-Ten Weeks After The End Of Chapter 9-

The April wind nipped at Kiba's unprotected ears as he leaned with his back against the trunk of the tree. The light drizzle dampened his hair just enough to saturate it, but not enough to make it drip. The wind let up for a brief second, giving some relief to his already-numb face. He uncrossed his arms from his chest and checked his watch. 6:34. He met Naruto every morning outside his house to walk him to school at 6:32. He was living with his mother, but even though his father was in jail, awaiting trial, he was still afraid that he would find him again. That's where Kiba came in. For the past ten weeks, he had been at Naruto's side every second of every day.

It wasn't until the first month had passed that Naruto realized that Kiba had a massive crush on him. It was Neji who told him. Though Kiba hadn't told anyone, Neji was just very observant. When Naruto thought back to the past weeks that Kiba had been by his side, he realized that not once had he made a pass at the blonde. Kiba was with him in his most vulnerable state, and not once had he tried to take advantage of it.

Over the next week and a half, Naruto began to become more and more attracted to his canine-loving friend. Tension developed between the two, though Kiba obviously had no idea what to attribute it to. It all became clear to him, though, when he was walking Naruto home one night. They had gone out for ramen one of the only things that got Naruto's mind off of his situation and were at the blonde's door. Naruto stared at Kiba, until he said "What?" in an impatient voice.

After a few more minutes of Kiba demanding to know what Naruto was doing, Naruto pushed his body against Kiba's, pressing his own lips against those of his friend. Kiba was caught off-guard, and was in shock to say the least. But as soon as he recovered, he kissed back. They allowed the others' arms to explore their back as their tongues intertwined. Kiba could taste Naruto's mouth, which was surprisingly vacant of ramen. Naruto would later tell him that it was like kissing a dog, to which Kiba would reply with a punch to the gut.

But, back in the present, Kiba was starting to get impatient. It was now 6:40 and Naruto still wasn't ready. He knew that it was worry that he was experiencing, but he had convinced himself that it was impatience soon after that fateful night. He found that it was extremely painful to think about what may have happened to Naruto, or what could happen to him, so he had to force himself to attribute his uneasiness to another feeling.

'You ever wonder who videotaped Neil Armstrong?'

'Uh...'

'No, I mean think about it. He was the first person on the moon, right?'

'...right...?'

'But we have footage of him jumping off the lunar lander.'

'...ok...'

'So who was videotaping him? Someone else had to have been the first person, otherwise we wouldn't have footage of Neil Armstrong, right?

'Right... Oh, look, my shoe's untied... over there.'

'We don't wear shoes, we're figments of our imagination. How is that even possible. Who's imagination are we figments of, assuming of course that we're figments at all. Hello? Where'd you go? All alone again...'

Naruto came out of his house as Kiba breathed a sigh of relief, or rather a sigh of impatience.

"It's about time," he said. Although what he really wanted to say was "Don't scare me like that you jackass!"

Naruto grunted in response. He started down the sidewalk to school.

"What took you so long," Kiba asked as he picked up his bag and fell into sync with the blonde. Of course, this was merely another way to answer his real question which was, "are you okay?"

"Nothing," he snapped.

"Must've been a lot of nothing, then."

"Couldn't sleep," Naruto responded to the question that Kiba hadn't asked. He put his hands behind his head and continued walking.

Kiba chuckled to himself, it was quirky stuff like this that made him love Naruto. Or rather, think that he was hot, no way was he in love with another guy. No way. He was open-minded enough without trying to cram that in there. Naruto dropped his hands, letting them rest at his side. They continued to walk in silence. When they got close, they saw that there was a large group of men across the street from the school holding signs and chanting, though Kiba couldn't make out what they were saying. They had to walk past them in order to get to the school.

'Teacher strike?'

'How should I know?'

Kiba say that there were three policemen trying to get the group to scatter. One of them was calling for backup. As far as he could tell, they were chanting something about tags or bags or...

'Oh no.'

His heart sank into his stomach. His palms started to get sweaty. He stole a glance of Naruto. He was paler than a ghost, and his eyes wider than humanly possible. Kiba grabbed Naruto's hand and squeezed it. He rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb. It calmed both of them down a little bit, and Kiba was able to guide Naruto to the inside of the school. Once they were safely inside, Naruto ran off. Kiba followed him into the bathroom where he found the blonde hunched over a toilet bowl vomiting. Ironically enough, it was the same toilet that he had used after a chance encounter with Naruto just a few months prior. Kiba ran over and put his hand on Naruto's back. The blonde started to cry. Kiba wrapped his arms around his friend. It was an impossibly painful feeling to see him cry. He was infuriated, worried, distressed, and a plethora of other feelings. The red anger and the blue sorrow, coursed through his veins. He made sure to stay out of his friend's line of sight, as he didn't want Naruto to see the tear running down his cheek...