Hey guys sorry it took so long I really don't have an excuse, I just didn't take the time to write and instead did other things with my time. Well enjoy this chapter to its fullest and I'm already working on the next chapter, but who knows how long I'll take to finish that one lol, enjoy.
It was past noon when they arrived back in the village, and about two hours after that they were finished with the Hokage. The two of them were walking around the village, not entirely sure what to do next.
Kiba worried about Maeko, he knew she wanted to go back to her apartment and see if Gobi was still there. Among other thoughts, he was thinking about her hair. He was no hairstylist and thought it would be good if someone else fixed it. "Hey, let's take a detour." Kiba said as he took Maeko's hand and led her down the street into a flower shop.
A bell rang as they walked through the door, and the blonde girl at the counter perked up for a moment, than almost instantly deflated. "I almost got excited. What can I help you with, dog boy?"
Maeko recognized the girl from the day she came to the leaf village. "Oh, you know how I love to come visit you Ino." Sarcasm hanging on every word. "Anyway, we're not here for me."
Ino straightened up and looked over Kiba's shoulder. "Is that Maeko? I didn't even recognize you... what happened to your hair?"
"That's why we're here. We just got back from a mission, and well, that happened." He pointed at Maeko's hair.
"You don't have to tell me twice." She moved out from behind the counter and stood less than a foot away from Maeko. "Gosh, it looks like someone tried to cut your hair with an axe... and that will never end well."
Kiba stood off to the side, arms crossed. "Well. Can you fix it?" He asked inquisitively.
She gave him a look of disgust. "What are you, an Idiot? Why would I let her leave here looking like this? Dog brains!"
Kiba was an easily offended guy and Maeko knew that. "Oh, you know what?! You're just a selfish AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Maeko grabbed the top half of his face with one hand and squeezed as hard as she needed to.
"If you're gonna say, 'hey let's stop in there', can you at least try NOT to start a fight every five seconds! You're like a child!" Her voice growled with anger, and her face showed it as well.
She let go of his face and he put his hands on the sides of his head. "Ow! Jeez, could you at least try to act like a woman?!"
Maeko grabbed his jacket and pulled him down to her height, face to face. "Are you saying I'm acting like a man?" She asked deeply with an evil glare in her eyes.
Ino stood off to the side awkwardly. "I think you should shut up Kiba, you're just digging yourself into a deeper hole."
He stayed quiet and Maeko let his jacket go. "I'll go wait outside."
He exited the building and leaned up against a wall. "Damn, why's she got be such a" "Hey!" Kiba heard Shikamaru off in the slight distance, and looked up in his direction. "Huh? Hey Shikamaru."
Shikamaru along with Choji approached. "Hey Kiba, what brings you here?" Shikamaru asked with a slight smirk. "Ah, um… you know… girl stuff." Kiba said very sheepishly and out of character.
Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. "Uh, ok. Well listen, a bunch of us are meeting up for barbeque tonight. You and Maeko should come, It'll be fun." Choji smiled upon hearing barbeque. "And plus Maeko hasn't met everyone yet."
"Huh, yeah that sounds great, we'd love to go." Kiba just finished saying as Maeko walked out with Ino. "We would love to what?" She stood just outside the door frame with her hand on her hip.
"Uh, barbeque." He looked at her now short hair, it was above her shoulders about a couple inches below her ears, and she had side bangs. "Oh, um" "We actually have to go now." Kiba interrupted, taking her hand and walking away. "We'll see you guys later." He said holding a hand up waving to them without looking back.
Maeko stared at Kiba burning a hole into the back of his head. "Did you just make plans for me?" She questioned while pulling her arm away from his grasp. Kiba looked back at her without having stopped walking. "We should be more social. Plus you haven't met everyone yet." He looked forwards again. "Now let's get back to your apartment, I know that's where you wanna be right now." Maeko knew what he was talking about, and truth be told she was scared to go back to the apartment, scared that Gobi would be gone and that she would never see him again.
The walk to her apartment was short, and before she knew it they were at her front door. A part of her wanted to go in, but another part of her didn't even want to open the door. Kiba stared at her with his hands in his pockets, noticing that she was feeling indecisive. "Do you want me to stay for a while?" He asked worried about her, Akamaru whimpered next to him.
