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Chapter 5

Arrival

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Black eyes opened slowly, the owner of them letting out a grunt. Pain shot through his body when he tried to lift himself, so he decided it would be better to just lie down on the bed for the time being. There was a slight sound coming from inside the room, probably someone walking around. His ears could also pick up a steady beeping pattern. After closing and reopening his eyes, he could see a bit more clearly. It didn't take him long after that to realize that something was missing.

"Akamaru!" Kiba shot up in his bed, breathing hard. He noticed a large machine next to the bed, but no small dog. A sharp pain in his stomach forced him to lie down again and clutch his stomach in pain.

"It would be smart to not get up." The figure, a young woman, walked over to the side of his bed. Through blurry vision, he could barely make out her blonde hair and the Suna headband on her neck.

"Where… where am I?" Lifting his hand from his stomach, he could feel warm liquid dripping down off of it. Once his vision came back to normal, he could see that there was blood on his hand.

"Great, now you reopened your wounds." Now, he could see the woman more clearly. She looked only a few years older then him. Quickly, she went into a drawer and dug through it before pulling out some fresh bandages. Making her way back to his bed, she lifted his shirt to reveal blood stained bandages.

Wincing in pain, the memories started floating back to him. "Ah, now I remember! I was fighting that guy with two heads. One of them came into my body and—ah," He could feel her pulling off the old ones and putting something on the wound to stop the bleeding before replacing them with new ones.

"Guy with two heads?" The sand kunoichi let out a chuckle before dumping the dirty bandages into the trash. "You're lucky your friends came when they did. If not, you would've been a goner."

"Friends?" His eyes widened in surprise when he finally remembered who she was talking about. "Those guys! They have Akamaru!" Just when he was about to lift himself off of the bed, she kept him down with a firm hand placed on his chest.

"Oh no, you're staying in bed. Gaara would kill me if I let his 'special guest' out before you're healed." Sighing, she pulled up a chair and sat down on the side of the bed. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment before turning back towards him. "So, what were you saying about the two headed guy before?"

"Yeah, I think Sakon was his name. And his older brother, who kind of lived inside of him, was named Ukon. It was a hard fight, but I managed to get away. I told Akamaru to escape before me and I managed to follow after. I bet those two are still out there looking for me."

"Akamaru's your dog?" He nodded. "And they tried to kill you? Why?" She kept her gaze on him, now very curios about his situation.

"No idea. But," his eyes, full of seriousness now locked with hers, "they were from Otogakure and they mentioned something about Uchiha Sasuke."

Her teal eyes widened at this. "The Uchiha kid?"

Kiba nodded. "Yeah, he was one of my classmates before the war. It's been about two and a half years since he left to Orochimaru."

"And a couple months after that, he launched an attack on us, his allies." She noted while rubbing her temple. "Yeah, that's why. He only agreed to become allies with us against Konoha so he could get Sasuke. And once that was done, he had enough power to go against both of us."

The dog boy again nodded. "Yeah. So, want to answer a few questions for me?"

Looking up at him once more, she nodded. "Depends."

"When you said Gaara, you meant the Kazekage?"

"The one and only."

"Why would he want to see me?"

"You know Uzumaki Naruto, right?"

Shifting a bit in the bed, he nodded. No one could forget him. For most, he was the wake up alarm when they fell asleep or the guy they all laughed at behind their back. But Kiba never did that, he could understand the Uzumaki. There was something about him, he wasn't quite sure what, but Akamaru liked him, so he did too. "Yeah, I know him. He was also one of my classmates."

"Yeah, that's probably why. Kankuro recognized you with those red marks on your face." He flinched as she put her finger on his face and ran down the marking. "Is that face paint or is it real? Kankuro was wondering that."

Pulling back, he rubbed his face as if some infectious monster had touched it. "Real. And who's Kankuro?"

"My brother and the brother of the Kazekage."

"Wait. So that means you're the Kazekage's sister?" His mouth hung open, his look full of surprise. He just thought she was a medic-nin or something else low in rank.

"Sabaku no Temari." Nodding, Temari held out her hand, hoping for a proper greeting.

Eyeing the hand, he shook it wearily. He never really trusted Suna-nin since the beginning of the war, even if they were considered allies with Konoha since Orochimaru betrayed Suna. "Inuzuka Kiba."

"So I bet you're wondering where your little dog is, right?" He nodded furiously, now taking the opportunity to look around and try and find him, but the room was empty other than the two shinobi. "Your friends still have him. They're probably in their room."

