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"Hey! Akamaru! Where are you?" a six-year-old Kiba cried out.
He and Akamaru conducted some exploring on their own, apart from the rest of the class, and now he had lost Akamaru. No, Kiba was not lost, no matter what that Shino kid and the Uchiha would be insisting. He merely enjoyed exploring without a dirt path to follow, in an area of the forest where the rest of his classmates would never be able to find him. That's why he was so good at Hide-and-go-Seek.
Kiba fought through shrubbery and once was attacked by a feisty tree and a lethal rose bush. The plants ganged up on him, he swore it! He stumbled backwards after claiming victory over the now-ruined rose bush and tripped onto a river bank. A familiar yelp reached his ears over the sound of rushing rapids. Kiba shot up and saw Akamaru being dragged away by the rapids.
"AKAMARU!" Kiba cried, diving in after him.
That's when he remembered. Not only did Akamaru not know how to swim, but neither did he. His head went under, hands flailing about above. Akamaru's howls became muffled in his ears. His lungs seemed to compress with little oxygen. He tried to fight his instincts for once in his life, but he couldn't. He opened his mouth and breathed in. He knew no more after that.
-
Kiba slowly opened his eyes. His vision was bleary, but he could just make out an almost familiar face. It seemed tan and in possession of long hair in a ponytail.
"Kiba-kun! Thank Kami-sama, you're alive!" Iruka-sensei's voice pounded in his ears, inducing a headache.
Kiba sat up and rubbed at his eyes. What happened? He scanned his memory for recent events.
"Akamaru! Where's Akamaru?" Kiba demanded.
"He's right here, safe and sound in a blanket next to the oven. You're both in my apartment," Iruka-sensei reassured. "Are you feeling cold?"
"Uh, yeah, a little," Kiba said, shivering slightly.
Iruka-sensei nodded, stood up, and walked over to the stove, carefully avoiding Akamaru.
"Would you like hot chocolate or tea?"
"Hot chocolate!"
Iruka-sensei chuckled to himself. Kiba grinned happily at him. The six-year-old beckoned Akamaru to him and his puppy complied. The dog walked over to Kiba, careful in keeping his blanket secure on his back.
"Do my parents know I'm here?" Kiba asked.
Iruka-sensei frowned a little.
"I'm afraid they don't. Your father had a very important mission and your mother hasn't come back from her mission. Your sister is being taken care of by your aunt, but I have yet to locate her."
"Oh. Okay."
Kiba accepted his hot chocolate and blew on it before taking a sip.
"Thanks for saving me, Iruka-sensei!"
"Your welcome. Kiba-kun, do you know how to swim?"
"Uh, no, I don't, but I wasn't really thinking about that. I just wanted to make sure Akamaru was safe, that's all."
Iruka-sensei nodded.
"Just, please, Kiba-kun, don't go running off like that again. You had me very worried. When I couldn't find you with the others, it was like a nightmare. You and your classmates are my first students, did you now that?"
Kiba blinked in surprise.
"What? We're your first students! But you act like you've been doing this for years!"
Iruka-sensei laughed good-naturedly.
"I'm glad you think so. Actually, I've always been able to manage children well for some reason, even back in . . . ."
Iruka-sensei shook his head and ruffled Kiba's hair.
"Just don't go diving into water without knowing how to swim again, okay?" the seventeen-year-old teacher said.
"Okay!" Kiba replied happily.
-
Twelve-year-old Kiba sat at his seat, chin sitting in his left hand while his right hand scribbled on a piece of paper. From a distance, one would think that he was taking notes. Someone who knew Kiba knew that he wasn't taking notes. But no one, not even Akamaru, would be able to guess what he was drawing, not even by noticing that he kept his eyes on Iruka-sensei except for glancing every now and then at his paper. Akamaru, who was sitting on his head, wouldn't be able to understand why Kiba was drawing a (very good) picture of Iruka-sensei, and Kiba wouldn't explain if Akamaru asked him. Why was Kiba drawing a picture of his teacher? It was because he found himself being infatuated with Iruka-sensei ever since he realized he had a crush on him, and that was when he was ten years old. Maybe this crush started back when Iruka-sensei saved his butt back when he was six. Kiba didn't know and, to be quite honest, he didn't care. Other than an occasional thought on how his parents and sister would react to the fact that he, the future head of their clan, was homosexual, all he really thought about in his free time was what a love life with Iruka-sensei would be like. He always found himself blushing heavily whenever he reached a certain part.