She looked at the door and then back at him. "I'll be alright. You should go home and get some rest." She said trying to sound convincing, but he could hear how fast her heart was beating. He knew she was scared and didn't want to admit it. "I'll stick around this area for a while so if you need me I'll be around. Just call out, okay?" He said with his hands in his pockets halfway turned around.
"Okay. I'll see you later." She waved with one hand and a half smile on her face that was obviously fake. Kiba turned around with Akamaru and walked down the small hallway and began descending down the stairs. Maeko waited until she could no longer sense him so close to think about opening the door. She unlocked the door and placed her hand on the handle. She sat there for a moment before turning it and opening the door.
Once inside Maeko sat by the door for only moments to take her shoes off, and then slowly walked inside. So far she didn't feel any presence at all besides the one anbu hiding in her ceiling. She turned right towards her bedroom and began walking, not losing hope quite yet.
Kiba decided not to walk around, it was only making him more anxious, so he decided to sit down outside on a bench not too far away from Maeko's apartment. Akamaru whimpered. "I know boy, I'm worried about her too." He thought about what happened earlier with the Hokage.
Kiba and Maeko were getting up to leave. "Kiba, can you stay behind just a moment? I'd like to ask you something." Tsunade ordered rather than asked.
Kiba and Maeko looked at each other and nodded before Maeko left the room, once she was gone Tsunade got serious. "Is there anything going on that I should know about?"
He made eye contact, wanting to seem the most convincing. "No, there's nothing else." He knew telling the Hokage about Gobi would be dangerous for Maeko, and that she would hate him if he told her secret.
Tsunade stared at him for a moment then looked back down at her paperwork. "Good, now get going." Kiba nodded and left the room, rejoining Maeko.
Kiba wondered now why she would ask that question though. Did they seem suspicious somehow? It was giving him a headache so he decided to stop thinking about it, but for some weird reason he couldn't get Maeko out of his head.
Back at Maeko's apartment she was crying, but not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Gobi was there! He decided to stay and wait for her. She was so overjoyed. She made sure not to outwardly show that she was crying so much, because she knew she was being watched but she was happy.
She lied down on her bed and entered her mind where she could talk to Gobi freely. "I'm so sorry Gobi! I was so scared without you and I thought that when I came back you would be gone." She cried while on her knees letting her tears flow out.
Gobi sympathized with her and to better comfort her he changed his form to look more humanoid, and although for a tailed beast it felt degrading, he knew she would appreciate it. His human form was the average male height, he was slender and his skin and hair remained the same snow white color it was. He still had ears and a tail, and his hair was just as long as hers was, if not longer. He wore a traditional kimono and shoes, and if he didn't stand out enough already, his eyes were also the same color, a bright glowing yellow that could break through the darkest night, and although they were fierce and cat like in a way, they were still kind and peaceful.
He got down on his knees alongside her and held her in a warm embrace. She jolted up and looked him in the eyes. "Gobi! Why are you…" The sentence was left unfinished as she already knew the answer. She had rarely ever seen him in that form, maybe once or twice but that was it, and she knew he really didn't like it. She threw her arms around him and they embraced for a couple minutes.
When they pulled away Gobi touched her hair. "What happened there? That couldn't have been a good story." He smiled at her, and she laughed and began to tell Gobi what had happened while she was away. For Maeko, Gobi was the father figure in her life. She never knew her birth father and Gobi has always been there for her, and right now Gobi is all the family she has.
Kiba had waited an hour and a half and then decided to go home. He sat backwards in a chair with his arms resting on the top of it. He rested his head on his arms as he stared at the wall of the kitchen. 'Why can't I get her outta my head?' He wondered, 'It's probably just cause we're together all the time.'
The front door opened and then closed a couple seconds later. Hana walked in the kitchen and stopped. "Oh! I didn't think anyone was home. You haven't really been around lately, except to sleep that is." She stated plainly as she placed some groceries on the table.
Kiba hadn't thought much about it, but she was right. He was almost never home anymore, since he was always with Maeko. "Yeah, I know." He sighed, "Where's Mom?" he asked.
"Oh, she's on a mission right now. What have you been so busy with the past few months?" She inquired.