Glancing out the window, he noticed it was sunset. Had he really been out the whole day? He struggled to remember what happened before he passed out, but the only thing that came to mind was two very familiar faces. One had pineapple looking hair which he could immediately identify as Nara Shikamaru. He never really talked to him, but he did recall the few times he joined him in skipping class. The other reminded him of one of Sasuke's fan girls, the Yamanaka girl. "Yeah, that's good." He kept his eyes staring out the window. "Is he all right?"

"He seems fine, only a minor wound. I already took care of it so it should be fine." At first, she wasn't sure if he heard since he kept staring outside the window, not saying anything. She could've sworn she saw a tear trail down his face, but she rubbed it off and blamed it on the little amount of sleep she got last night. After a while, he finally turned around with a large grin on his face.

"That's good. Yeah, really good."

Silence consumed the room, making both feel rather uncomfortable. Temari quickly busied herself by fiddling with the large machine that was still beeping rhythmically. Kiba, in the mean while, began fiddling with the covers that were carelessly laid on his bare chest. It was rather cold since winter was approaching and he did want his jacket, but he knew better than to bother the now busy sister of the Kazekage. After a few more minutes, she finally finished with the machine and sat back down with a few papers in her hand.

"I have one more question," The Inuzuka said, noticing how loud his voice sounded in the silence of the room. The blonde looked up from her papers, her eyes now fully concentrating on him. "Where are those two?"

"Them?" She let out a small chuckle. "Well, they wanted to stay until you woke up, but from their clothing and everything, I could tell that they desperately needed to cool down and at least take a shower first. I told them to come back in the morning, when you would be fully healed." She absently waved her hand in the air as she looked back down at the papers in her hand. "Don't worry, they'll probably be here first thing tomorrow with your dog."

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Ino flopped herself down on the soft bed, letting out a relieved sigh. It had been a long day and she was glad that they had time to rest. Turning around, she looked over the room once again. It was a simple room, nothing much. Two beds were located on one wall with a small night stand between them. Opposite the beds was a door in the corner that led to the bathroom. On the third wall was another door, the entrance to the room, with a desk and chair sitting next to it. Lastly was a sliding glass door that led to balcony facing out onto the city.

Shikamaru currently sat at the desk, lying on the chair. Even though she didn't know him all that well, she could tell that something was bothering him. With that bored, yet worried expression resting on his face, anyone could tell.

"What's wrong?" She sat up on the mattress to get a better look at him. "Something's on your mind."

His head snapped towards her, showing that he had clearly been in some deep thought. Sighing, he turned the chair to face her. Knowing her, he could not be left alone until he shared his concerns. "This is the first time I've been in Suna and I'm not completely sure of its relations with Konoha. Suna was first against us. They only joined us after Orochimaru turned on them."

"Yeah, but that was two and a half years ago," she reminded him.

"You're right," he gave himself a reassuring nod, but a frown was still evident on his face. "But I wonder what the villagers have heard of me. And if they're any pictures, they'll definitely be weary of me. Uzumaki knowing the Kazekage is only a stroke of good luck." Sighing once more, the pineapple haired ninja rubbed his temple.

"Don't worry," she tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it didn't seem to help. "Speaking of, why do you think Naruto was here? And with forehead-girl, above all?"

"They said it was a mission. According to what he told them, it was a mission to bring back Sasuke."

Her ocean blue eyes widened, but she didn't respond at first. True, the past few days she had been worrying about the Uchiha and his whereabouts, but she just tried to push those troubling thoughts to the back of her head. And so far, it was working. But she knew she couldn't run away from it forever. Her crush had diminished a while ago, but it just felt so weird saying that she was over it. Her eyes cast downward for a moment, thoughts rushing through her head. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he alright? She shook her head to rid of the troubling thoughts and finally looked back up towards him. "Is that what you talked about while I was dropping off Kiba?" He nodded. "How long ago did this happen?"

"About two months ago," he responded, not taking his eyes off of hers. "Apparently, Hokage-sama wanted to send another, more person team. Uzumaki was close to Uchiha and Sakura had trained under her and learned some very useful medical ninjutsu. The two went with another jounin, I believe. They came here to collect information. Some how, he ended up in a fight with the Kazekage."

She gave a small chuckled. "Sounds just like him, always picking fights. But the Kazekage? That sounds drastic, even for him."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Who knows with him. But anyway, it seems that he started describing some of his 'friends', or classmates I guess. So, luckily, when Kankuro was at the gate when we entered, he immediately recognized us," he explained.

She nodded, now beginning to understand the whole situation. "That makes sense." Grinning, she chuckled again. "Wow, that Naruto actually did something good for a change. Well," she began, "I think I'm going to take a shower. It's been nearly three days since I got one." She jumped off of the bed, stretching as she made her way towards the bathroom. Before entering, she grabbed one of the neatly folded towels that were sitting on the bed. It didn't take long for him to hear the shower head turn on and expect that she was already in the shower.

