So, I lied. This story will be a bit longer than I expected. Or about as long as I originally planned – 10 chapters. Maybe. I dunno, depends how I take it. But I'm trying to finish it soon. So um. Yeah. By the way, I don't own the lyrics to Naruto's ringer, and, OMG GUYS I'M IN UNIVERSITY. I feel so old.

Disenchanted
Trusty steed? Check. Royal advisors? Check.
But the princess? She'll take some work.

It was a serious blow to his ego to have not just Hinata, but Naruto – of all people – as well, helping Kiba do what he was put on the planet to do. Read: give the female population at large a goal to reach for.

But a deal was a deal, and Hinata had tried to help him. It was only right that Kiba return the favor. And besides, he was learning all sorts of new things about Sakura.

"She's broken her arm three times. Once, it was because she fell out of a tree. I don't know what she was doing up there – she's scared of heights. And then she wouldn't let anyone sign her cast, and she was always wrapping it with stuff to keep it white, and she would Febreze it…"

"She always had the best marks in her class, after Sasuke—"

"She's a caffeine junkie. Like once, she couldn't get coffee before school, so she drank about six cans of Pepsi. It was awesome—"

"She has a photographic memory. She always knows when someone has been in her room—"

"Seriously anal. She'll freak out if you try and bring food into her room—"

It helped that through all their discussions on Sakura, Hinata was getting so comfortable, enough to forget to be shy around Naruto. She spoke only to Kiba, her face was still red, her voice still soft, but she didn't back down. She was steady and more confident than Kiba had seen her yet, and he had to commend her for that.

But it was getting dark out, and Hinata confessed that she needed to leave.

"My cousin should be here soon, to pick me up," she told Kiba.

"He's super-protective," Naruto added knowledgeably.

Kiba nodded. "Okay. Thanks for your help. And," he snuck a quick glance at an oblivious Naruto, and pasted on an appropriately apologetic expression, "Sorry it didn't work out between us."

Hinata smiled shyly, a little dimple forming in her cheek. She stood up as a car pulled up outside their window. "Good luck," she said earnestly. "I hope I could help."

"You did," Kiba assured her.

"Bye, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata waved, clearly still a bit flustered as she disappeared out the door. Naruto and Sasuke were the only ones left in the café aside from Ami, still behind the counter. She glared at them and barked, "We're closing soon!"

"Jeez. What's her problem?"

"She doesn't take rejection well. Ignore her."

"Huh. She sounds a lot like you." Naruto folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair, appraising Kiba with serious blue eyes. "I'm sure you were expecting this, but humor me."

"Lay it on me."

"Do you honestly like Sakura-chan?"

That was easy. "Yeah."

Naruto leaned forward again, shaking his head. "No, Kiba. Do you like her. Like, for real? Would you hurt her?"

This was getting a little too Dr. Phil for him. Kiba coughed.

"Kiba. I'm helping you because Sasuke doesn't love Sakura." Naruto clenched his jaw. "If you don't either—"

Hold up.

"Who said anything about love?" Kiba choked.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You are such a typical womanizer. Leather jacket, commitment-phobic, wuss," he said, ticking each detail off as he spoke. "And, oh, yeah, going nuts over the girl who doesn't want you."

"Lots of girls don't want me," Kiba said, then winced. Bad wording. "But I don't go after every one."

Naruto didn't look impressed. "Let me put it this way. This," he held up his nearly-empty cut, "is Sasuke. And this," he pulled over Kiba's cup, "is Sakura."

"You know, I wasn't done."

Naruto ignored him and shook Kiba's cup. "Sakura loves Sasuke."

"So I've heard," he muttered. Was everyone out to get him down lately?

"Sasuke takes care of Sakura," Naruto went on, placing the Sasuke-cup protectively beside the Sakura-cup. "Sasuke protects Sakura and understands Sakura. Sasuke, in his way, loves Sakura." He looked up to make sure Kiba understood, picking up Hinata's abandoned cup. "The same way Naruto loves Sakura," he said, jiggling the new cup for emphasis. "With me so far?"

Kiba tried not to roll his eyes. "Could you maybe slow down, sensei?"

Naruto scowled at him, but otherwise acted as if he hadn't spoken. "Sakura wants to be with Sasuke," he said, putting the respective cups side-by-side. "And Sasuke will let her. Sasuke will stay with Sakura all her life if she wants him. But like this." He moved the cups apart so there were a good four inches between them. "Because Sasuke is distant and emo and doesn't love her, and Sakura will forgive him for that."

He glanced around the table, picked up the wrapper from his muffin. "Enter Kiba."

Kiba was horrified. Naruto either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Skirt-chasing jerk, likes Sakura, who likes Sasuke. But Naruto knows that that's never stopped Kiba." He moved around the cups and wrapper accordingly, involved in his little play. "Kiba has to make a decision. Does he like Sakura—" He put his wrapper and Kiba's cup close together for a moment—"Or does he just like her?" He pulled them apart by a half-foot.

Naruto shrugged, finally finished. "The choice is yours."

In response, Kiba reached over for his cup – the Sakura-cup – and drank deeply. When he set it down, Naruto was beaming.

"Atta boy."

-x-

Although, if Kiba was honest with himself, he didn't really have a response to Naruto's question. Plain and simple, he couldn't trust his judgment on girls. Kiba was a flirt, yes, but that had taken years to build up to. He had originally been – had always been – just a sucker for a pretty face.