Months had passed since he had first met Maeko and he had never told his family about it. It made him realize how distant he's been with everyone. "I was assigned a mission. Although I don't see it that way anymore, that's what it is. I was assigned to be on full watch of a rogue kunoichi who's my age, who came to the village and became a konoha shinobi. She came to the village with information on the akatsuki and that was her bargain. So, basically we're teammates now and we spend pretty much all of our time with each other." He explained. "We just got back from a mission and tonight we're going to that barbeque place, and meeting up with some friends. So I dropped her off at her apartment, but I have to pick her up in a couple hours."
Hana stood motionless and speechless. "How come this is the first I'm hearing of this? I'm your sister." She questioned, and Kiba sighed.
"Like I said I haven't had time. I get home and I'm exhausted, so I just go to sleep." Hana kept bugging him with questions. "What's her name? Which part of the village does she live in? Is she a nice person? Do you like her? Does she like you?" She was interrupted by Kiba, "Shut up! Look I'll tell you what you wanna know, but don't bombard me with questions. Okay?" He took a deep breath. "Her name is Maeko. She lives almost a mile away. Yes, she's nice, although she can also be a pain in the ass sometimes. As for the 'like' you're talking about, she's pretty dense when it comes to things like that, so for her I'd say no." He just realized what he had set up for her to say next.
"But you like her?" She looked at his face for an answer, and he looked away and sighed. Kiba thought of her, of Maeko. He thought about how she smiled when he made her laugh. His face flushed a red color and Hana saw it right away. "You do! You do like her!" She smiled so wide and happily.
"Shut up! I – I don't even really know what this is, so just keep quiet about it ok? No blabbing!" He stared at her, until she gave in.
"Fine, but only if you have her come over to the house tomorrow. I gotta see what this girl looks like." She plotted.
Kiba looked at her and tried to think about what it would be like if he took Maeko over here in the day time while his mom was home, then quickly chose to ignore the thought as it would be too unbearable. "Whatever! I'm going upstairs!" Hana didn't say a word as he walked up the stairs. He fumed off in his room for a while, then waited out the rest of his time in there before he had to leave to go pick up Maeko.
Back in Maeko's apartment, she was just finishing up getting ready. "So this 'dinner thing', how long will it take?" Gobi asked as he sat on the bed still in human form.
"I have no idea." She looked at herself in the mirror approvingly before turning around and facing him. "I didn't even really want to go, it was Kiba's idea. I've met most of them anyways."
Gobi looked around aimlessly. "From what I now know, I think it'll be a good opportunity for you to make more friends. I also think that Kiba is thinking the same exact way." He returned his gaze back to Maeko only to see her with wide eyes, and a jaw dropped mouth. "What?" He asked angrily.
She pointed at him. "That coming from you, the one person who's been discouraging me to even speak to another human being, is telling me to make friends?" She stood awestruck on her toes.
"I know I was discouraging in the past, but now it's different because this is our home now!" He shouted angrily then looked away to a wall on the right. Maeko's heart felt warm. 'Our home.' The thought made her happy. Her thoughts were interrupted though when a knock was delivered to the front door.
"Have fun." Gobi gave her a heartfelt smile.
"Will do, and Gobi?" He turned back toward her again. "I could sure get used to this new you." She smiled so wide, her joy was uncontainable. "Bye." With that she ran out of her bedroom, into the living room, and to the front door. Swinging it open she saw Kiba and Akamaru right away. In high spirits they headed to the barbeque place.
"So, is everything alright?" He questioned, hoping she would understand.
She looked at him while they were walking, he with his hands in his pockets and she swinging her arms as she walked. "Huh? Oh, that. Yeah, everything is really great." She was happy she had told him about Gobi. Things would be so much easier to talk about now that he knew.
Kiba was glad things were better with her, and that she was happy, but his mind was still a little heavy on thoughts about Hana asking him if he liked her. Did he? He wasn't sure about it, but everything about Maeko made his heart throb. Does that mean that he likes her?
When they arrived at the restaurant everyone was already there. I big smile spread across Kiba's face. As for Maeko she felt so out of place she only slightly hid behind Kiba as he greeted everyone. She came because she knew that these people are important to Kiba, and she also wanted to become as close with them as they are with Kiba.
They sat down and Kiba was already having a conversation with the people she recognized as Naruto and Shikamaru. She was happy just knowing that he was happy. All the girls sat on one end with her and the other end of the table was the guys. Maeko looked at the people on her end of the table, and she saw Hinata, Ino, Sakura and another girl she didn't recognize. Hinata sat next to her and greeted her.