He, too, got up from his seat and made his way over towards the balcony. Lifting the latch, he pulled open the door and stepped out. A chill wind greeted him by blowing over his tired face. He had to admit it felt good to finally be able to relax a bit. The sun had almost finished setting, leaving a beautiful orange light shining over the city. Walking to the end of the balcony, he placed his hands on the railing and craned his neck forward for a better view. Compared to Konoha, Suna looked like a paradise. Civilians were walking around without fear, children chasing each other down the streets, restaurants and bars beginning to fill up. Everything seemed perfect. A small smile grew on his lips as he continued to take in the sight. He wished he could just be like one of the civilians; going on missions and coming home to loving parents and then hanging out with friends late at night. In the last month of the academy, he truly envisioned his life like that. It would've been a simple life, if not a bit troublesome.

Either she took very quick showers or he lost track of time outside, but either way, she stepped out of the shower in what seemed like only five minutes. Turning around, he walked back into the warm room only to see his companions dressed in only a towel wrapped around her thin frame. Maybe he let his gaze linger a bit too much as he looked over how wonderfully that towel seemed to outline her body. But as soon as she looked his way, he forced himself to look in another direction.

"Man, that felt so good. I never thought I'd be so happy for a shower." Holding up the towel with one hand, she walked over to the bed and picked up the extra clothing that they gave to them. Once she picked it up and it unfolded itself, it was revealed to be a light purple kimono. There were a few green designs around and a darker purple outlining. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she continued to look over her new kimono. "They don't seem to have the best taste now, do they? Oh well, I guess it'll have to do. We'll just go shopping for more clothes tomorrow." Giving him a small grin, she stepped into the bathroom again, closing the door behind her.

While Shikamaru waited for her to come out, he took a look at the clothes that they gave him. They were quite similar to his own clothes; the same pants and sandals, only in black. The shirt was tighter than his fish net shirt that was open in the front. It was a light sandy color with a darker brown sand symbol on the back. Folded beneath it was a long sleeved black shirt, which he guessed was to be worn under it.

"Oh," Kankuro's words echoed in his heads along with a picture of the young man's face. "It would be smart not to where your headbands while you guys walk around. The villagers aren't too fond of ninjas, especially foreign ones."

Sighing, he untied the headband on his arm and set it down on the bed near Ino's clothing. He was right; the villagers probably wouldn't be too friendly to outsiders. Just when he was about to take off his clothing to put on the new ones, he heard the door open once again behind him. Turning around, his gaze fell on the now fully dressed Ino. The kimono fit perfectly on her. As she straightened out a few folds, he quickly looked her over without saying a word. Once she finished, she looked up only to see a silence Shikamaru still looking at her. "What?" She asked in a teasing tone. "Am I too beautiful for words?"

He quickly looked away and pretended to busy himself with his own clothing to hide the small, yet evident blush on his cheeks. "Troublesome women…" He muttered under his breath as he rose from his seat on the bed. Grabbing the clothing and other towel, he walked towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a quick shower." Without saying anything else, he walked in and closed the door behind him.

Stretching her arms above her head, she once again laid down on the bed. The shower had left a refreshing feeling with her, which she was extremely thankful for. There was a sweet scent traveling from the ajar balcony door to her nose, which caused curiosity to push her towards the balcony. Once there, she took in the outlook of the city. It was a truly beautiful and peaceful site, something she was so unused to. It had been nearly three years since she had seen a large and successful city that was nearly untouched by war. Taking another sniff of the air, she noticed that the sweet scent was in fact coming from outside. She guessed it was from the food being cooked in the many, busy restaurants. The smell was much more pleasing than the smell of Ichiraku ramen she encountered during her walks from home from the academy. It wasn't that she had anything against ramen, though she didn't like it too much, but Naruto would always rush over there after school and have at least five bowls (though she never knew how he paid for them), which let out a tremendous ramen odor throughout the area.

Deciding not to temp herself with the delicious scents any longer; she walked back into the room almost at the same time that the bathroom door open. He was wearing his own sand uniform which also seemed to fit perfectly, if not for being a bit too tight, but that didn't seem to bother him. She also noticed that his hair was still tied up. Apparently, he had dried it after his shower, because she could still see it was rather moist.

Grinning widely, she signaled towards the door. "Great! We can go out now."

She was answered with a confused look on his face. "Go out? We just got here and we should take the time to re—" He never had a chance to finish before she cut in.

"It's only nine! We still a couple of hours to get a good look of the city. Besides, after being in Konoha for so long, I barely remember the last time I went out." Flashing him an eager smile, she gestured towards the door once more. A small sigh escaped his lips as he set the towel down on the bed. He figured that she was right; going out at night with a friend was something he hadn't done in a while. Ever since Chouji died, he didn't really see any of his other friends. The thought caused him to frown, but it was soon replaced with a surprised look when Ino grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the door.

