Chapter 2: Tour of Konoha: Cat vs. Dog

So, Team 3 of the Hidden Wild Village set off with Squad 7 of the Hidden Leaf Village for a tour of Konoha on the way to the Konoha Hotel. They walk past various squads of Konohagakure ninja. They stare for a moment, and then whisper quietly among themselves. The Arasu ninja begin to feel uneasy, as though the other ninja think that there's something wrong with them.

Suddenly, as the ninja pass Squad 8 of Konoha (Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Huuga, and Shino Aburame), there is a loud growl from a small dog perched on one of the ninjas head. Taza readily hissed back in defense and puffed out her tail. The small white dog barked back, causing Taza to spring off of Kyotas shoulder and take off, and the small dog pursuing her viciously.

"Hey, Akamaru! Come back!" Kiba Inuzuka shouted after the small dog.

"Taza, you scaredy-cat! Fight him, he's just a runt!" Kyota called after Taza. She was about to run after Taza, but Kiba grabbed her by the arm.

"What'd you call Akamaru?!" Kiba demanded.

"What do you think I called him!? A RUNT!" Kyota spat back at him.

"You take that back!" Kiba demanded.

"Why should I?! It was your mutt that started it!" Kyota justified.

"I ain't talking about that! You called Akamaru a runt and a mutt! TAKE IT BACK!!!" Kiba yelled, getting right up in Kyotas face.

"Come on Kyota, just take it back!" Eorroe argued.

"Kiba, just leave it!" Shino said, annoyed with the argument.

"NO!" They replied in unison, their electric glares burning into each other.

"Well, if Akamaru's a mutt, then that thing you call a cat is must be some kind of abnormally large RAT!" Kiba retorted, sneering at Kyotas' growing anger.

"That's it! You wanna fight you little punk?!" she shouted.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Kiba growled back, his hand curling into a fist.

Suddenly, Taza and Akamaru flew by in a chase, more playfully than threateningly. As they ran by, Akamaru crashed through Kibas' legs, causing him to fall, taking Kyota with him.

Everyone fell quiet and even the animals stopped running. Kyota had landed on her back, stunned, with a reddening Kiba kneeling on all fours over her. Their faces were just inches from each other. Kyota started to turn red as they stared into each others eyes.

"Ahem!" Akira coughed loudly, pulling them out of the stare. They looked up at her, but she just turned her gaze upward innocently.

Kiba cleared his throat and stood over Kyota to help her up. "Er….. Sorry about that…. My fault…"

Kyota brushed herself off and looked away, embarrassed. "No, i-it's my fault…sorry…"

"Er, my name's Kiba Inuzuka." Kiba said quickly. "And this is my dog, Akamaru."

"Well, you know my name, and my cats' name is Taza…." Kyota said. "What about you guys?" she asked, gesturing to Shino and Hinata.

"I am Shino Aburame."
"…And you?" Kyota said, pointing to Hinata.

"…Hinata….Huuga…"

"Well, now that you guys are done fighting, come on!" Naruto grinned.

"Where're ya goin'?" Kiba inquired aloud.

"We're giving these guys a tour of Konoha!" Naruto said happily, walking forward.

"Really?" Kiba said. "Could I come?"

"Uh, sure, Kiba." Naruto replied.

"You guys wanna' come?" Kiba turned to his teammates.

"No thanks." Shino replied, turning away and walking off. "My dad wants me home early…"

"What about you, Hinata?"

"N-no thanks…" She whispered shyly, walking away.

"Well, let's GO, then!" Naruto started towards the direction of the Hotel.

"Alright…" Everyone replied in unison and started after Naruto.

"Hey," Kiba said, looking to one of the Arasu ninja's headbands, "I've never seen those headbands before. Where are you guys from?"

"Arasugakure," Akira replied, "the Village Hidden in the Wild."

"Arasu, huh?" Kiba pondered for a moment. "I've never heard of that place-What's it like?"
"It's a nice village." Kyota answered, stroking Tazas' head lightly. "Not too big, not too small, I suppose…"

"So, are you guys here for the Chunin Exams?" Sasuke asked wonderingly.

"Yeah, we are." Eorroe replied, not taking his eyes off the road. "This'll be the first time in over a Century that our villages' ninja will be competing here."

"But, if your villages' ninja haven't been to these exams in over a hundred years," Sakura asked, "then how do you have ninja at all?"

"Well, we have our own exams." Akira said simply. "Our Chunin test is a survival test of sorts."

"Yeah!" Kyota gleamed. "Our test is really dangerous. We have to fight these big, fierce animals that would take your head off as soon as they looked at ya'!"

"Big… Fierce… Animals?" Naruto repeated. "That's easy! How hard could fighting a bunch of dumb animals be?"

Naruto had said the utmost insulting thing he could have possibly said to the Arasu ninja. They stopped walking and stared at him. Naruto realized that he'd said something wrong, but he didn't understand what exactly he had said wrong.

"A bunch of dumb animals?" Akira fumed at his words as she repeated them. "These animals are NOT dumb. In fact, they're probably smarter than you, Naruto!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Naruto sputtered as the young kunoichi advanced angrily. "I didn't mean to make you so mad! I didn't want to offend you!"
"Yeah, well, you did!" Kyota said, Taza hissing at Naruto from Kyotas shoulder.

"Well, we're here…" Naruto mumbled as the ninja approached the Konoha Hotel. "…Whoa! You guys are staying here?!"

"Wow." Sakura said, glancing over at the Arasu ninja. "This place is expensive."

"Well, we're not really staying for that long." Eorroe explained. "We're just staying until we're finished with the exams."

