A/N - Sorry this took so long! To be honest I'd written this before I even uploaded Chapter 3, but I wanted to keep a week between uploads. And then... well, I had a lot going on, so I kinda forgot about it! But here it is! Another Kibacentric chapter, hope you like it!

*Disclaim-uh I do not own anything*

REVIEWS ARE ENCOURAGED :D

The pure white light of morning turned to red as it passed through the thin curtains of Kiba's bedroom. Akamaru lay sprawled across the floor on a makeshift bed of rugs, snoring loudly, but no one complained. In a house of dogs, snoring was always going to be commonplace.

Kiba himself was awake and curled up under the thick, warm covers of his bed, which was a behaviour far from normal. Generally he slept through the night with no interruptions, tossing and turning and snoring and dreaming and ending up splayed across the bed in what others would consider an uncomfortable position. Last night, however, had been different for Kiba.

He had slept, but he had not dreamed.

This was something that troubled him. He'd always had an overactive imagination even at the worst of times. The dreams he had were rarely of consequence; most of the time they were abstract only, feelings and ideas with no corporeal figures. But for him to stop dreaming altogether was a turning point. What did it mean? He was unsettled by the questions it raised.

He lay still for a few moments longer, trying to settle himself. To stop thinking irrationally. To remember that he had to get up and train. It was close to midday, judging by the way the light hit his window and the smells he could taste in the air. It sounded like his older sister, Hana, was visiting, too. Damn. He didn't want to get out of bed, if that was the case. She'd be on his back again about moving out of home and taking on some of the special A-rank missions the Hokage had planned. He might consider taking on one or two in the future, yes, but at the moment he did not have the patience. Or the motivation.

Although, he could come up with a few reasons to get out of the village, the foremost being that he would not have to face today.

Akamaru grumbled in his sleep and Kiba's brow furrowed. There was something wrong here. Where was the feeling of nausea, the emotional exhaustion, that he had felt yesterday? Where was the beast in the pit of his stomach that reared its ugly head whenever he thought of her? When he thought of how jealous he was of him?

He'd thought that the pain would be worse today, of all days. But... no, he did a mental inventory, and he seemed perfectly fine. Numb, even.

Well, throw him to the dogs! Today might not be such a bad day after all.

If he could keep this feeling up.

To Kiba's surprise, by the time he'd bathed and dressed and headed downstairs his sister was long gone, and Tsume sat at the small wooden table that stood between the kitchen and the main foyer, a mug in her hands and the giant Kuromaru at her feet. Her son, pleased that the weight of a grim lecture from Hana had been lifted from his already burdened shoulders, walked past and patted Kuromaru affectionately, giving Tsume a quick, hopefully reassuring smile before ducking into the kitchen.

"Don't think you can escape from me, Kiba Inuzuka." Tsume warned from behind him, "when you come back through that door I want answers."

Kiba wasn't even hungry. Now that he was faced with the inevitable lecture he'd hoped to avoid - and from his mother, of all people - he asked himself why he hadn't just jumped out of his bedroom window, like he did most other training days. He'd forgotten that Tsume had seen him come home in a bad state last night...

To satisfy her, he padded to the fridge, poured himself a glass of milk - leaving the remainder of the carton's contents in a bowl for Akamaru - and made his way back into the room where Tsume waited patiently, neither of them saying a word. He took a seat opposite her civily and yet hesitantly, not wanting to wait around but knowing full well that, if he were to run or refuse to speak with her, he would be unfit to train, or even walk, for a week.

Tsume noticed his strangely obedient behaviour and gave him a wide, sneering grin, something that would appear frightening to anyone who had not seen it before. "Well. An old dog can be taught new tricks."

"It appears so." Kiba replied, trying to remain nonchalant. His fingers toyed with the half-empty glass of milk that rested on the table before him.

Tsume sighed, the fierceness in her eyes dying. "I don't know what's bothering you but I wish you'd tell me about it." She started, "You've been moody and bothersome for weeks now, and last night... well, to say I'm worried is an understatement."

Kiba said nothing. He toyed with his glass some more, paying more attention to the way his fingers were trembling and silently begging them to stop.

