Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just my student loans. And a whole lot of textbooks.

Takumi's mother knocked, and was met at the door by a slightly confused Kiba. Before Kiba could ask the question on the tip of his tongue, the woman began. "My son found this puppy. It doesn't seem to have a home, and my husband is allergic to dogs. Could you look after it?" The little boy simply looked pleadingly at the teenager, tears welling up in his large eyes.

"Of course. We'll look after him or her. I wonder which it is?" Kiba turned the struggling puppy upside down and peered between the legs. "She is a she." He announced.

Turning into a puppy was SUCH a bad idea! Kumo whimpered.

"C'mon pup. Let's get you settled in." He told Kumo, closing the door behind the mother and child who had brought her here.

How did I get myself into this mess? Well, there's one easy way to fix this. She took a breath in and shifted to her spider form. Kiba dropped her, crying "AARGH!" He hated spiders! Wait, spider? "Kumo, is that you?"

The spider just looked at him with all eight eyes. "Oh. Right. Of course it's you. Who else would be brought to the shelter as a puppy then turn into a spider? If I find you some clothes to change into will you go human and tell me what's going on?"

The spider nodded and Kiba returned a moment later with a pair of pants and a shirt in his hands. He placed them on the floor the turned around saying "These are my sisters, so they might be a little big on you. You're a little short as a human." Kumo could hear the smirk in his voice at the last sentence.

She finished dressing then informed him "You can turn around now, and I am not short."

Kiba grinned, exposing his unnaturally long canines. He reached out a hand, and drew it in a straight line from the top of her head to his chest, about three inches down from his collarbone. "Sorry, but you are short, whether you like it or not."

She tilted her head up to glare at him. Kiba wisely decided to change the topic. "So what were you doing as a puppy? Not that you didn't make a cute puppy."

Wait. Did he just indirectly call me cute? Kumo decided to ignore that. She shrugged. "The little boy had lost his kunai, I knew where it was, but didn't have my clothes with me, so I brought the knife back as a puppy. I wanted to be helpful for once, instead of a burden like I normally am."

"You're not a burden!" Kiba protested. "I think we all like training with you. We had never fought someone who fights like you do, so it was good training." Though Kumo could see the logic behind his argument, the way he said them made her feel a little uncomfortable, especially how he had never stopped smiling. Does he like me or something?

Thankfully Kiba's explanation of how she wasn't a burden was interrupted by a call from his mother. "Kiba! Dinner!"

"You want to stay for dinner?" Kiba asked her.

"No thanks. I'd better be going." She turned to leave, but was halted by a strong hand gripping her arm. Instinctively she shifted, and slithered out of his grasp. Turning, she faced him as a King cobra, hood expanded, fangs bared before she realized that it was Kiba who had grabbed her. He was staring at her in shock. She let her hood relax and her mouth close.

Kiba gulped. "Um, I'll just turn around and let you change again."

When Kumo was dressed and facing him again, her words were of apology, but her voice wasn't apologetic but flat and hard. "I apologize for threatening you, but in the future, you would do well to remember that I feel threatened when I am grabbed from behind. I wouldn't intentionally kill you, but I could have easily by accident." She exited the Inuzuka's house, leaving a wide eyed, open mouthed Kiba to be found by his mother.

Seeing his face, Tsume put a hand on her son's shoulder. "I know you liked her, but you must have really liked her if a rejection left you like this."

"She didn't reject me. She almost killed me, by accident."

His mother sniffed. The smell of Kiba's fear was extremely strong, but it was partially masked by the equally strong fear and anger of Kumo. Taking a deeper breath, she also smelled a drop of something on the floor. "Snake venom?" she asked.

"Yeah. I grabbed her arm, she freaked, turned into a cobra and almost killed me before she realized who I was."

"I'd suggest not grabbing her in the future."

"Yeah." Kiba's voice was shaky. "I'm definitely not doing that again."

Outside the Inuzuka compound, Kumo buried her face against the concrete of an empty building. I almost killed him. Tears wracked her body. Why do I keep messing up? I'm too dangerous to be around people. That's two allies that I've almost killed. Someday I will slip and actually kill. I'm more of a danger than it is worth for Konoha to keep. And I have no one else in this world. She stared at her hands for a long time, before ending her sobs with a shuddering breath. With shaky hands, she drew out a kunai from her pouch. For a few moments, she stared at the light glinting off the razor edge with morbid fascination. She saw in her mind how the light would flash as she brought the knife to her wrists. It will be better for everyone if I just leave now. I will kill someone, and I can't be allowed to do that. With one last, deep breath, she raised the knife.

A/N: Haha. Cliffhanger! If you want to know what happens to her, you'll just have to read the next chapter tomorrow.