"Well, it was nice getting' to know you guys, but I really do have to get going." Sakura said, waving goodbye. "My mother will freak if I'm not home before dark!"

"Yeah, me too." Naruto said nonchalantly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Gotta lotta training to do tomorrow, and I don't want to be tired. See Ya'!"
As Naruto walked away, Kazuhiro appeared and waved to the remaining ninja. "Hey, there, guys!"

"How was your meeting, dad?" Eorroe asked, walking up the stairway to the hotel.

"Fine, fine." He replied following Eorroe. "Come on in guys! You too, Sasuke, and, um… Say, what's your name, boy?"

"Kiba, uh Inuzuka, Sir." Kiba stuttered as he peered up at the tall man.

"Inuzuka, eh?" Kazuhiro stopped. "Is your mother by any chance Tsume Inuzuka?"

"Uh, Yeah"

"Ha! I knew your mother from a while back, Kiba!" Kazuhiro exclaimed. "She and I were old friends!"

"Really?!" All the ninja said, bewildered.

"Yeah, she was one of the few ninja that made it to the village." Kazuhiro continued. "She and… My wife… Were friends."

"Wow, I never knew that." Kiba said, mouth agape.

"Yeah, she was one fiery girl back then!" Kazuhiro laughed, recalling the olden days. "If you got on her bad side, you would have had to watch your back!"
The ninja followed Kazuhiro into the hotel and Kiba prodded him for information while he checked the Arasu ninja into the hotel. They walked up the steps to their room; room 11. Kyota and Akira ran into the room and called their beds, the two Konoha boys eying them with amusement. Everyone dropped their stuff on the floor and set about exploring the room.

"This place is top-notch," Kiba said looking around, "How do you afford this place?"

"Well, our family is a bit well off, you know?" Kyota said, jumping onto one of the beds. "My mothers' side of the family was a pretty prestigious clan."
"Hey, guys, I made reservations a while ago at the Grand Hokage Buffet a while ago, for 5:30. Lets go and eat- Kiba, Sasuke, you're invited too."

"What?" Sasuke asked quizzically. "But its 5:27 right now, and that place is really strict on time! We'll never make it!"

"Nonsense!" Kazuhiro said loudly, and then he turned to his daughters and whispered in their ears, "Save that reservation!"

The two nodded and bolted out the door and into the hallway calling after each other.

"Race ya'!"

Instead of a human voice, a playful growl echoed out in the hallway.

"They'll never make it." Sasuke said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Oh, they'll make it." Eorroe said back.

"But how?"
"They have their ways."

It was 5:34 by the time the guys arrived at the restaurant. As they approached the door, a waiter stepped out.

"Do you have reservations?" he asked snootily.

"Yes, Hiroshi. I believe my daughters arrived a minute or two ago?"

"Yes, of course." The waiter stepped into the door, beckoning them to follow. "Right this way ladies and gentlemen."

"Ladies?" The ninja stopped.

"Why yes, you are a girl, aren't you?" the waiter said, pointing to Kiba.

"I am not!" Kiba shouted, pulling down his hood as Akamaru growled at the waiter. "Would you like some proof?" he added, his hands moving to the rim of his pants.

"That will not be necessary." The waiter said quickly, his face turning red.

The ninja sat down at the table where Kyota and Akira were already chowing down on full plates of food. The guys grabbed a plate each and set out to filling them. When they came back, Kazuhiro and Eorroe sat on one side of the table, Kiba sat next to Kyota, and Sasuke casually sat next to Akira.

"Hey, check this out!" Akira said.

She took a popcorn shrimp tossed it high into the air. It landed in her mouth and she swallowed it. Kyota did the same and soon shrimp was flying everywhere. Akira flung another one, but it landed on Kiba's head instead of in her mouth.

"Hey!" Kiba laughed playfully. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?"

The Arasu ninja suddenly became very quiet and they stooped eating and looked down at their food.

"What?" Kiba asked, putting down his chopsticks. "Why's everyone so quiet all of a sudden?"

"Our mother is dead…." Kyota muttered quietly.

The silence remained for a few minutes and everyone ate in an awkward silence. The silence went on until an unidentified flying shrimp flew through the air and beamed Kyota right in the side of the head.

"Hey, what the hell?" she said in annoyance, looking over at a widely grinning Kiba.

Akira took one of her remaining shrimp and aimed for Kiba until she herself was hit by fire from Sasuke. War broke loose and shrimp and sushi flew all over the place.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" the manager shouted, storming up to the warring table. "You rapscallions have made a mess of my restaurant and have scared away my customers! GET OUT!"

The ninja bolted out of the restaurant laughing and ran back to the hotel, still laughing.

"That was awesome!" Kiba laughed.

"Yeah, it was!" Eorroe chuckled lightly, picking a chunk of sushi off of his glasses.

"Well, dinner was great, I appreciate it, but my mom's gonna be wondering where I am soon, and I don't want to worry her too much." Kiba said, brushing himself off and picking rice out of Kyotas hair for her.

"Yeah, I'd better get home too." Sasuke said, shaking his sleeve and walking off, almost sadly. "Thanks for dinner…"

"Well, that was fun. I should go with you guys more often." Kiba said with a smile to Kyota. "You really know how to have fun."

"Yeah, well, you're a pretty fun guy too, Kiba." Kyota said back.

They both looked like they wanted to say more, but Kiba began to blush and he turned away with a quick good-bye and walked briskly off.

Kazuhiro and Eorroe were already walking up the steps, but Akira had caught the sudden moment between the two, and as Kyota walked by, she said in a low voice, so the guys couldn't hear:

"Be careful, Kyota."