Tsume reached a hand out to her son, grasping the sleeve of his leather jacket with her long fingernails. "Are you worried about training? Because being a jounin can be tough, Kiba. If you're not up to it I can talk to the Hokage for -"

"Training is easy, oka-chan!" Kiba protested, cutting her off in frustration. "If I'd known being a jounin would be so simple I would have trained harder to get there earlier." He barked, a laugh borne of nervousness. "Seriously, I think being a chuunin was harder."

Tsume looked at him through narrow black eyes. "Then what was yesterday? And why have I had to live under the same roof as a zombie for the past month?"

Kiba would not answer truthfully. He went over the real answers to her questions in his head. What was yesterday? It was sheer emotional exhaustion. It was the breakdown of every real or imagined wall of fortification he had built against the inevitable.

And why had Tsume had a zombie under her roof for a month? The transformation was the result of a tumultus month of listening to his best friend come to terms with a new-found confidence in herself. It was the result of one whole month of understanding. She was leaving him.

Because, in his mind, that was what was happening. Hinata Hyuuga had been a stable fixture in his life for seven years, and he'd often considered her 'his girl'. And though he knew she'd been pining after Naruto he'd let it go, knowing that she confided in Kiba more than anyone else. Kiba had still been her favourite.

But a month ago, Hinata had announced with shining eyes that she really would confess to Naruto her true feelings someday. The angry demon that curled obediently around Kiba's chest had roared to life then, and had left him physically and emotionally drained. That was what Tsume had been living with.

Not today, though. Today seemed relatively beast-free, for the most part, and Kiba knew he could control himself - and the answers to his mother's questions. He set his glass down, clasped his hands together and sat back in his chair, smiling casually. "Oka-chan, I said training was easy, and it is. It's the rivalry between jounins that's tiring." And he wasn't lying; he was just relating his current feelings to training rather than relationships. "We're a really tight-knit group, and it's hard not to get a little competitive. Shino, Hinata, myself and Naruto -" Although, he could admit that it was rather hard not to wince at the name, "- we all train together most days, and things do get out of hand sometimes. You know, duelling, testing each other's stamina and endurance, trying out new jutsus..."

Tsume stared into his face for a few more moments, seemingly unconvinced, and then she shook her head.

"Hana and I..." She started, "we're both Inuzukas too, you know. We can sense when something's wrong, especially with you. You can't have forgotten that Hana's name literally means 'nose', can you? She can smell those kinds of things." She wrinkled her own nose, then added, "A trait she obviously did not get from her father. He never did know when something was up..."

Kiba snorted. "Or maybe he was just so scared of you he didn't want to get on your bad side by assuming things."

Tsume growled, then petted Kuromaru, looking at the bare tabletop in front of her. "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything?"

"Sure, sure." Kiba said, nonchalant and glad for the change in topic. "I'd rather talk to you than Hana any day." He picked up his glass and downed the remainder of his milk in one gulp.

"Don't be so hard on your sister. She's just loooking out for you, Kiba."

Kiba stood and carried his glass back into the kitchen. "I know." He said softly. He rinsed it in the sink, then turned and leant back against the counter, staring at nothing in particular. He was silent for a few moments, and it seemed that his mother was waiting for something, for she hadn't moved from her chair. He cleared his throat and re-entered the room where Tsume sat patiently. "I'd better hurry and get down to the training grounds. Shino's dying to try out his new jutsus on me." He winced for effect. "Hope they don't hurt as much as they did yesterday."

Tsume, who was still petting Kuromaru's fur, pointed a warning finger at him with her free hand. "If you come back home in the same state you were in last night, I'll be having words with that boy!"

Kiba laughed, sincerely touched by her concern. "If it's all the same to you, oka-chan, I'd rather keep my training partner the way he is. Loss of limb will leave me with an advantage, and I'm strong enough as it is." He winked at her, then sprinted for the door before she could inflict the playful but excruciatingly painful punch to his shoulder that he knew would be coming next.

Akamaru, as always, met him at the edge of the village proper. The large dog enjoyed taking a fast sprint around the forest before joining his master at training, and it seemed that either Kiba had been talking for longer than he thought, or Akamaru was getting faster.

