Replies to Reviews;

Sir Greatness; Emotion is what I tried to get in there, so I'm glad I got it through. ^-^ And yes, it definitely seems that these Kitai thoughts aren't going to go away easily. Thanks for noticing that, too~. Thanks a ton for the review!

Jeffismyhero1217: I'm sorry that you were confused. ^-^;; Thank you for the review!

KibaGirl; She's definitely feeling weak about it, and that's what this chapter's going to revolve around mostly - just as a heads up. x] Kiba's there, but of course Akamaru is too. ;) And again with the foreshadowing... well, yeah... you'll have to wait and see. Thanks for the review!

"Jade? Hey, what's up...?" Kiba asked that morning, rubbing his tired eyes as he opened the door to his house to find Jade there looking quite dishevelled.

"I know it's early, but..." she fidgeted, "...Can you help me with something?"

"With what?" he asked, Akamaru walking out the doorway and outside for some fresh air.

"I... wanna do some training," she said quietly, watching his eyes flicker. She shifted her own eyes down to Akamaru, who was sprawled out on the stone ground outside the Inuzuka compound.

"Why wouldn't you just train with Naruto, or something?" he questioned, leaning against the doorway - his eyes curious.

"I... wanted to train with you," she admitted sheepishly, looking back up to meet his unique eyes. He was quiet for a moment, before rubbing some more sand from his eyes and parting from the doorway, "I'll be right out, just let me get dressed."

"Okay."

oOo

"Ready for another round?" Kiba called, standing in a forest clearing with Jade. She was standing in the middle, the clouds parting away from the sun to let the light shine down on the area they were in.

She just gave a simple nod, and Akamaru barked to let her know what was coming. Without another word Kiba sent a round of kunai flying toward her, which she blocked with her own. She missed a few, and one or two grazed her arms or legs.

"Yahoo! Good job!" Kiba said, coming towards her with Akamaru barking happily alongside him. She sat down on the ground, propping one leg up and putting a hand to her ankle, "I got hit..."

"Yeah, that's OK. You got most of 'em," Kiba grinned, but she remained silent.

"No, I mean..." she took her hand off, her palm covered with blood, "...I got hit."

Eyes wide, Kiba immediately dropped to his knees taking her ankle in his hands, "Aw man... sorry..."

"It's not your fault," she said, watching as he took out a few bandages. "I was supposed to block them..." she put her hands out behind her back, propping herself up to sit.

"Yeah, well..." he trailed off, ripping off the acess bandage and setting her ankle down. "What made you wanna train anyway?"

She moved her foot around a little, flinching slightly at the small pain coming from her ankle, "... It felt like something I had to do... I've been feeling weak ever since bumping into Kitai..."

"Your mind's really stuck on her, isn't it?" Kiba asked, softly and heartfelt while Jade kept her eyes on her newly bandaged ankle.

"Yeah, I guess..."

"You should stop thinking about that..." he said quietly, Akamaru whimpering in agreement.

"I can't..." she barely managed, looking up to meet his eyes. They seemed concerned as her own quivered out of place.

"Really getting to you,... isn't it?" he asked, breaking the small silence that was about to take over.

She just nodded, before touching her bandages, "Uh, thanks. For taking care of me, uh, that... I mean..." she inwardly sighed at her flustering, but he just showed one of his amused grins.

"No problem. Does it hurt much?"

She was about to answer until something caught her eye. She focussed on the bushes across the clearing, seeing them move and then remain still. Maybe it was just the breeze... but she could've sworn she saw gray peeking out from under the leaves.

"Jade?" Kiba repeated, following her gaze to the bushes. When he saw nothing was there he looked back to her, "What's the matter?"

"I thought I saw something..." she said quietly, not taking her eyes off the bushes.

Kiba looked down to Akamaru who shook his head a little, whimpering. He looked back to the bushes again, and then back to her - she was already facing him when he did.

"Akamaru doesn't smell anything," he told her. "You're probably just being paranoid."

"Yeah, that's... probably it..." she said quietly. "Um... let's do another round..."

Kiba made a face, "You sure? Your ankle..." he took note of the faint red spreading throughout the bandage.

"It's fine," she said, trying to stand up, but she fell over onto her ankle. She yelped, her hands shooting down to clutch her ankle.

Kiba frowned, Akamaru softly pawing her, "Are you OK?"

"Y-yeah," she flinched, sighing.

"...I should take you to Kurenai Sensei or something, come on," he said, moving his hands out towards her.

"Why? It's fine," she objected, sitting up some.

