Oh my god. I update. I can't even apologize. Anyway. This chapter is really boring. I promise some action in the next one. And I also promise that one will be out sooner rather than later. So enjoy.
I also don't own Naruto or the character, blah, blah.
Kiba made it to the training grounds before his partner. He stretched out his back, arms, and legs. Gotta make sure I don't hurt myself further. He winced as he turned his torso too far and pain seared his chest. Oops.
Rubbing his chest to make the pain go away, Kiba heard a familiar, "Hey." As he turned around a kunai shot merely an inch from his face.
"Holy shit!" Kiba yelled as he fell to the ground out of instinct to dodge weapons. Shikamaru walked over and gave a chuckle.
"Relax, man. I'm not actually going to throw shit at you. I just wanted to get your attention." He smiled and squatted by his partner.
"Not a cool way to get my attention, jerk." Kiba push Shikamaru over, giving a giggle as the other let out an "oof" as his butt hit the dirt.
Shikamaru sighed and ran his hand over his face. "So. How are you going to train without Akamaru and without dying?"
Kiba smiled and lay down on the hard dirt. "Remember the first time we trained here?"
Shikamaru gave a laugh. "Yeah. With the rain."
"Mhm. You were so muddy."
"Me? You should've seen yourself!" Both boys gave a laugh and fell silent. "So my mom wants to have a family dinner tonight since both Dad and I are home. Wanna join?"
Kiba sat up and looked at his boyfriend. "I don't want to intrude on your family dinner."
"No. I mean," Shikamaru smiled and gave a small laugh. "My dad said to invite you." He looked up at his boyfriend with a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth.
"Oh, that was nice of him." Then it hit Kiba. "Wait…"
"Yeah. He knows, too." Shikamaru crawled towards the other. "You know," he whispered, "it really isn't bad if people know about us. Why keep 'us' a secret?" He placed a kiss on Kiba's forehead.
"No, yeah. I agree. But, then how come," Kiba gently pushed Shikamaru away to look him in the eye, "you haven't told your teammates?" Hurt fluttered across Kiba's features before he locked eyes with his partner.
Shikamaru blinked, slightly taken aback. "Um. I guess I just didn't think of it." Oh, that was stupid to say. "I mean it just didn't come up in conversation."
"Well, of course it didn't if you didn't bring it up! You don't want your best friends knowing about us?" Kiba's face turned sad.
"No that's not it, Kiba." Shikamaru sat back and sighed. "How do you suggest I go about starting that conversation? 'Oh, by the way Cho, Kiba and I are together and we have hot sex all the time. How's your love life?'" He was starting to get a bit upset with this conversation.
"I don't know how you start it. All I know if my lover's best friends don't know that we're together and it kind of hurts. Everyone know when Lee started seeing Gaara."
"Yeah well that's because Lee can't keep his mouth shut about anything. You didn't see Gaara telling anyone about it. Besides, have you told your teammates about us?"
Kiba's face went blank. "Um…no…not really…" He looked at the ground as if it suddenly had turned interesting.
"Yeah. Didn't think so." Shikamaru got up and walked away.
"Hey! You can't just walk away like this!"
"I can do whatever I please. You want to sit here and bitch about how we aren't public about our relationship then I'm going to go home. I thought we were going to train, anyway. But nevermind."
You want to train? Fine, bring it on, ass. Kiba growled and jolted up and after Shikamaru, planning on taking the shadow ninja by surprise.
A smile formed on the Nara's face. Kiba, you are so predictable. Shikamaru cast his shadow out and stopped Kiba less than a foot away from himself. He turned around and stood straight, making the Inuzuka do the same.
"Oh, come on! That's not fair!" The dog-nin cried out, trying and failing at getting out of the shadow grip.
"All if fair in fighting." Shikamaru sighed and released his shadow. "Why are you so pissed that no one knows about us?"
Kiba rubbed his legs and patted the dirt off of them. "I dunno. I don't really have a reason. I guess because the others have told us when they've dated someone. I just don't see why we can't tell them."
Shikamaru closed the gap between them, placing a small kiss on his lover's mouth. "We can tell them if you want." He held onto Kiba, hugging him tight.
