Kiba and I laughed and talked the entire way. He told me stories about how strict his mom is, how his sister picked on him a lot, and the time he first met Akamaru. I didn't have any stories of my own, but how lively Kiba kept the conversation; it didn't matter.
"Welp, here we are." Kiba said, folding his arms behind his head.
"Thanks Kiba." I said quietly
"No problem.." He paused. It seemed like he wanted to say something else, but I didn't have the time to wait around, so after giving Kiba a slight wave, I turned heel and walked towards the door.
"Uh, wait Kin." I stopped. My heart pounded at the sound of my name. I smiled and turned around, as Kiba walked to me. "Do you wanna hang out tomorrow evening? I can introduce you to all of my friends." He asked.
The smile I had on my face earlier completely disappeared after hearing his question. I really don't want to meet his friends, because more likely than not Sakura, Sasuke and that blonde girl and her team are apart of his social group, and I don't want them to make a fool of me in front of them.
"Um no Kiba I don't thi-" Kiba interrupted me.
"You don't have to worry about anything. I'll pay." He smiled. I gave an exasperated sigh. Idiot, that wasn't the problem. I can get money if I wanted to. I'm just not ready to meet his friends right now.
"Kiba I really don-" He interrupted me again this time putting his hands on my shoulders and slightly shaking me.
"Come on. You'll have a great ti-ime." He said the last part in a sing-songy voice.
"Fine." I said. Staring at his feet. His closeness made me feel awkward considering I just met him not to long ago. Not only that, but I can't believe I gave into someone. This village is changing me faster than I thought.
Giving me two pats on the cheek, he chuckled and ran off, "great! Meet me here tomorrow at six o'clock, got it? See you later Kin!" he called behind him.
Chuckling to myself I walked into the Hokage tower, and immediately changed my happy mood to that of a sour one. I didn't want Dosu or Zaku learning about my new friend just yet.
"Where the hell have you been? You're three hours late, Kin! Three hours!" Zaku yelled at me from his spot in the burgundy chair next to a beautiful pot of violet flowers.
"Lower your voice Zaku, the Hokage isn't ready for us at the moment anyway." Dosu spoke up. "Though, that is no excuse to keep us waiting for you for three hours. Be on time next time."
"Yeah yeah, whatever." I said waving my right hand in front of my face. "It's not like you guys were doing anything anyway."
"That's not the point Kin!" Zaku said standing up, purple flower petals falling from his lap.
"Why'd you pick off the flower petals, dumbass?!" I yelled pointing my finger in his face "we're trying to make a good impression, and you go off and destroy the Hokage's flowers?!"
"Good impression?" Zaku scoffed, "says the girl slutting off with some guy. Yeah we saw." How dare he speak of me that way. I'm going to beat the shit out of him for saying that.
"Excuse me. The Hokage is ready for you now." A young woman said.
My fist stopped midair after hearing her voice. I turned to the woman and noticed the clothing she was wearing: a plain white loose fitting shirt tucked into and overly long navy blue skirt, and she wore her leaf headband as a belt.
"Finally!" Zaku said under his breath, rudely brushing past me to the woman.
The young woman guided us to a different room than the one we first met the Hokage in. Upon entering, I noticed the lack of electrical lighting and the use of many candles. It looked like some sort of seance was going on. The Hokage was sitting behind a small desk with seemingly endless scrolls clustered around him.
"The three you requested are here now milord." The woman said in a soft voice after knocking on the opened door.
"Thank you very much." The Hokage said taking a puff from his pipe. After the door was closed the Hokage began, "now to discuss where you will be living."
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Dosu, Zaku, and I were now walking to the apartment that the Hokage gave to us. He said that it wasn't the best, but the three bedroom apartment should suit us just fine for the time being. He also made arrangements so that we wouldn't have to pay rent for six months, which was fantastic.
Once we arrived at the apartment complex I did my usual once over and looked exterior and noted that it didn't look so bad. In fact, it looked pretty good. The flowers and beauty bark on the outside of the building gave an inviting vibe, and the structure itself looked pretty well taken care of. I liked it. I liked it a lot.
