Most of the times when Gaara talked, Kankurou listened, almost devotedly. He was the one who took notes, gave the orders through to the people who needed to be ordered, he was the one who helped his brother whenever he could.
But this time the soft, monotone voice of his brother hardly reached his ears. The paper that was laying in front of him was still empty.
"I take it you've memorized everything I said" Gaara suddenly said, reaching out to place his hand on the empty paper.
Kankurou looked up. "Eh...?".
Green eyes pierced right through him, two lips firmly pressed onto eachother. Kankurou knew what that ment, Gaara was annoyed.
"Something is bothering you" he said as he leaned back in his chair.
Kankurou looked up, turning his head towards his brother. It was impossible to discuss such matters with Gaara. He would probably not understand, and second of all Kankurou wasn't the person to openly admit such feelings. They were confusing enough already. Showing emotions never had been the latest fashion in Sunagakure and Kankurou was definetly not the person who would ever break that tradition.
"Hmpf" Kankurou uttered as he got up. "I'm not quite of a help right now".
"That didn't took me long to figure that out" Gaara responded, eyes still piercing through him.
"I'm going. I'll see you later". With a casual wave Kankurou turned around and headed for the door of Gaara's office.
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Inuzuka Kiba had been suspiciously quiet today. So quiet that even Shino had noticed it. Hinata had been worried, carefully asking what was the matter. But what could Kiba possibly answer? That his mind was occupied with a certain male shinobi, that his hormones made it feel like he was in love with that person? As far as Kiba knew he'd never had feelings for men, heck, he'd been crushing on Hinata the day he got placed in a team with her.
And after the harsh workout he found himself sitting behind the dinnertable, looking at his food. The average Inuzuka would have chowed down that bowl in 3 seconds, but Kiba was still staring at it. Eyes fixed on the tangled noodles, thoughts trailing off.
It earned him a suspicious look from his mother.
"Your food is getting cold, Kiba" she said, voice harsh.
Disturbed by the loud tone of her voice he looked up at her as his brains were working hard to process the words she had spoken.
"Yea.." he finally answered, hand moving to grab the untouched chopsticks.
He ate his meal in an almost mechanic way. Not tasting the food, not noticing he was eating it at all. Whatever Kankurou was doing to his mindset, it promised to be trouble.
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Kankurou had been wandering through the village for almost the entire day. Checking up on the guards, assigning small missions to Genin-teams, spending time with his sister during lunch, ending this all up with welcoming a Konoha-convoy that arrived around the evening.
He had been waiting for quite a time, enough time to give a certain Inuzuka enough space in his head to drive him nuts. The obvious frown on his face caused by that could not be ignored. And with that frown he watched the four silhouette's that had appeared at the horizon come closer.
A girl with long black hair, a nice rack and a troubled expression on his face. Quite nice to look at, but weak enough to not care.
An older boy, face hidden behind goggles, the high collar of his coat and the hood he was wearing over his head. Bugfreak.
And then there was this other guy, looking quite tired from travelling through the desert. Looking quite nice in a black, tight jacket, accompanied by a ridiculously huge dog. Total confusion.
The puppeteer closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, deciding that the universe did not love him.
Of all people, why did Konoha send Kiba?
He did not care about the morbidly shy Hyuuga-girl, maybe he cared a little about bugfreak, but not enough to allow him to let the Aburame reach Kiba's level. Because Kankurou did care about Kiba, in a way he didn't wanted to care about people.
Three people and a dog followed him through the village. Kankurou did not speak, neither did the three behind him. They were probably tired, and longing for some nice, comfortable beds in the hotel. The only thing Kankurou was longing for was an end to this confusion. And with Kiba in his presence again that was certainly one thing that was not going to happen.
Finally he stopped in front of a small building.
"I'll notice Gaara of your arrival" he said, nodding at the door of the building. "Rooms 4, 5 and 6 are all yours".
He heared sighs of relief next to him. Only Shino remained silent.
Kankurou shrugged slightly before nodding at the trio and the dog. "Goodnight" he said, already busy with turning around and getting away from them.
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He was halfway of the street when he heared quick footsteps approach him. It came from behind. Almost immediately he knew he didn't have to turn around to figure out who it was.
Silently Kiba started walking beside him, Akamaru following in his shadow.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Kankurou asked.
"Nah..".
"Weren't you the one sighing with relief just yet?".
"Yeah".
"Then what are you doing here walking next to me?" Kankurou wanted to know.
The Inuzuka shrugged, his face looked troubled and confused. An exact copy of the look on Kankurou's own face right now. Probably both were suffering with the same feelings. One trying desperately to ignore them and tuck them away, the other trying to deal with them in the most understandable way.
"This is just so...wrong" Kiba said, almost a whisper.
Kankurou turned his head to the side, one brow raised. "What?".
Kiba looked back, still frowning. "Hmn, never mind... Just talking to myself a bit".
Somehow Kankurou's eyes couldn't really move away from Kiba anymore. And when he noticed that he was staring at the Inuzuka for such a long time it was already too late. Kiba was looking back at him, with this strange helpless look on his face.
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Kankurou just couldn't stand this anymore. This was enough, he had reached his personal limit. Kiba was still walking besides him, doing nothing more then only confusing him and driving him nuts.
With a growl he grabbed Kiba's wrist in a rough way, dragging the young man from the street into a small alley. He pinned him against the gritty wall.