"Maeko it's so nice to see you again. This is Ino, Sakura and Tenten. Everyone this is Maeko." She introduced with the cutest smile on her face.
"Hello, my name is Maeko Takeuchi. I've met all of you before except Tenten. It's nice to see you all." She smiled a little and bowed her head.
"How am I the only one who hasn't met her? I mean hasn't she been around for a while now?" Tenten pouted.
"I don't know, where have you been?" Ino asked.
"I have been busy with missions like crazy! This is my first break in a long time, and for the next few days I'm just gonna take advantage of it." Tenten put a piece of meat on the grill.
Suddenly, a guy with a god awful bull cut, wearing a green jumpsuit, jumped up and shouted. "BUT IF IT'S FOR THE POWER OF YOUTH HOW COULD YOU REFUSE!"
All of the girls jumped and Tenten got up and pulled him back down into a sitting position while saying. "Shut up and sit down, before you get us kicked out again."
'Again?' Maeko thought.
"BUT KIBA STILL HASN'T ANSWERED MY QUESTION!" He shouted again, and Tenten covered his mouth with her hand.
Kiba laughed and crossed his arms. "You're crazy. There is no way in hell that I will ever do that."
"Ugh. Such a drag." Shikamaru said while leaning his head on his hand.
"I would do it. Kiba's just chicken." Naruto egged him on.
Kiba raised an eyebrow. "What did you just say?" A smirk grew on his face but he wasn't happy.
"Wait just a minute!" Sakura yelled. "What exactly is going on here?" She asked.
Choji plucked all of the beef off of the grill and shoved them into his mouth. A man in white with long brown hair and eyes of a Hyuga sighed and spoke up. "Lee wants Kiba to do this ridiculous challenge with him."
"It's not ridiculous. I just want Kiba to explore the power of youth." Tears rolled down his face, and fire burned in his eyes.
"Ha ha, no." Kiba raised an eyebrow.
Maeko and Hinata chuckled. Naruto laughed. "You're just chicken."
"If you wanna take it, go right on ahead." Kiba motioned to Lee.
"Fine then I will. You hear that Lee I'll take you on!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Moving on from that, Neji, Lee this is Maeko, my partner." He gestured to Maeko.
"My name is Maeko Takeuchi it's nice to meet you."
"Neji Hyuga, it's nice to meet you too." He smiled slightly.
"Hello my name is Rock Lee, and it is a pleasure to meet you." He said very enthusiastically.
They all finished eating and went out to one of the training grounds
Lee spun around with such intensity, pointing his finger at Naruto. "The challenge is to balance yourself on one hand,"
"Aw come on I thought this was gonna be hard." Naruto complained, crossing his arms.
"But that's not ALL! You must also balance a kunoichi on one of feet that is in the air!" He explained with exuberance.
Naruto placed his hand on his chin and the other on his hip. "Ah I see, in that case Sakura will" "Nuh-uh! Not happening!" Sakura yelled out, with a pissed off look on her face already. "There are four other girls here pick one of them." She said in frustration.
Ino scoot herself in. "Count me out too, I don't want any part of this… but Hinata might."
Hinata already started blushing when Naruto turned to her. "Well Hinata? Will you be my partner?" He grinned like a dork at her. Hinata blushed a tomato red color and nodded.
"And Tenten will be my partner." Lee said with confidence.
"Not this time." Tenten said calmly. "I'm sorry Lee, but you already made me practice this with you before, and I'm not up for another round."
"Tenten!" Lee began to beg but stopped when she gave him the look of death. Lee looked around and the only person left was Maeko. "Maeko!"
"Huh? What?" She questioned trying to follow all of the conversations around her.
"Be my partner or I shall be doomed to fail!" Lee begged.
"Uh, well I guess." She answered meekly, while Kiba and the others watched the situation play out.
"Hooray! We shall be Victorious!" Lee took her by the hand and pulled her away.
Later in the evening, the village was dark and Kiba and Maeko walked the path home. "I can't believe you accepted his offer."
"It was so sudden, I didn't know how to respond." She defended.
"So you just accepted?" He raised his eyebrows and smirked at her.
"Oh shut up!" She said trying to make herself sound angry when she really wasn't.