Kiba blinked when he realized that the bell had rung. He quickly gathered his things clumsily and dashed out the door, not wanting to be late for lunch. The sounds of paper fluttering against the wind erupted throughout the class, and Kiba failed to notice that certain drawings fell out of his notebook.
-
Kiba didn't notice until he was fourteen. He hadn't seen Iruka-sensei in way too long and he couldn't stand it any more. Even in paper form, it would be enough. But he couldn't find the more graphic drawings. He panicked.
"Uh, Hana, you didn't happen to find any drawings of mine, did you?" Kiba asked hesitantly.
"No," his sister replied casually. "I didn't even know you liked to draw."
Kiba frowned. There went his first guess.
"Okaa-san, you haven't found any drawings done by me, have you?"
"No, Kiba-chan, and I'm a little busy. I don't have time for that," his mother said.
Kiba nodded, thanking Kami-sama that she didn't find them. That would've been the second worst case scenario. The worst would be . . . Iruka-sensei finding them.
Kiba paled considerably and he dashed off to find Iruka-sensei. This was bad. This was very, very bad.
-
Kiba found Iruka-sensei sitting in his office at the Academy, staring at what looked like some documents. Kiba hesitantly knocked on the door. What does he think if he has them? What'll he think if I ask looking all scared and he doesn't have them? What if he does have them, and he hates me? Kiba couldn't bare the thought of it.
"Ah, Kiba-kun, hello!" Iruka-sensei greeted, sounding surprised. "Is something wrong? You seem tense."
"Uh . . . Iruka-sensei, you don't happen to have any . . . drawings I've lost, do you? They were . . . kind of personal." Yeah, that sounded really brave and manly, Kiba, you idiot!
"Oh. You mean these?"
Kiba looked up and paled at the sight of pictures of Iruka-sensei shirtless, Iruka-sensei waist-deep in the hot springs, Iruka-sensei with his clothes sticking to him because of rain and sweat, and several others that weren't nearly as embarrassing. Great, now he was probably going to think of him as some sort of stalker!
"I have only one question. Why are all of these of me?" Iruka-sensei asked.
The man stood in front of Kiba and knelt down so that they were at eye-level. Kiba flushed slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but it wouldn't come out; he wondered if this was what Hinata always felt like. Iruka-sensei waited patiently for some sort of response. Kiba knew that he probably didn't expect to be lip-locked by his former student. The kiss, though heavenly, only lasted five seconds. Iruka-sensei pulled back, looking surprised. Kiba hoped that it was only surprised, not disgusted or anything. It was bad enough that he couldn't see him enough what with missions and training. The fourteen-year-old waited for a rejection; as Kiba grew older, he realized that Iruka-sensei was too much to ask for.
"Kiba-kun, are you sure I'm the one you want? That I'm not just some stupid crush that you'll get over in a few months?"
"No!" Kiba said loudly and suddenly. "I've loved you ever since I was at least ten! That's four years! Iruka-sensei, I don't have a crush on you. I love you!"
There, it was out.
Iruka-sensei, after a few moments of letting it sink in, smiled warmly at him.
"I love you too, Kiba-kun."
Kiba's face lit up and he kissed Iruka-sensei on the lips again. Iruka-sensei pushed him away, though. Kiba looked at him confusedly.
"But, we can't do anything until you're seventeen."
Kiba blinked. He blinked again. He blinked twice more.
"WHAT?" he yelled, pouting. "THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
-
Red Roses2: Please report any OOC-ness, grammatical errors, ect. Lucky Kiba gets to kiss Iruka-kun while Shikamaru only got to be cuddled. Flames will be banished to the netherworld. Constructive critism would be appreciated.