"This place looks pretty nice." Zaku spoke up
"I know, I can't wait to see what the inside looks like." I said
Nine flight of stairs and five doors down the hallway later, we arrived to our new apartment. Dosu used the only key given to us to open the door. We would have to get others made later.
On the inside our apartment was really nice, why the Hokage downplayed it was beyond me. In the living area there was a small coffee table placed in front of a three seated navy blue couch, Bonsai plants sat on the side tables on either side of it. Scanning the rest of the room I saw that there was a bookshelf next to sliding door on the left wall, but I wasn't sure what it led to yet. Moving to the kitchen, we had a large refrigerator in between dark gray quartz counter tops. And a rice cooker sat to the right of a shiny sink. On the opposite side of the kitchen was a door, upon opening it there was a dryer and a washer. With a shelf to store laundry detergents and such. We went back into the living area to explore where that sliding door led to. Not surprising, the door led to a hallway which consisted on our bedrooms two doors on the left wall and three on the right.
"I get first dibs on rooms." Zaku said excitedly and rudely pushed me out of the way.
Zaku opened the last door on the right and it turned out to be a bathroom.
"Shit!" Zaku yelled as he attempted to go into the first room on the right wall; the one I had already chosen.
"Hah, I get this room." I told him closing the door in his face.
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It was the next day, and I started to worry about my meet up with Kiba, but that wasn't the only that worried me. I also haven't told Dosu or Zaku about it, when I do eventually tell them I just hope they don't make a big deal out of it.
I lazed in bed for about an hour after I woke up, coming up with different ways to tell them my plans for the evening. Groaning I sat up in my bed and stretched, Satisfied with what I had come up with. My room consisted of a queen size bed with a two drawer side table and a lamp sitting on top of it. And.. that was pretty much it. I guess it was up to me to decorate it a little more.
I got out of my bed and walked into the hallway closing the door behind me and glanced at the clock above the sliding door. It was midday, I guess I stayed in my room longer than I though. I sighed, I sure hope Dosu is at least awake, I don't want to disturb him in his bedroom. I took a deep breath and feigned my tiredness in case anyone was awake before sliding the door open. The first thing I saw was Dosu sitting on the couch reading a book.
"Good morning Dosu." I said. He looked up to me.
"Good afternoon, Kin." He said with emphasis on 'afternoon' "How was your sleep?"
That's nice of him to ask. "It was great.. Did you sleep in?." I asked trying to start a conversation to ease my way into what I was actually there for.
"I'm a morning person. I don't like to sleep in."
"Oh okay." Feeling a little awkward. I stood in front of Dosu in silence.
"Do you need anything?" He said looking up from his book.
"Not necessarily, uh, I just wanted to know where you got that book from." I said inwardly kicking myself for suck a stupid question.
Dosu stared at me before answering, "there is a book shelf over there." He said pointing to the neatly shelved books next to he sliding door that led to our rooms.
"Oh, I didn't even notice that," I lied.
"Seriously, Kin. Either say what you need to or leave me alone." Dosu said looking sternly into my eyes.
"I just wanted to let you know that I was going to hang out with a friend today. So I won't be able to go shopping with you guys."
"A friend?" Dosu asked setting his book down on his lap Keeping his finger between the pages.
"Yeah, I met someone yesterday and he invited me to meet his friends." Why did I have to explain myself to him? He wasn't my father or anything.
"Humph, whatever. Just know that you can't complain if Zaku or I get something you aren't fond of." He said, resuming his page in the red book. What could they possible get that I'll complain about? Whatever, I think about that later.
"I won't. But, I'm going to use some of the money the Hokage gave us to shop for some clothes though." I said sitting in the seat next to him. The Hokage gave us a generous amount of money, with prodding form Jiraiya of course, to buy typical necessities for our home.
Dosu sighed, annoyed with my presence by now. "Alright , just don't take too much."
I smiled, "thanks Dosu."