"Okay, okay. Just tell me one thing?" Kiba asked.
"What?"
"Did you enjoy it? You know hanging out with everyone?" He wondered.
"Oh," She smiled. "it was really fun. I had a great time." Maeko looked up and saw a shooting star. She had seen so many shooting stars over the years but they never ceased to amaze her. "Did you see it? There was a shooting star." She said excitedly with a smile on her face.
Kiba sighed. 'It's gonna happen one way or another.' "Hey?" He called out.
She turned to him, with her hands behind her back. "Yeah?" She asked.
He took a deep breath and avoided eye contact. "Do you wanna come over to my place tomorrow and hang out maybe have dinner and stuff?" A light blush appeared on his face as he asked. "But y'know you don't have to if you don't want to." He got out nervously.
Maeko smiled. "Of course, why wouldn't I want to come over? I mean it's about time" She smiled and nudged him with her elbow.
Just then they had reached the stairs that led up to Maeko's apartment. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow Kiba." She turned around and started climbing the stairs, when she suddenly turned around. "Wait!" She yelled and Kiba and Akamaru stopped walking. "I had a lot of fun today, your friends are great."
Kiba smiled. "They're your friends now too." He waved to her and began walking away again.
Once Maeko was inside, she flopped on the bed and smiled. 'I have friends'
"Looks like you had a good day." Gobi said as he appeared.
"I did! I made lots of new friends today Gobi." She smiled and sat up. "Oh, and I'm going over to Kiba's house tomorrow."
"Really? He invited you?" Gobi asked.
"Yeah." She answered.
"You do realize what that means, right?" He asked her.
"Hmm? What are you talking about?" She wondered.
"Pft." He chuckled.
Maeko's brow furrowed. "What? What does it mean?! Why are you laughing?!" Maeko truly didn't understand what he was talking about.
"You really are dense Maeko, but it doesn't matter right now. Get some sleep." He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Maeko fell asleep frustrated, but when she awoke the next morning she completely forgot about it. It was nine seventeen so she got up showered, ate food, and did her morning routine. When she had looked in the mirror she realized that she really didn't like short hair, but that it was easier to deal with.
She decided to wait outside for Kiba to arrive, which only took about ten minutes. They talked and laughed and went to a couple of shops to waste some time on their way to Kiba's house. They reached a path surrounded by trees, and began to walk through it. Maeko couldn't help but be amazed by how beautiful it looked in there. All of the leaves were changing color for the season, some of which had already fallen on the dirt path they were walking on. The light shone through the trees in little spots. It was beautiful. They reached the end of the path and a large field was revealed with trees surrounding it on all sides and a large patch on sunflowers on one side of it and a house and barn on the other.
"This is where you live?" Maeko asked in wonder.
"Born and raised." He answered.
"It's so beautiful." She replied.
He watched her look at everything and smiled. "Come on." He took her hand and led the way. As they got closer to the house Akamaru ran ahead and some other dogs came out. Maeko's smile grew more and more. "I wanna show you something." Kiba led her over past the house to the barn and pushed the door open a little farther. He put his arm out as if saying 'go ahead in'.
As she entered the barn she saw not too far away a large female dog and seven puppies. She looked back at Kiba with the largest smile on her face, and he moved forward first with her in tow. He crouched down to the floor and picked one of the puppies up. She sat beside him and he handed her the little dog.
"They're about four months old now, and we're gonna start training them soon." A puppy started biting at Kiba's pant leg.
"Gosh, I haven't seen a puppy this small since… a long time ago." The puppy in her lap laid there, happy for the attention.
"When?" Kiba wondered.
"Oh I had a dog a long time ago, but… she's gone now. She died protecting me." Maeko said and her face fell sad for a few moments.
"I didn't know that." he said.
"Hey, hey, hey! I saw you guys walk by." Hana walked in, and Kiba and Maeko stood up. "Well? Introduce me." She looked at Kiba threateningly.
"Maeko this is my sister Hana, Hana this is Maeko."
"It's nice to finally meet you, Maeko." Hana said "Kiba's not around much anymore so yesterday was the first time I had ever even heard of you."
"Um, It's nice to meet you too." She said quietly, and just stood there awkwardly.
"Well let's head on inside." Hana said and started walking towards the house.