And there was no denying that Sakura had a very pretty face.

He slid off his bed, stuffed his feet into his shoes, and slipped silently out the door. Naruto was going to bring down the dorm with the way he was snoring, and Kiba planned to be far, far away when that happened.

Ideally, he could find Sakura out on the campus grounds, bathed in moonlight. They would have a heart-to-heart (or mouth-to-mouth, either way…) and deal with this problem. She could be his, and he could either decide how serious he was, if at all, or get some time to do so.

But this wasn't really an ideal situation.

He shuffled out into the cool night air, and thought enviously of his dog, back at home. Akamaru never had to deal with this problem. He was neutered, for one thing.

Stretching quickly, Kiba readied himself for a run. Just once around the track, to get him tired enough to sleep through Naruto's racket.

It wasn't that Kiba wasn't serious about Sakura; it was just that he never got serious about anybody. He went through girls like he went through meals, as horrible a comparison as that was. He was never interested enough, and neither were they. He hadn't even known anyone could feel the way Sakura felt about Sasuke. Needless to say, no one had ever felt that way about him.

But if someone did… if Sakura was in love with him the way she was with Sasuke, Kiba wouldn't turn away. He wasn't Sasuke, nothing like him. If he was in his shoes, he would love her right back. This, he knew.

He jogged to a stop, wiped the sweat off his brow. He was suddenly wired, in spite of his run, and as he walked back to his room, he stopped at a vending machine, considering.

He bought himself two cans of Pepsi.

-x-

The best thing about university for Kiba was his schedule. On his earliest day, he started at nine. On his latest day – today – he started at two. It was a pretty sweet deal, sleeping in until eleven every Monday.

Or, rather, he would be sleeping. If it wasn't for Naruto's damn cell phone. He growled, clapping his pillow over his head. He wasn't going to deal with the stupid thing. Why was Naruto always forgetting it? More importantly, who would call him in the first place? Besides the obvious, there was the fact that Naruto was so loud, you could practically hear him clear across the campus with no aid whatsoever.

The phone quieted as the call went to voicemail, and Kiba sighed.

But then it started again.They see me rollin', they hatin', patrolling they tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty…

Kiba was starting to hate that song. A lot. Fed up, he tossed off his covers and rolled out of bed, making a mess of Naruto's already chaotic desk in an effort to find his phone. Oh, he would pay sorely later, Kiba thought nastily when he looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was only nine! Grumbling as he pulled a shirt on so he could walk out (though he didn't really think any of the girls minded his bare chest…) he flipped the phone open without so much as a glance at the screen.

"What," he said shortly, voice muffled through the fabric of the shirt he was tugging over his head.

"Um… is this Naruto's phone?"

Kiba froze, shirt only half-on. One arm was stuffed into the sleeve, he had only just emerged from the collar, and—

Oh crap!

He fixed his hair absently, then remembered that (a) Sakura couldn't exactly see him, (b) she probably wouldn't care, anyway, and (c) he had yet to even say anything.

"Hello?"

"Uh." Where the hell was his wit when he needed it? Way to charm her off her feet. "Naruto's in lecture."

"He forgot his phone again," she said. Her voice sounded far-away, and Kiba assumed she was speaking to someone else. There was a muffled noise he took as her reply, and realized that the other person must have been Sasuke. Oh boy.

"Could you tell him to call me back, please?" she asked. She was excruciatingly polite on the phone, he noted. Well, he liked nice girls, too. Well, mostly he just liked Sakura…

"No problem." Well, he was certainly outdoing himself today.

"Thanks. It's Sakura, by the way."

He smiled, leaning back against the desk and finally pulling his shirt all the way on. "I know who you are," he said slowly, regaining some of his inherent cockiness.

"Oh." She sounded surprised. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. Who is this?"

"It's Kiba," he said, biting his tongue before he could tack on a not-so-subtle come-on.

Sakura was silent for a moment. "Oh." She cleared her throat and said, dryly, but in a softer voice, so only he could hear, "I didn't know you could speak like a decent human being."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," he couldn't resist saying. "But you could learn."

"Cute," she said flatly. She had lost her earlier sweetness, and was back to being sarcastic, bristly Sakura, as she hadn't been for so long around him. He could imagine her, turned away from Sasuke to hide her blush, rolling her eyes at everything he said. "Just pass on the message, would you?"

"Sure thing," he said, just before she ended the call.

Kiba sighed, dropping the phone back on the desk. He shook his head, replaying the conversation in his mind – until he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror by the door. More specifically, the reflection of the goofy smile on his face. He scowled almost immediately.

God. What was this girl doing to him? Maybe this was what happened when you really liked a girl…? Kiba wouldn't know.

Kiba glanced again at his alarm clock. 9:12. He was never up so early unless he had class. But he could get used to waking up to her voice.

He snorted. He was becoming such a sap. He wouldn't let Naruto know about this. What he would do, however, was pocket Naruto's cell phone when he left the dorm to grab a bite to eat before class. After all, she just might call again. Never before had Kiba waited for a girl to call. He could scroll through Naruto's contacts right now and find her number, ring her up at any moment of the day – but he wouldn't. Sakura didn't want a womanizing man-slut. She wanted a knight in shining armor.

Kiba would do one better. He would be a Prince Charming.

-x-
Just taking that first step to change can be a challenge.
And it's even worse when she doesn't seem to appreciate it.
But trust me on this one; it's worth it in the long run. It is.
-x-