"I do not know what you're doing with my head, but you are going to stop it...now" Kankurou hissed in Kiba's face.
The other's face looked pale and shocked but there wasn't an answer coming out of his mouth.
"Stop it!" the puppeteer demanded. "Do you know how annoying it is when you can't stop thinking about someone?! When you fuck up your work, your duties because of that?! Don't you realize what you're doing...to me?".
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Now it was Kiba's time to respond. He decided he didn't had to put up with this. With a low, doggish growl he took a hold of one of Kankurou's hands and bit in it. Hard. With a scream the puppeteer let go but Kiba did not gave him too much time to regain his breath, strength and focus again.
A loud, fierce bark was audible announcing Akamaru appearance on the scene, jumping on top of Kankurou, pinning the puppeteer down on the ground. The dog growled fierce, showing his fangs, ready to strike.
Kiba blinked a couple of times and rubbed his shoulder, Kankurou had quite some strength in his hands, he had to admit.
"Akama..." he said, planning to tell his dog to let the unfortunate puppeteer go.
But this was one of the moments Kiba got reminded of the fact he was dealing with a Jounin-level ninja, one with skills greater then his. This was because of the fact Akamaru was the one laying flat on the ground now, whimpering softly, bound by small chakrastrings.
Kankurou stood next to the dog, removing his glove with his teeth to check out the bitemark Kiba had left in his hand while controlling the strings with his other.
"Let Akamaru go" Kiba said, not being a request, more a demand.
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With a casual movement of his hand Kankurou removed the chakrathreads from Kiba's dog. His eyes rested on the little holes the sharp teeth of the Leaf ninja made in his hand. Then he brought that hand to his mouth, licking the blood away, thoughtfully.
He noticed how Kiba had passed him and was now sitting down in a crouch next to Akamaru.
"Are you allright, Akamaru?" he asked, worried.
"He's fine...I didn't hurt him, just tied him down a bit" Kankurou answered, moving his hand a bit, checking if his fingers, nerves and muscles were still working.
The Inuzuka got up, petting Akamaru in the process.
"Your hand...?" he asked.
"Fine" Kankurou answered without looking.
"Sorry".
Kankurou put his glove back on, bending and stretching his fingers as a final test before deciding his hand wasn't injured that bad.
"Hmpf" he muttered under his breath. "My bad...shouldn't treat guests like that. I'll walk you back to your hotel".
The Sand ninja turned around, ready to walk off, motioning Kiba to follow him.
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Kiba's eyes narrowed for a bit as he chewed his lower lip thoughtfully.
His hand shot out, grabbing Kankurou's wrist.
"Kankurou..?".
It seemed like Kiba's body was quicker than his thoughts again. That sort of things mostly happened, Kiba wasn't much of a thinker, he was more of a do-er.
The puppeteer had turned around again, eyes darting from the hand around his wrist to Kiba's face.
"Let me go".
"Sorry" the Inuzuka said again, not apologizing for the fact he grabbed Kankurou's arm like that, more for the thing he would be doing next.
Kiba had always been fast in his movements, and that was the advantage he needed to pull this off. His mind was completely blank at the moment he had placed both his hands on Kankurou's cheeks. But when his lips brushed those of the other he became aware of a certain relaxed feeling, soothing him, telling him this was the right thing to do. That it never had been wrong to feel this way about another male.
The only one who was complaining was Akamaru who was not getting much of his owner first attacking this person, and now kissing him. With a small whimper he let Kiba know he wasn't exactly agreeing.
Protected by the darkness the alley, Kiba kissed him. He had to go deep to find courage to make this happen, make this more then just moving his lips against those of Kankurou. Afraid that the puppeteer might freak out, slap him in the face, break the magic Kiba wanted to happen so bad.
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But Kankurou did none of those things.
His mind was tired of resisting feelings, ignoring them for that matter.
He wasn't the one that freaked out, pulled back or denied Kiba his kiss. He was the one who slowly moved his hand up, placing it on the back of Kiba's neck, making sure the Inuzuka wouldn't go anywhere. Fingers touched soft hair as he slowly allowed himself to part his lips a few inches. His heart was beating with anticipation. He'd never kissed someone and actually, it had never been his intention to give his first kiss away to a guy.
Lips moved over his. Eager, needy.
A tongue moved over his teeth, forcing him to open his mouth more.
He had to admit, the Inuzuka was quite handy with his tongue.
Now just a little bit...
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"Kiba?".
Just when their kiss was about to be taken to a next level a timid voice, not far away from the alley, completely ruined the mood. Kiba frowned deeply as he broke the kiss. A quick look at Kankurou's face told him that he was thinking exactly the same thing. And if he wasn't mistaken there was also a small blush visible on the cheeks of the puppeteer. Quite cute, he had to admit.
Hinata appeared only a couple of seconds later.
"K..Kiba-kun? Shino...and I were...worried... I...I came to check up...if you..you were allright".
"I'm fine" Kiba answered. "Kankurou here was just showing me around a bit". Kiba knew that was quite a lame excuse, and he knew Hinata must be wondering why the puppeteer felt the need to introduce her teammate to some remote alley.
"Oh...I..I didn't ment to disturb...that".
"You already disturbed that, miss" Kankurou answered as he turned around. Bitterness shined through in his words. The puppeteer looked over his shoulder before he left.
"See you around, Kiba".