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Somehow I managed to find a pretty fair priced clothing store. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing. I really liked the way lavender looked on me, but I didn't want to be reminded about the past, so that color was out for now. I looked over he racks maybe three times over, and still unsatisfied with what I saw.
Completely giving up on this particular rack of clothing I moved to another one. There, I heard a few girls giggling and pointing their fingers at me. Suddenly I felt as if I was the ugliest girl there and now I wanted to get out as fast as I could.
Feeling too embarrassed to ask for help, I randomly grabbed a long forest green colored shirt and dark gray knee length running pants*, with matching gray shoes and headed out the door after paying.
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Okay it's 5:51, Kiba should be here in nine minutes. I looked down at my outfit and began to worry. I hoped he liked it... wait what am I saying? Why does it matter to me if he liked my outfit, pfft? I don't even care what Dosu and Zaku think about what I wear, so why do I care what he thinks?
"Hey Kin, you're here early." He said. Wow, Kiba looked really nice. He wore a red dress shirt with black slacks. Pretty simple, but on him it looked wonderful.
I couldn't help but to blush so I looked away to prevent him from noticing. "Hi Kiba, you look nice."
"Thanks, so do you. Even better I should say." Oh god, he complimented me. My heart started to beat faster and my breathing accelerated. A gulped to prevent the butterflies in my stomach from flying out of my mouth.
"Come on. Let's go, they're already there waiting for us." Kiba said touching my shoulder and turning me around.
Kiba and I walked in comfortable silence to a restaurant that he referred to as the 'nicest place in Konoha.' He told me that they had a huge selection of food and there's no way that I wouldn't like it.
After few minutes of walking, we came up to the restaurant Kiba talked about, he held the door opened for me and stopped at the receptionist to discuss our reservations. I looked around hoping to spot his friends before they spotted me to prepare myself. But before I could get a good look, Kiba tapped my shoulder to get my attention. "Let's go get seated."
"Alright."
I followed Kiba as he zig-zagged through the tables to the back of the restaurant. I looked at the meals the patrons were eating. Yum, a lot of the food did look really good. I think I going to order some Donburi with some Onigiri on the side, or maybe some Tonkatsu. Even a simple bowl of Ramen will do actually.
"Hey guys!" Kiba yelled as he high fived Sakura's blonde friend, I forgot his name. Taking a deep breath, I counted to ten to calm my nerves and side-stepped from behind Kiba and into their view.
"Oh, guys this is Kin. Kin this is...uh, the guys." Kiba said smiling placing his hand in the small of my back to push me closer to their table.
"H-hello." Dammit, I stuttered. I don't want any of them to think that I'm intimidated. I can't show any kind of weakness to these guys.
Rather than saying 'hi' like a civilized person would do. "Hey, you're the bitch that tried to kill Sasuke-kun with your crazy friends." The Ino girl yelled pointing her disgusting finger in my face.
"What the hell is wrong with you Ino?!" Kiba yelled right back pushing me behind him.
"She's our enemy Kiba! How could you bring her around us!" This time Sakura joined in. She quickly stood up and rounded the table to stand in front of Kiba. "She works for an S-class enemy named Orochimaru, she's nothing but scum!" I looked at the legs of the table adjacent to theirs. I knew that this was going to happen. I shouldn't have come. But for whatever reason something or someone inside of me told me to anyway. Now I'm regretting it.
"Will you shut up Sakura! Why can't you give her a chance, you don't know what she's been through. She doesn't work for that asshole anymore. Trust me." Kiba said subtly referring to what I told him in the park.
This was getting out of had, I looked around. Our table had drawn the attention of everyone in the restaurant, if this continued, we would be kicked out. And of course the blame will be placed on me.
"No Kiba, trust me. I know them. She can't be trusted." Sasuke spoke this time staring daggers at me.
"She isn't working for him anymore!" Kiba roared even louder than everyone else. I can tell by the way he clenched his fist that his anger was rising by the second. How can I defuse the situation?
