Black and White Chapter 2: Kiba I, a naruto fanfic

Why do I write a story about Kiba, Tenten and Neji? Well… I think it's only because they're my three favorite characters XD If I can make it work, then I don't see why it couldn't be good.

Disclaimer: Luna doesn't own Naruto! If she did, she'd give Tenten more of a personality…

Black and White

Chapter 2

They 'had bonded during that one mission together'. That was what everyone said when asked where Kiba and Tenten's relationship came from. No one knew what happened during that mission except those two...

Two weeks earlier

Kiba and Tenten had both been called to Tsunade's office. The 5th Hokage looked through some papers as she briefed the youths on their mission.

"Tenten, your teammates still aren't back from their last mission, so I'm sending you with Kiba. It seems Hinata has a cold and I've got other plans for Shino. You two will go together. Okay?"

The young girl nodded. Kiba just looked like he didn't care.

Tsunade explained the mission. "You will go to the Grass Village, there is a museum there where you must collect a valuable painting and bring it back to Konoha. It's a D mission and you should meet little resistance, so take it easy. The journey there is two and a half days of walking, you shall be back in five days, understood? You'll leave tomorrow morning."

Both teens nodded and exited the office.

Kiba sighed. "Another pointless mission..." And he got paired up with someone he barely knew too.

Tenten held out an hand to him. "I look forward to working with you."

The boy shook her hand. "Yeah."

The next morning, both the teens and Akamaru met at the village gates, packed for five days of walking. They began their journey, the atmosphere tense because they weren't familiar with each other at all. They walked for a while without saying much.

"Sorry you had to be paired with me." Kiba said, breaking the silence.

"I don't mind. It's nice getting to know new people."

Silence.

"So...is your teacher always so..."

Tenten giggled lightly. "Weird? Oh yeah. All the time."

Another silence.

"Is it ever a bother to you that your teacher is a woman? I know some guys would dislike it."

Kiba blinked. "No, I don't see why it would. I'm used to women. My family supports matriarchy, you see. I live with my big sister and my mom. My mom is pretty scary when she's mad. No one is stronger than her when she's pissed!" He laughed. "Then there's Hinata. She comes to me whenever she needs to be cheered up, meaning often. I'm always surrounded by girls. How are your parents?"

"I don't live with my parents anymore..."

"Oh..." the boy said, wondering if he had said something wrong. "My mom used to scold me pretty hard whenever I was caught doing pranks. Stupid Naruto, he'd always screw up and get us caught. But after we've graduated, we stopped the pranks...mostly. One time we..."

Tenten laughed. The ice was broken. On the first night they had camped out in the woods.

On the next morning they resumed their journey, jumping from tree to tree.

"...and Hinata apologized for hours, after almost knocking me unconscious while practicing her jyuken on me."

"How I know your pain..." She stopped counting how many times Neji had knocked her out with jyuken. "That reminds me, I don't think I've ever seen your jutsu. I've heard about it though."

"I've only seen yours during the chuunin exams. Can't say I was impressed."

Tenten pouted. "That was a long time ago! I've become much stronger since then. If I were to fight that girl again, I would kick her butt!"

"Really? Here's your chance to show me how strong you've become." Kiba's voiced was now serious.

"Yes, you knew we were being followed too."

The two stopped and braced themselves, as three bulky ninjas came out of hiding when Tenten threw a kunai at them.

"Well, well. Those are the Konoha ninjas that were supposed to come here. Give us the painting if you don't want trouble!" said one of them.

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "But we haven't even reached the village yet. We don't have it."

The second ninja scolded the first. "I told you we were too early!" These guys didn't look very smart, nor strong for that matter.

"Care for some exercise?" Tenten smiled.

"You bet! Akamaru? Let's show Tenten and these guys our techniques!"

"Arf!"

Tenten watched as Akamaru changed into a clone of Kiba and the two of them used Gatsuuga on two of the thugs, knocking them out easily. The girl thought they looked very cool, but she didn't have time to stare for long, because the last enemy came after her. She summoned a bunch of sharp weapons and threw them at the bad guy who blocked some of them, while others hit the target right where intended. She then got a wooden staff, that she considered more than enough for such a weak enemy, showed Kiba a few cool moves and knocked the guy out. Kiba and Tenten exchanged a look and stared at the three unconscious ninjas.