"Or I can take you to Kakashi Sensei, it doesn't matter."

"But it's OK," she repeated, but he didn't seem convinced.

"I know it's not a big injury, but I still want Kurenai Sensei to check it out. OK?"

She sighed again, "OK..."

"Here..." he helped her to stand up, steadying her when her ankle threatened to give out. "I should carry you..." he said, as she struggled to wobble a few shaky steps.

She pressed one hand to her forehead, clutching Kiba's shoulder with the other, "Man..." she groaned.

"Hey, it's fine," he told her, scooping her up to carry her bridal style. "Nothing to be ashamed of."

A blush spread across her face as she rested her head against his chest, her arms around his neck, "...Thanks."

"Not a problem," he replied, beginning to walk out of the clearing with Akamaru by his side. She kept quiet, her eyes on the gray of Kiba's jacket - it made her think back to the grey in those bushes. She gave a small shake of the head - she was just being paranoid. Akamaru hadn't smelt anything, so she was probably just imagining things.

Being in Kiba's arms was nice, and she could faintly hear the beating of his heart thumping inside his chest. It was relaxing, her eyes closing over. She could feel her own heart trouncing as she opened her eyes again, peeking up to steal a glance at her dog-like friend.

He must've noticed this since he glanced down at her, her cheeks brightening, "You alright?"

She nodded quickly, "I- I can walk..."

"No, give your ankle a rest, OK?"

"Yeah, okay..."

It was quiet for a moment before Kiba cleared his throat, "Do... you wanna watch the sunset tonight? We... missed it last night."

Her mind flashed to Kiba holding her in the middle of the street, her body shaking with choked tears.

She blinked, her eyes shooting up to his face, "You... want to?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he said, showing an awkward grin.

"No, I want to."

She felt her ankle stinging, and with her own nervous expression she batted her eyes worriedly up at Kiba, "Please don't drop me.. It kinda hurts..." she admitted, closing her eyes and inwardly sighing at herself.

Kiba just chuckled, "I promise I won't."

A smile touched her lips when she felt him tighten his grip on her, as she let her head rest against him again.

"Thank you."

oOo

"It doesn't seem too bad, and it's not deep. We should probably just clean it up, and get some fresh bandages," Kurenai said, crouched to the ground with Jade's ankle in hand. She was leaning against one of the walls of Ichiraku, Kiba supporting her.

"We should clean it with alcohol," Kurenai said, gently putting Jade's foot down and standing up. "Kiba, sit her down - I'll be right back."

"Got it," he nodded, as his Sensei ran off. He carefully guided Jade to one of the stools at the stand, and then leaned back up against the wall again.

"It's gonna sting..." she said, making a face.

"It's not that bad," Kiba said, another of his amused grins on his face. "Besides, doesn't it sting already?"

"Yeah... but with alcohol it'll sting even more," she sweatdropped.

"Well, me and Akamaru are here," he reassured her, which made her smile.

"Hey, what happened?" another voice cut in.

Jade and Kiba both looked to the seat next to Jade, to see Naruto with ramen noodles hanging from his mouth. He quickly slurped them up, "To your ankle?"

"...and Naruto," Kiba muttered quietly, crossing his arms as Jade just smiled shyly and swung her foot a little.

"I... hurt it."

"Well, duh! How'd you hurt it?" he asked, a certain sharpness in his tone.

"I just did.."

Kiba raised an eyebrow - why wouldn't she tell them that they were training?

"Whatever," Naruto groaned. "Well are you OK?"

"Yeah, thanks."

With that she looked away, her eyes shooting down to the ground. Then her eyes trailed up to meet Kiba's - one of his eyebrows still raised in question.

With an expression like a deer in headlights she quickly turned her head away, and at the same time Naruto noticed Kiba.

"Oh, Kiba's here. Hey."

The Inuzuka boy sweatdropped, with a somewhat cold, "Hey" of his own escaping from his lips. And at that moment Kurenai returned, a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a small cotton cloth in the other.

Jade's face paled suddenly, as she absentmindedly reached a hand down and grabbed Kiba's hand - who looked to her in surprise.

With an amused and foxy smirk, Naruto returned to his ramen - slurping the noodles and soup up like it was the first thing he had eaten... in days.

Jade squeezed Kiba's hand, who gave her a funny look, "We didn't even do anything yet..."

"I.. I know," she mumbled, frustrated on the inside while Kurenai crouched back down by her ankle and carefully poured some alchol onto the cloth.