"Come on!"

Before exiting, she looked over her shoulder at the small, sleeping form of Kiba's dog that lay on a pillow in the corner of the room. The dog hadn't showed any signs of awakening since they arrived at the room, so she decided that he would be fine if he stayed in the room. It didn't take long for them to leave the large building in which their temporary apartment room was in. Ino had quickly led them down a rather crowded street, filled with teenagers and young couples making the best of their Saturday night. Music played throughout the streets and bars, which only encouraged more and more people to go out and dance. Despite the occasional attempts that she made for him to begin dancing with her, he continued on walking without showing any signs of joining her, so they finally picked out a local bar that didn't seem to be overflowing with costumers like the other, clearly more popular ones were. They seated themselves at a small table located right in between the bar entrance and a large area that people were using a dance floor.

"Hello!" A young woman, probably only a few years older than the two of them, greeted the pair with a polite smile. "What would you like?" She pulled out a pen and a note pad, ready to take down their orders.

Before Shikamaru had a chance to order a glass of water, Ino placed the order for both of them. "Two glasses of sake, please." The waitress nodded while she jotted it down before entering the bar once more. "So…" she turned to face him once more, a smile still playing on her lips. "It's a lot calmer now, don't you think?"

He nodded. "Don't you think we're a little young for sake? We're only 15." He pointed out. Regardless of war, they were still both only young teenagers; he had never even thought of drinking.

Shrugging, she responded by smiling even wider. "Maybe we are, but we might as well try. Come on, we should let loose!" In truth, she hadn't been out with friends ever since the war started. After the surprise attack, her parents deemed it dangerous for her to leave to house, just as was the case at most other households. The music was echoing in her ears and she could feel the urge to dance until she collapsed. Of course, there was no way she would get up and dance alone.

The waitress returned with the same smile and two glasses of sake. She placed them on the table before retreating to the bar to get more orders.

Ino took the glass carefully in her hand, swishing the sake around a bit just as she had seen her parents do at fancy dinners. She watched as Shikamaru also picked his up, scrutinizing the liquid as if it were some foreign matter. "Well, cheers." She lifted her glass up, waiting for his to bump slightly with hers, which he soon did. "Cheers that we managed to escape Konoha and are finally in Suna."

He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her statement. Only a couple days ago they first met and she thought he might kill her any second. He brought the glass to his lips which soon came in contact with the cold liquid. As the sake entered his mouth for the first time, he carefully took in its flavor. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be when he was younger, but it certainly wasn't his favorite. By the look on her face, he guessed that Ino thought the same. However, when she quickly gulped down half of the glass as opposed to him only taking a sip, he assumed that she liked it more than he did.

"This is good." Her hand still gripped the glass lightly, the aftertaste still in her mouth. "So, what did you think of it?" Her eyes abruptly went form the cup to his face.

He shrugged in response. "It was okay."

She nodded while lifting the glass and taking another sip. "How do you think Kiba is doing?"

"I bet they're taking good care of him. After all, he's in the care of the Kazekage's sister."

"You're right." She set her glass down once more, this time pulling her hand away from it. "I shouldn't worry."

Time passed very quickly for the two of them during all of their talking. They were mostly fun, casual lectures like about favorite things, opinions about certain people and places and about other things. The only serious conversation they had was about where they were going to head out after they were ready, but Shikamaru just said that he had someone he needed to see and left it at that. The two also consumed their sake rather quickly. After about an hour, when people were really beginning to crowd the streets with dancing and drinking, Shikamaru was up to his third cup and Ino was almost to her fourth. By then, she had decided that she would go ahead and ask him to dance, even though she had to admit her legs were feeling more wobbly than usual. And he, despite the dizziness he experienced as he stood up, agreed.

And so, the two spent the rest of the night dancing along with many of the other young residents of Suna. Shikamaru, even though he might've had a little too much sake, still didn't dance with as much enthusiasm as Ino would've hoped, but she didn't mind too much. They also both noticed how close they were getting, but neither said anything about it. Because at that moment, they weren't two shinobi from Konoha in Suna. They weren't two fugitives running away from the ANBU.

They were just two, normal teenagers, having fun just like all the others.

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A/N: This story is really starting to come along. I'm still not sure how long it will be chapter wise, but I'll work it out soon. I'd also like to thank all my reveiwers for this story. If you have any questions are any suggestions, please do tell them in your reveiws and I'll be sure to answer your questions in the next chapter. Chapter 6 might take a bit longer (sorry for the slow updates), but I need to work a bit on the plot. Well, thanks again for reading and don't forget to reveiw!