"You were asleep when I left my room!" He said, exasperated. "What pills has Tsume got you on now? The last ones made you hard enough to keep up with, Akamaru!"

Akamaru barked in reply and sped off into the training forest, with Kiba on his heels.

Wow, Kiba felt like he was on fire today! He twisted and he turned and he snaked through the trees, below and above them, and still he felt he could do more. He channeled his chakra and, mid-step on a large tree branch, gave himself a burst of speed that tore the tree's limb free and sent it crashing to the ground below. Akamaru caught him and together they patrolled their territory, making their way swiftly to the open clearing that was their team's designated training ground.

When Kiba arrived, feeling more invigorated than he had in a month - at least - Shino Aburame greeted him with a reserved nod of his hooded and bespectacled head. Akamaru trotted over to him and rolled over onto his back, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as Shino scratched his belly.

"Hinata isn't here yet?" Kiba asked, still amazed that he could keep his composure; he had expected to choke on the kunoichi's name, or at least make some kind of involuntary facial twitch.

But Shino noticed nothing, and replied as curtly as always. "No. Naruto came around earlier; he said Hinata would not be training today."

Kiba's heart stopped.

Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit! There it was. The beast, the mother of all emotional monsters, biting and clawing at his insides, making up for the few peaceful hours he had revelled in this morning. His pupils contracted, his fangs extended by at least an inch, and he growled low and menacingly at something hardly tangible. The vigour he had felt turned into rage, and he felt angrier than he ever had in all of his life.

Akamaru was quickly at his side, sniffing the air for the taint that his master must have sensed to be acting in such a way. There was nothing but clean air on the wind; the dog could hear and see nothing but the trees.

Shino, however, understood the source of Kiba's reaction, and tensed visibly. "Go. I'll stay with Akamaru."

Within seconds, he was gone, speeding through the undergrowth and ignoring the branches and thorns that cut his face, his clothing, tangled in his hair. The village seemed closer than usual; his speed was insane, out of control.

Kiba's worst fears had been realised; Hinata had confessed, and Naruto had taken possession of her, forbidding her from training to keep her safe.

Kiba would kill him.

In his rage, Kiba Inuzuka didn't even need any type of Byakugan to find Naruto. He knew that his hunt was, as always at this time of day, hiding away in the Hokage's Residence, scribing paperwork and aiding Tsunade in organising shinobi missions. His speed increased dramatically as he came into sight of the mansion, and the entrance meant nothing to him; he flung himself up the side of a building close by, scrabbling up with extended claws. He launched himself upward, finding purchase on the tiled roof, and looked across with acute sight into the large windows of the Hokage's office.

Within the dimly-lit room he could see two figures, neither of them Tsunade, though one was distinctly female. Kiba sniffed the air experimentally, catching the familiar scent of roses, raspberry and soap; the woman was Kurenai Yuui, his first and last jounin sensei. Just over a year ago she had opted out of the shinobi life and given birth to a healthy baby girl, the father of whom was the late Asuma Sarutobi, who had been killed during the shinobi wars. Since then she had not returned to missions, and all three of her students had been elevated to jounin status, forming a three-man squad of their own. Kurenai had always had a soft-spot for Hinata, filling the hole where Hinata's mother would have been.

If Kurenai was talking to Naruto, something big must have happened. His instincts told him to remain where he was, silent and still, but he wanted to hear more; he needed to know what had really transpired.

So with speed borne of anger he took a running leap and threw himself across the wide expanse of space to the roof of the mansion, where he turned and dug his claws deep into the concrete, lowering his upper body carefully down the wall and hoping to catch a whisper or two.

It took barely a moment for Kiba sensitive hearing to pick up the conversation between Kurenai and the yellow-haired jounin.

"... I already told you, Kurenai-sensei, I didn't know! If I had known, I would have tried to stop it from getting to this point in the first place. I never meant to hurt her!"

"You say you had no idea she felt so strongly for you?"

"I honestly did not know. She never said anything until now..."

"Even if she never said anything, did you never once think that perhaps the way she looked at you was different to the way Sakura did, in the beginning?"

"I... I never really noticed."