"Ow, not so tight."
"Sorry."
"And I'd like to tell them. I don't really know why. I just would."
"Okay. That's fine." Shikamaru buried his face in Kiba's shoulder, kissing it as he did. "I love you. I'd do anything if it made you happy."
"You're being sappy."
"I know. It's weird."
"Yeah. But thank you." Kiba hugged his lover back and nuzzled into his shoulder.
They stood like that for a moment before Kiba took a deep breath, his eyes shooting open at the realization.
"Well. We might not have to tell them."
"What?" Shikamaru pulled back and gave Kiba a confused look. I swear to God, he doesn't ever know what he wants.
"Pay attention to your surroundings, Shika. We aren't alone." Kiba nodded with his head to their right, above the wall. "Choji and Ino. Don't you smell the flowers and barbeque?"
"Oh, son of a bitch. How'd they find us?"
"Um…" Kiba scratched the back of his head. "I kind of ran into them on the way here and told them we were going to train." He gave a small chuckle.
Shikamaru sighed and closed his eyes before shouting, "Ino! Choji! We know you're here. Stop spying!" He looked up and right at where they were hiding.
"Oh, shit they see us!" Ino whispered.
"Oh, well." Choji said, jumping down from their hiding place and walking over to Shikamaru and Kiba. Ino followed suit, smacking Choji as she passed by him. "Ow! Ino!"
"Hey, guys!" Ino said, faking her happiness to try to make it less awkward.
"Hey, Ino. Hey Choji." Shikamaru released his hold on Kiba and pulled away. Sighing, he looked at Ino. "Why were you spying on us?"
"Spying? We weren't spying! We were just working our tracking skills!" She laughed loud, obviously lying.
"Give it a rest, Ino." Choji rolled his eyes at his female teammate. "We ran into Kiba before this and he said you guys were going to train today. We followed because we wanted to see what was going on with you two, if anything." He glanced over at Ino. "Well, she did. I just tagged along."
Ino's face turned red as she glared at Choji. "You don't always have to tell him everything, Choji." She said as she crossed her arms, pouting.
Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag."
"Oh, come, Shikamaru. If you would have just told them and been honest, they wouldn't have had to spy." Kiba smiled and playfully punched Shikarmaru's arm.
"Hah! See!" Ino said, smiling. "We're your teammates, Shikamaru. You're supposed to tell us things like this!"
Shikamaru, a smile playing at his lips, shoved Kiba to the ground and looked at Choji and Ino. "Sorry, guys. It never really crossed my mind to just tell you."
"No sweat, Shikamaru. We never really thought to just ask." Choji looked at Kiba. "You okay?"
"Oh, God! No! Shika I think you broke my cracked sternum." Kiba was laughing and crying, not sure what to do.
"Oh, shit. Sorry, Kiba." Shikamaru bent down and lifted the dog-nin up by his arm, draping it over his own shoulders. "We probably shouldn't actually train this soon after what happened." He looked up at Ino and Choji. "Want to all go grab some ramen for lunch?"
"Hell yeah!" Choji yelled.
"Sure! Should we invite the others? They've all been dying to know about you, too." Ino winked.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "We are not going to make a big deal about this."
Ino giggled and ran ahead. "I'm going to go gather everyone up! I'll meet you there!" She took off to get the rest of the gang together.
"Well. This is good. We haven't all been together for a while." Shikamaru started walking towards the ramen shop, Kiba stilled at his side.
"Not everyone will be there." Choji chimed in, catching up to the pair.
"What do you mean?" Kiba turned to look at the boy.
"Well Lee's off for a mini vacation." He rolled his eyes. "You can guess where."
"Oh, Lee. Ever the romantic."
"Mhm. Sakura normally eats with Tsunade and Shizune during the week, so I doubt she'll be there. Ino usually does, but she took today off to help her mom early at the shop. Ten Ten and Neji are out on a mission with some others. Otherwise everyone else should be there." Choji crunched his last chip before stuffing the empty bag in his pocket.
"Oh great. This means Naruto will be there." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. The three boys laughed as they continued their walk to the ramen shop.