"Sorry. She's sort of mad at me for not being around much." Kiba explained as they started walking out as well.
"It's okay, I understand." Maeko replied.
As they stepped into the house Kiba instantly smelled something familiar, or rather someone. "Ey, lady up in the house." A man who looked about Kiba's age was sitting on the couch got up and came over to Maeko. "Hey pretty thing, what you doin in a place like this?" He leaned on the kitchen table, and Kiba shoved him away from her.
"Hana, care to explain why he is here?" Kiba was pissed. "I thought I said no blabbing."
Hana's face contorted a little. "Well, ya see. He was already here when you had told me about her, so technically I didn't blab at all. He did." She pointed to the man in the room.
"How many people did you tell?" Kiba asked him.
"Come on Kiba, it's me. Who do you think I told?" He paused. "I told everyone."
Kiba clenched his fists and teeth. "You better pray that I don't strangle you to death."
"Oh, you wanna fight me bro?" He said playfully but at the same time seriously. "Bring it on."
The two of them started throwing fists at each other. When Hana yelled, "Take it outside you animals!"
"So who is that?" Maeko asked.
"Oh that's our cousin Keizo, him and Kiba were born three months apart, Keizo being the older one, but they're like brothers." She explained.
"Ah, so why is Kiba so mad?" Maeko wondered.
"Oh that's not important." She said really unconvincingly. "I made sandwiches. You must be hungry?"
"Um, yeah thanks." She took a sandwich and they both started eating.
"So tell me a little bit about yourself Maeko." She said after swallowing a piece of sandwich.
Maeko swallowed. "Well, there's not much to say. I'm not an interesting person." She said as they sat down at the table and looked out the window at Kiba and Keizo fighting.
"I don't believe that. Come on." She nudged Maeko.
"Okay, well I was born and raised for twelve years in the hidden water village. After that I traveled everywhere until I came here." She explained.
"Everywhere?" She was intrigued.
"Yeah you name it, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure, and many more. I've been to a ton of different villages and seen the annual celebrations in each place. It was a good experience, but after a while it gets tiring, so I'm glad I'm here now."
"That's cool. I'll have to pick your brain about that another time." Hana said with a smile.
Just then the boys burst in through the door. "Okay, well all I'm sayin is that you're overreacting, cous."
"Shut up." Kiba said as they came into the kitchen and took sandwiches.
Keizo slid right into the seat next to Maeko. "We weren't properly introduced earlier, I'm Keizo." He held out his hand to shake hers.
"I'm Maeko Takeuchi." She met his hand with hers, and he took the opportunity to bring her hand up to his lips and kiss it.
"Such a beautiful name matches the equally beautiful flower." Keizo glanced over at a steaming Kiba. "You don't mind if I call you Mae? Do you?"
Maeko slightly blushed from the kiss on the hand and the compliment. "I do mind actually. Maeko is my name, so that's what you'll call me." She said stoically unaffected by his attempts.
"Well alright then princess, but do you know what's even more precious than you?" He gave Kiba a devilish look and Kiba sprung towards him. "Kiba's madly in l-" He was cut off as Kiba punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor.
Hana and Keizo could tell how angry he really was by his heart rate and chemicals going through his body, but all Maeko could tell was that he was angry.
"Okay man I get it I'll shut up!" Keizo yelled from the floor as he held his face.
"What's going on in here?" A woman yelled from the other room of the house where the front door was.
Kiba looked at Hana with wide eyes and fear. "I thought you said she wouldn't be home for another week?" He whispered.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too." She whispered back. "Mom, what are you doing home so early?" Hana said as she stood up and greeted her as she entered the room.
Keizo got up off of the floor. "Ah, Kiba you're here in the middle of the day? That's rare." She glanced at Keizo then at Maeko. "And who might you be?"
Kiba stepped in. "Mom this is Maeko my comrade."
She looked over at Kiba. "Did I ask you? No, I didn't." She said coldly and returned to looking at Maeko.
"My name is Maeko Takeuchi, it's nice to meet you." Maeko said as she kept a straight face.
"Mmhmm." Tsume replied leaning over to look Maeko in the eyes closely.
Maeko stood and stared back into her fierce eyes unafraid of her. Tsume smiled and straightened herself back up. "Tsume Inuzuka." She outstretched her arm to shake her hand and Maeko took it. "I like you kid."