"I always thought you were a bit behind, Naruto-kun, but not this dense. ... Well, despite all of this, I thank you for giving her a straight and definite answer. Perhaps now she will start training for herself, and not just for you."

"... I'm truly sorry, Kurenai-sensei. For not realising it sooner. I'll try to stay out of her way for a while; I know that's what I wanted Sakura to do, when she turned me down."

Kiba's ears prickled. 'I'll try to stay out of her way for a while'... wait. Shit. Did that mean he had rejected Hinata's confession?

Kurenai's reply was lost in static, for Kiba had already lost his concentration and was struggling with the many emotions that were quickly passing through his body. Relief; Naruto had not taken possession of her. Anger; why was Naruto so stupid, to not even realise that the kunoichi had been in love with him for years? Sadness; it sounded as though Hinata was heartbroken.

It was this last point that solidified the final emotion he felt; fear. For he did not know where she was, or what she would do, when her mission had failed.

He went after her immediately, leaving long, angry claw-marks down the side of the Hokage's mansion.

For almost an hour he searched the inner streets of Konoha, despite his intuition telling him that she would have left the city far behind, perhaps hiding in the forests or just beyond the village gates. He did not even bother to check the Hyuuga residence; she would not return home only to be faced with her father and brat-of-a-sister. Once his sweep of the village was completed and he had not located the missing kunoichi, he decided to head towards their training grounds, in the hopes that she had wandered somewhere familiar. Feeling more than a little anxious for her, his speed increased twofold, and every step sent the earth flying up behind him.

Upon breaking through the last wall of foliage and stumbling back into the clearing that was their designated training ground, Kiba was greeted by a sharp bark from Akamaru, who had been perched beside Shino; it seemed as though neither of them had moved, though he had been gone for almost two hours now.

White-hot anger rose up into Kiba's mouth. "You never told me Naruto rejected her," he spat at Shino, recalling the words he had said the last time they had spoken.

The bug-user merely lifted one eyebrow from behind his black goggles. "She confessed? I did not know. All Naruto said was that Hinata would most likely not be at training"

Well, goddamn. That was a mistake. Kiba bit back the harsh curses that he felt he ought to utter; damn that Naruto! Despite his boisterous exterior, he really did have the right idea; he understood that Hinata would be mortified if anyone knew she had confessed and been rejected, and therefore hadn't told Shino what had happened, merely that she would not be training. It seemed the kid did have some sort of conscience, after all, and Kiba growled at his own idiocy.

"Forget it," he muttered, stalking past his taller teammate, whistling to Akamaru to follow. "If you see her, send for me. Don't you say a word about this."

"Of course," Shino said passively, still rooted to that same spot but turning his head to watch as the man disappeared, followed closely by his large, shaggy companion, "I see you have this under control."

When Kiba was just outside of the forest clearing he stopped walking and attempted to empty his whirring mind. He knew he would have to concentrate to find her quickly, which was all he wanted to do. He motioned for Akamaru to heel, and the overgrown canine complied, seating himself comfortably on the leafy floor.

It took a few moments for Kiba Inuzuka's thoughts to quieten down, for his anger and fear to subside enough to feel the earth around him. He closed his eyes, and all of a sudden he could hear and smell everything within a three kilometre radius, a skill he had honed over the years. It was still no match for Hinata's Byakugan, but it was useful all the same.

With careful precision, he began to filter through the different sounds and smells, testing each corner of his awareness - a bird's cry a kilometre to the west, the stream to the east, ash from a fire passing overhead - until he pinpointed something odd.

Hidden by the sound of the gurgling stream, he could hear what sounded like muffled crying.

On further probing, he caught the wind as it turned in his direction and he could smell flowers.

He knew that scent.

He opened his eyes slowly, taking a deep breath of his favourite smell, and clicked his tongue, signalling for Akamaru to stay. And then, careful not to make too much noise, he continued on, calmer than he had been in days.

He followed the sweet, sorrowful scent of lavender and tears until he came upon the small, hunched figure of his quarry - his Hinata - curled around herself at the base of a tree. The stream was bubbling and flowing away, as if a whole world had not been crushed, as though it had no inkling as to why this girl was so upset.

Kiba Inuzuka, despite how detached and carefree he always was, felt his heart break in two.