"Think we overdid it?"

"Nah!"

The girl then noticed that one of the Kibas was licking the blood from a small cut wound on his hand, like a dog would. She found that both cute and disgusting, but mostly disgusting.

"Don't do that, Kiba-kun. Let me get my first aid kit."

Akamaru poofed back into his normal form, while Kiba stopped licking his hand. His ears twitched. No one ever called him Kiba-kun except Hinata.

"How could you tell I was the real one so easily?"

Tenten got some bandages and ointment from her backpack. "I don't know. I just knew. Give me your hand. This might sting a little."

The boy held out his hand and the girl washed the wound. She was amazed when Kiba didn't wince at all. Even Neji winced whenever she used that ointment on him. She bandaged his hand tighly.

"Thanks." He smiled. "You were pretty cool out there. Though these guys were nothing."

"You were cool too."

They left the unconscious ninjas there and carried on. The second night they camped out again.

On the third day they finally arrived in Grass village around dinner time. They were starving so they headed to a restaurant first. Upon entering one, Kiba pulled down his hood and excused himself to wash his hands in the restrooms while Tenten got a seat. When he returned, Tenten told him how amazed she was at his good manners. Uncovering his head when entering a public building and washing his hands before handling food? She thought Lee was the only person around her capable of being polite. Neji was selective about who he was polite to...

"My mom would bonk me on the head whenever I forgot to say please or anything like that. She's very strict, I told you she was scary!"

Tenten smiled. Wow, she never expected someone like him to be so polite. He really didn't look like that kind of person. Now that he wasn't wearing the hood anymore, she took a good look at his hair.

"Hey, you've got cool hair!"

"Cool hair? That's a first!"

"No, really! Sure it's messy, but it looks good!"

"Thanks, I guess."

The hair Tenten was used to seeing were either ridiculous bowl-cuts or annoyingly perfect and naturally beautiful hair that made all girls jealous, including herself.

Kiba had quite an appetite, which did not surprise her, actually. He ate three times as much as she did. He shared some with Akamaru, while she reached for her wallet to pay her tab.

She froze. "I've lost my wallet! All my cash and ID cards were in there!"

"No problem. I'll pay your part, then we'll look for it."

"How? We don't know where I lost it."

He winked at her. "Don't worry about it!"

They went outside. Tenten wondered how he possibly hoped to find it.

"Piece of cake, you'll see!" the boy grinned.

He approached the girl and sniffed her neck, making her blush slightly. He then proceeded to use his beast mimicry art to improve that excellent sense of smell of his.

"I've got it, follow me!"

Tenten followed Kiba down the streets of the village, watching him sniff the air occasionally. He seemed to know exactly where he was going. They had returned to the village entrance. Akamaru went on ahead and disappeared for a minute, and sure enough, he brought Tenten's wallet back in his mouth.

"There you go! Good job, Akamaru."

Tenten pet the dog's head. "Thanks! You two are amazing!"

Kiba blushed slighty, holding a hand behind his head. "That was nothing, really." The girl handed him the money he had paid for her at the restaurant. "Nah, no need to repay me. It's fine."

The two of them finally decided to head for that museum and retrieve the painting they were supposed to bring back to Konoha. They indeed received the painting there as they were supposed to. Tenten examined it. A nice spring scenery was painted.

"It's pretty. I wish I had that kind of talent."

Kiba shrugged. "I don't care much for these things. I lack the patience. But I bet you could do it."

Soon after that, the two of them rented a room with two small beds in a cheap hotel. They set up some traps just in case, then both of them collapsed on their bed, exhausted.

On the fourth day, Tenten took out the money that they had been given for their expenses on this mission, and saw that they had been given too much.

"Did Tsunade-sama expect us to be sleeping in luxury hotels on all five days or what? This is way too much. I wonder if that was a mistake. This hotel costs almost nothing. I guess we could bring it back to Tsunade-sama..."

"Or we could spend it all on ourselves..."

Kiba and Tenten exchanged a mischievous grin.

They went to fancy restaurants, they went shopping, they went to the zoo, they went to the movies. Manicure, massage, grooming (for Akamaru), ice cream, junk food and more...They spent like crazy. Then soon, night came.