Maeko smiled in reply, while the others were just happy it didn't end in disaster.
Some hours had passed and they had all eaten dinner, Keizo had gone home and they were now sitting on the couch talking.
"Ooh Maeko," Hana called out. "take a look at this." She had pulled out some old photo album.
Maeko looked and it was a picture of Kiba and Akamaru when they were really little. "That's Kiba? But he's so tiny."
"What are you showing her?" Kiba asked, but when he saw what it was he knew he couldn't stop her now and trying to take the album away would lead him nowhere. "Hana put that away." He said demandingly.
"Nope" Hana replied. "That's when we first gave Akamaru to Kiba when he was seven." Kiba sat across the room steaming slowly.
Hana flipped the page, and there was a picture of Kiba even younger than he was in the last picture and it looked like he had been crying for a while. In the picture his eyes were all puffy and red, and Hana and his mom were standing beside him. "What happened in this picture?" Maeko asked slightly concerned.
"Oh that was the day Kiba got his fangs tattooed on his face." Hana explained, and Kiba immediately perked up. "He cried like a little baby the entire time."
"Hana!" Kiba yelled as he ripped the book out of her hands, closing it. His face was a bright red, as he stood there in front of them. Hana stood up. "Kiba give that back!"
"No way! Not after you showed her that!" Kiba yelled, as he held the book high above his head so that she couldn't reach it. Suddenly it was ripped from his hands and both Hana and Kiba looked up. Tsume was furious, and hit both of them over the head with the book.
"Sit down and stop yelling!" She roared with her powerfully loud voice, and they obeyed without a word, sitting down on the couch while Maeko just awkwardly stayed where she sat. Eventually things died down and the night fell upon them without them even realizing.
"Goodbye, it was nice to meet you, and thank you for having me over." Maeko bowed, saying goodbye.
"Anytime, come over whenever you want." Hana said with a smile.
They exited the house and Kiba took Maeko back to her apartment. "Thanks for an awesome day." Maeko said brightly with a smile as she stood against the door to her apartment.
Kiba scratched his head and smiled. "Well, I just hope you're not afraid to come back." They laughed a little.
"No, it was great really. Plus… I've learned a few new things." Her smile became devious.
Kiba rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, don't make fun of me now."
"But, b-but, you were so tiny." She made fun and put her hands on her face while making a pouty lip.
"Shut up." He said smiling while trying to hold back laughter.
"I didn't realize how young you had to be when you got those tattooed on your face." Without realizing it she started touching his face, tracing one of the fang marks. When she realized what she was doing she pulled her hand down and coughed. Kiba also lost his composure and tripped backwards in an attempt to take a step back. "Um, how young were you anyway… um when it happened." She lightly stuttered as she stared at the floor for a brief moment.
Regaining his composure, he straightened himself up. "Um, I was three when that happened."
"Wow, you were really young." Maeko said not knowing what else to say as the atmosphere was thick with awkwardness. "Well, uh, it's late so I should head inside and get some sleep." She said turning towards the door and opening it.
"Yeah, I gotta get home too, to uh, sleep. So uh, sleep good." Kiba said awkwardly.
"Yeah you too, goodnight." She said just as awkwardly as she shut the door.
As soon as it closed Maeko leaned against the closed door and put her hands over her face. 'What on earth was that?!' She thought.
As soon as the door closed on Kiba's end he face palmed himself. 'What the hell was that?! Sleep good? Nice one Kiba, awesome comeback from an awkward situation. Just great!' He thought to himself as he started walking away from Maeko's apartment.
The next morning both of them still felt awkward even before seeing each other, but the day was new and they chose to face it with brave faces. Kiba knocked on Maeko's door with all the composure in the world and Maeko answered it with the same composure as him.
"Good morning." She greeted.
"Hey, so guess what?" He immediately started a conversation up.
"What?" She questioned while closing the door behind her.
"We got a mission. We have to head over to go see the Hokage." He said with his usual smirk on his face.
Maeko's face brightened. What new adventure awaited her now?
That's all for this chapter I hoped you all loved it. Sorry it was a bit slow but the next chapter will be super funny (or at least I hope so). Leave a comment below, and add to your watch list for more fun. Merry Christmas everyone and a happy New Year!
-Bittyboo