous scowl he growled out, "So that's how it's going to be?" Before launching himself at the little creature.
The three grownups inside watched the scene in shock for a moment before Eri -who had been moments away from checking to make sure her baby was okay, Hana right behind her with her medical knowledge and bandages- turned to Kiba.
"Did he just...?"
"Bite that dog on the nose after it had done the same to him? Yes."
"He... He just bit a dog. Kiba, our son just bit a puppy in revenge. I think that there is something about that that we have to be seriously worried about."
Beside them, Hana was cracking up. "Oh, that's almost as good as Akamaru peeing on Kiba's head when they first met." She snorted, shaking her head before looking at her almost sister-in-law from the corner of her eye. "Stop worrying so much," She told her, "They were probably just trying to figure out who the alpha would be, and I'm pretty sure that Takashi got it. Unlike Kiba."
"What do you mean by that?" Her brother growled, and she smirked at him.
"What I mean is that you're obviously the little-"
"Shh!" Eri interrupted, forcing the siblings to look away and notice that two more dogs were pulling away, both going to Arata.
They paced circles in front of the boy for a few moments, both of them darting towards him to get a good sniff before darting right back, repeating it a few times before they both ultimately pulled away, hurrying back into the safety of the pack of other puppies just before one more broke free to shoot towards the saddened boy, tongue hanging out of its mouth to practically drag behind it, long and pink with a small number of black spots over it. One of its ears was bent while the other stood straight up, its reddish fur sleek and its eyes -not really gold or brown, more of bronze- glowed happily.
The pup finally came to a stop in front of Arata by tripping over it's own paws and tumbling to the ground with a comical expression of shock on its face as it fell that made the boy laugh. When the puppy had finally righted itself it jumped up into Arata's arms, lathering his face with licks and playfully nipping at the slightly curling ends of the boy's hair as it made it evident that he had chosen the boy for his.
Ten more anxious minutes passed before another puppy separated and started towards the boys, heading towards Katsu as if on a leisurely stroll, the two keeping eye contact until the puppy with the pointed ears and pale sable coat with a white underbelly was right in front of him. When the dog sat they retained eye contact for another minute before the puppy rolled onto its back, allowing the now grinning boy to give his stomach a vigorous rub.
"That was certainly anticlimactic." Hana said easily, turning away to go into her little and cluttered office. "Let me just pull their papers, give them whatever shots are left then give you their puppy kibble and we'll be ready to let you go."
Eri nodded and turned to the door as it flew open, banging into the wall behind it as the three boys and the three dogs poured into the room.
"Mom! Mom! Look!" Takashi said loudly, practically shoving the pretty white puppy into her face, "I'm gonna' name it Ginmaru, cus' his fur is kind of silver-ish." He said, proud of his wit, and she smiled at him encouragingly before her attention was caught by Katsu.
"Mine's name is Kinmaru cus' his fur is actually gold, and so is his eyes. And yours' fur isn't silver. It's white." Which of course forced Takashi to whirl around to start yelling at his brother that Ginmaru's fur was silver while their dogs barked at one another angrily. Arata was trying to tell her above the noise that he was naming his Doushokumaru because his eyes were bronze as said ninken raced circles around the group, yapping the whole time.
And Eri watched, realizing that her life was about to get much, much louder.
And there we are. Takashi's dog (I looked up breeds because I have no life and I research like crazy for these fics, which always makes me feel stupid when I miss things) is a samoyed (pretty) and Katsu's is a sable alaskan malamute. Arata's is just a mutt that I modeled somewhat after my mother's dog.
Dogs' names- I decided to go with the color-maru names like in the manga, so I researched! Gin means silver, though giniro means silver color. I thought just the gin sounded better, so that is what I used. The same with the Kin instead of kiniro (gold color), and Doushoku means bronze (I wanted to go with gold/silver/bronze theme, and there wasn'y anything that sounded better).
Thank you, my darlings, for the support of my non-failure-ness. You're all so sweet!
Now, my views on the latest Naruto chapter (spoilers ahead!)-
Yeay! Naruto's dad! That's great. But seriously, Kishimoto? After chapters of lovely NaruHina, you had to throw some frimming-framming NaruSaku in there? (I rarely hate pairings and actually like a couple of weird ones on the account of really good fanfics, but I do not like the NaruSaku pairing.) I hope you remember the threat I made earlier, Kishimoto, because if this goes any further you will force me to book a flight with the magical money that grows on the tree in my backyard, and I will go to Japan and will bite you,
It will be painful.
And then there is the thing with Minato magically having the powers of the nine tails fire form-thing, and then stupid Sasuke came back and said that he'll be HOKAGE?! No. No no no.
It upset me greatly, and I can only hope for better news soon.
Toodles, dearlies!