"Shoot, Tsunade-sama said we should be back in five days. If we don't leave tonight, we won't make it back on the fifth day." Tenten noted.

Kiba paused. "Well, she did say to take it easy. I'm sure she won't mind if we make it in six days. It's dark already, let's leave tomorrow."

The girl nodded, and the two proceeded to get a new place to stay. This time, they used the money to get a fancy hotel room, and couldn't resist spending the last of it on room service.

The next morning, they left the village with the painting safely in Kiba's backpack. They soon regretted not leaving earlier, because it started raining a few hours after they had left. The rain didn't bother them much, but then the wind started blowing hard, blowing leaves and dust while thunder and lightning followed. It started pouring hard now. Their vision and sense of smell were greatly reduced and they couldn't risk getting the painting wet, so they decided to find a shelter for the night. Akamaru located a small cave, so they headed there. They made a fire and settled around it.

"I'm totally soaked," Tenten complained. "Would you mind turning around a minute?"

Kiba did as he was told, confused. The girl removed her pink shirt and set it near the fire to dry. She digged into her pack and wrapped herself in a blanket. She told the boy he could turn back now. He held back a blush when he realized that she was half naked under that blanket. He actually thought that was a good idea thought, so he did the same. Tenten turned her gaze away politely when the boy removed both his coat and shirt without warning and grabbed his own blanket. Boys really didn't have any sense of decency.

Next, the girl released her messy wet hair from the buns on her head and tried to comb it with her fingers. Kiba stared with great interest. Wow, she really was pretty even though she was somewhat of a tomboy.

"You know, you've got cool hair too..." he said, returning the compliment she had made to him before.

"Thanks. I don't let it down often because it gets in the way."

"That's really a shame..." he said quietly.

"Did you say something?"

"No...Yesterday was really fun, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. I haven't had this much fun in a while."

The two of them sat there a for while, watching the fire burning. Akamaru was already asleep. The boy eyed her discreetly. Tenten wasn't feminine like Sakura or Ino, or cute like Hinata but she wasn't bossy, violent or overly intraverted either. She was a normal girl. He found her refreshing. And pretty. He never noticed before.

The girl had similar thoughts about Kiba. There really was much more to him than meets the eye. He was kind, helpful and polite, three traits she imagined few people knew he had. He really knew how to have fun too. She found those animal-like eyes of his intriguing while he was also kind of cute.

Kiba noticed Tenten had been shivering. "Are you still cold?"

"Kinda, it's humid in here..."

The boy went to sit beside her and wrapped half of his blanket around her, keeping the other half for himself. She was about to thank him when she noticed his face was only inches from hers. The next thing they knew, their lips had met and they kissed. None of them had ever imagined that they would be sharing their first kiss together. Fate liked to be tricky. When their lips parted, they both blushed and smiled bashfully. Then, without a word, they settled on the floor and slept next to each other.

On the sixth day, they reached Konoha around midday. None of them had mentionned what had happened the night before during the travel. They hurried to see Tsunade and give the painting.

"You two are late. You took an extra day." The teens apologized and she sighed. "Was the money I gave you enough to pay for the painting?"

Kiba and Tenten eyed each other. What was she talking about? "Sure..." the boy lied.

So the money was never meant for them and they were supposed to buy the painting with it? That's why they had received so much! For some reason the manager of the museum had given it for free. Probably a misunderstanding. They decided it was best not to inform Tsunade of that...

"Anyways, good job. Tenten, sorry for not letting you rest but your teammates are back and you're meeting with them in two hours. I wasn't expecting you to be back one day later."

"I understand." Gees, no rest and only two hours to prepare...

The young ninjas excused themselves and stepped out of the Hokage's office and exited the building.

"Thank God Tsunade-sama didn't ask about the money! Let's keep it a secret, just between you and me, ok?" Kiba asked.

Tenten giggled. "Of course! Well, gotta go prepare for yet another mission now." She was about to leave, but stopped when Kiba called her name.

"Tenten, see you soon?" He wanted to make sure that last night really did mean something.

She nodded. He smiled and both went their separate ways.

And that's exactly how Kiba and Tenten had 'bonded during that one mission together'. What had happened during those six days would remain their little secret.

Yay! Did that make some sense? That was a flashback chapter. Main story continues next chapter. Please review and stay tuned.