"Uh, wait, wait..." Jade stuttered, as Kurenai neared her ankle with the substance. The woman stopped, looking up at her with question, but Jade looked up to Kiba - her eyes searching for reassurance and comfort. With a quirky grin he gave her hand a squeeze back, and Akamaru nudged against her.

"Ah, Jade-chan it won't be that bad! You're just over-reacting!" Naruto exclaimed, swinging around in his stool - his foot bumping Kurenai's hand and making her spill the open bottle of alchol all over Jade's ankle.

And with a scream combined with shock and pain Jade leapt up, hitting her back hard on the counter and then almost falling off of the stool until Kiba put an arm out.

Kurenai's eyes were wide, "I'm sorry!"

Kiba's eyes were also wide, filled with surprisement but also concern, "Are you, uh, OK?"

And eyes wide as goose eggs, Naruto could only just stare at his teammate, who was shaking with anger - a faint growl escaping her lips, the alcohol still somewhat stinging her flesh; "NARUTO!"

"I'm sorry!"

Kiba and Kurenai pressed their hands to their foreheads, and Akamaru's ears flopped as Jade rang Naruto a good one - knocking him off of his stool, where in the process, she had stood up and put weight on her already stinging ankle. And now she was sitting on the ground, once again clutching her ankle, "...ow..."

The same noise came from Naruto, his ramen bowl atop his blond head of spikes and spirals in his eyes.

oOo

"Hey, um," Kiba started, trying to peek up at Jade, whom he was piggybacking to the hill they usually watched their sunsets on. "Earlier, at Ichiraku... with Naruto..."

"You can let me down, now," she told him, as he did so. She made herself comfy, stretching her legs out in front of her. Akamaru climbed into her lap, curling up as Kiba took a seat next to her.

"So what about Naruto?" she asked.

"You never told him how you hurt you ankle," he said, curiosity in his voice. "Why didn't you tell him we were training?" He paused for a moment there, then said, "Did you think he'd be mad you didn't train wiht him or something?"

"No, that's not it," she replied. Her eyes wavered on Kiba's face for a second, "It's just that... I've been really frustrated by my weakness towards those wolves and Kitai. And you're right... it's really bothering me. I just... didn't want to show Naruto, or the others... that it was..." Then she made a face, "...If that makes any sense at all."

"Then why me?" he asked, in almost a murmur - taking note of her chocolate irises widening slightly. Pink was on her cheeks as she shyly answered, "You're my best friend."

A simple answer, but on the inside it made him feel good.

"And I guess that isn't enough," he thought he heard her laugh as she said that. "I can trust you, Kiba. And I know... you're always going to be there. You and Akamaru. For me..."

His face softened at her words, "I could say the exact same thing to you. You're my best friend."

"I mean... you carried around my deadweight all day to give me ankle a rest!" she giggled, rubbing Akamaru's ears as Kiba grinned to her with his own chuckle, "You're not that heavy, Jade. It's not a problem."

A Jade-esque smirk was on her lips, "Yeah, OK."

They both looked to see the sun finally beginning to dim into the sky; warm colors contrasting with faded clouds.

"I know you care, Kiba," she mumured out of no where. "Both you and Akamaru. And I care about you guys too."

"Yeah, we do care about you," he agreed.

"I think..." she paused for a good moment, giggling a little. "...that we're like soulmates."

"Soulmates, huh?" fangs peeked out over a grin.

"Just joking," she laughed, his grin widening some.

She just showed him another smile before turning away - her face somewhat troubled. Her bottom lip was sticking out in a small pout, her eyes had softened, and her eyebrows had slightly knitten together. She hadn't meant soulmates by... I mean, she... There must be a reason they were both there for each other, right? They were best friends. They trusted each other, they cared for each other. She had meant it in more of a friendly way. She was very glad to have Kiba as a friend - a best friend.

But on the inside, half of her knew that there was hidden meaning in her mention of soulmates. She cherished the friendship, though wanting something more - she was afraid.

On the term soulmates, the only kind they must be meant to be was true best friends...

A/N: I had no idea what to call this chapter... At first I was just gonna call it 'Training'. That seemed boring. Then I thought I'd call it 'Soulmates' instead... I was iffy about that. I settled on 'Best Friends'.. still iffy, but I'd prefer that than 'Soulmates'.

And just to clarify, Jade didn't mean soulmates like that. Like the last line, the only kind of soulmates she assumes they must be is best friends. So I guess that is a more suitable title for the chapter. Uh, let me know, though. haha.

Ah, and Naruto. Poor Naruto. You should've just eaten your ramen like a good little ninja. x]

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, review please!