Sasuke scoffed unaffected by the volume of Kiba's voice. "If she isn't working for him. Then something must've happened to cause him to abandon her and her team. And from what I've gathered in fighting him as well, he wouldn't have let her live. Meaning, she ran like a coward. Even if she did change her ways, she would be just as useless in this village as she was with Orochimaru. We have no room for a useless cowardly ninja."
Sasuke's harsh words hit me like a ton of bricks. Every memory of being told how weak and worthless I was came flooding into my mind, causing tears welled up in my eyes. I won't stand here any longer and allow Sasuke to degrade me in front of the whole restaurant.
"I knew this wasn't a good idea. I'm sorry Kiba." I tried to say without my voice cracking but failed miserably.
I quickly turned around with the intention of walking out of the restaurant without bringing anymore attention on me than there already was, but something grabbed my arm and prevented me from doing so. I looked over my shoulder after wiping a tear away and saw a very sympathetic look on Kiba's face.
"I am so sorry Kin. I didn't know that they would react this way. I'm sorry." Kiba said pulling me in for a hug. He was so warm. I wrapped my arms around his shoulder blades to take in as much of his warmth as I could. I definitely needed it. "If you want we can still eat. We could go to the other end of the restaurant, or a completely different one. Or if you just wanna go home, I can walk you." Kiba was so sweet to me. He is the kindness human being I have ever met, I don't deserve his kindness.
"Well, I am kinda hungry." I told him with a small smile. "I wanna try the Tonkatsu here, it looks good." Kiba turned around and gave his friends a look of disgust and said, "I can't believe that you guys didn't even give her a chance. If I can see the good in her than you should at least try to. See you guys later."
Kiba's friends stayed silent and watched us as we chose a table on the opposite side of the restaurant.
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"I didn't mean to make you choose me over your friends Kiba. I'm sorry." I said changing the subject of the conversation about Kiba's past missions.
"No you didn't do anything. Don't worry about it, really Kin. It's fine." Kiba said stuffing his mouth with pieces of chicken.
As we ate, for whatever reason my eyes wandered over to the direction where Kiba's friends were and my heart quickened as I noticed all of them coming towards our table. Well, wenare by the door maybe they're leaving.
"Hey uh, Kiba?" I spoke too soon.
"Kiba?" Sakura asked again. Finally giving them his attention, Kiba stopped eating his meal and placed his chin on his hand and looked at Sakura. "Huh?"
"We're really sorry for the way we acted. I-it wasn't right." Sakura said looking down. The others all nodding their heads in agreement.
"Don't apologize to me." Kiba said pointing in my direction, "apologize to her."
Each of them, except Sasuke of course, turned their heads to me and simultaneously but quietly apologize "We are really sorry Kin. I guess we still had ill feelings toward you from the chuunin exams." Sakura said.
"Yeah, we jumped to conclusions, and we're really sorry for that." Ino said this time. It was really nice of them to apologize, I appreciate it. But right now I'm having a good time alone with Kiba and I don't want us to be bothered.
Smiling, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "it's okay. Thanks for apologizing."
"Mind of we sit down?" Ino asked, pointing to the table behind us.
Kiba looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders again, "Sure." Kiba answered for the both of us. Kiba stood up from his seat a me pulled out another as he gestured for me to sit next to him. Once I sat down Sakura, Ino, and Naruto joined two nearby tables with ours. And they all sat, ordering desserts as Kiba and I were finishing up our main course.
I was having a great time hearing everyone reminiscing about their days at the academy. The only problem was that I had this weird feeling in my gut that something was going to go wrong. Maybe I'm being paranoid but something always happens when I'm having fun, so I have reason to believe that it's bound to happen before the night is over.
"Oh yeah and remember that time when you and Sasuke kissed, Naruto? Now that was hilarious!" Chouji said with a mouthful of pork.
A familiar chuckle was heard coming from behind me "you're right fat ass that was funny."
Chapter four is up and I hope you enjoyed it. Also, if you have the time, leave a review. Remember criticism is welcome. Anyway, thanks for reading!
-Floral Summit