Its been long and the next chapter will be longer cause school sucks that bad. I'm trying to focus on how their relationship progresses and its seriously trying. I'm almost running on empty here. I don't usually ask but I'll ask now. Please review. It helps. Really, it does.

Chapter 8- back again

With the passing of another two weeks, Temari was back in Konoha again. This time however she actually had to give her report in on her own because of the fact that it was the week that the Chunin exams would begin. After telling her escorts to escort the participants from Suna to where they would be staying, she began making her way to the Hokage mansion.

She happily smiled at the ninjas she passed as she entered the building and practically bounced up the stairs. She probably got the bounciness from having Sanji around all the time. The little puppy was a ball of energy. He had been taken along by the escorts to her room, but was to start training to be a good nin-dog with Kiba and Akamaru in the week and a half that she was staying in Konoha for. He would then spend the next two months in bonding training with Temari to of course work on the necessities of being a team. He was already starting to rub off on her. He was just so cute and full of energy.

She quickly pushed the door to the hokage's office open. She froze instinctively when she saw the ANBU standing there. The ANBU's face was turned to her from his side of the room. Tsunade was seated around her desk with her usual stack of papers littering her table. The paperwork never ended for a kage. At least Gaara's pile was less.

"I'm sorry. Am I interrupting? I'll come back." Temari said getting over her surprise of seeing Kiba standing there in his ANBU uniform. He looked great, lean and dangerous. His mask was the usual white porcelain masks made in the image of a wolf. If it had been anyone else she might not have noticed that the uniform was really that cool looking.

"No. It's alright I was just about to dismiss him." Tsunade told her with a smile. She turned her attention to Wolf giving him a nod signalling his dismissal. He gave a short nod in return before disappearing in a small swirl of leaves. No sooner was he gone than Tsunade slammed her hand on her table. "That Wolf! The little liar!"

"Tsunade-sama?" Temari asked uncertainly closing the door quietly behind her. The woman had been calm just seconds before and everyone knew about Tsunade's temper and what she could do. It just wasn't safe when she was angry.

"Sorry. He told me he was fine but he's obviously injured if he couldn't even jump out the window like he usually does. Brat." she said in irritation roughly shuffling the papers on her desk. Temari frowned. If Kiba hadn't told Tsunade about his injuries, it was most likely that he wouldn't be going to the hospital. She had to hurry and leave then. How badly injured could he be?

"I guess you're here to report?" Tsunade stated when she finally calmed down. Temari nodded quickly and got right to it. The quicker the better.

XXXXX

Kiba stumbled through the front door. He hadn't thought it would have taken that much out of him to leave. It was better than through the window though. If he had done that he would already be in the hospital and that was one place he wouldn't mind never going. Too much memories, too much blood, too much death. Definitely not a place he wanted to be.

A large white blur moved over to him and he ran a hand through the soft fur on Akamaru's head. He had really missed him. He walked with the dog to the sofa fully content in just the feel of the fur between his fingers. It wasn't like he could go much further anyway. He ached all over but especially his right side. That mission had been some real trouble.

He sat down, careful not to disrupt his wound any more than necessary. That one hurt beyond how hurting should hurt. Seriously. He sighed slowly relaxing himself and leaning back into the softness of the sofa. Akamaru nudged him in the leg asking if he was ok.

"I'm fine. Why don't you go get the injury bag?" Kiba told him with a light smile. He had pulled off the mask the moment he got to the door. Akamaru whined not wanting to leave his master but slowing backed away, still watching just in case something happened.

Kiba side relaxing all over again. He knew he was supposed to get the whole bandaging done as soon as possible but couldn't it wait? It felt so good to just sit there. So very good. That was just plain lazy. What had Mom said about laz...?

Kiba didn't know how long he had been asleep nor could he guess in the least but it couldn't have been too long. Now, what was it that woke him up?

"Kiba?" a familiar voice cut through the haziness and he was brought back to the pain in his side. He opened his eyes to see a beautiful angel that looked relatively like Temari... or maybe it was Temari but he was too far gone to realise. Either way it was a good thing but if it was an angel then he would be dead... and he wouldn't get to see Temari... Ok so maybe the angel wasn't a good thing.

"Kiba!" the voice said with a vengeful little slap. He took a moment to focus on the face of the girl before him. Yup, Temari.

"Oww." he muttered seconds too late then smiled at her. "Hi."

"Shut up and lean forward so I can take the shirt off. It's sticky with all the blood." she said and he silently wondered as he complied 'what happened to good old bedside manners?' She helped him pulled the armour off along with the rest of the top half on his uniform with little wincing on his part. Now she looked at the wound. It didn't look very deep and seemed to be healing but it was still oozing some blood, not much. Was this guy serious? The cut might not be deep but to was long, almost a foot long. He was lucky it wasn't deep.

"I can do this." he stated when she began to tend his wound. She glared at him.

"I can too. I patch my brothers up all the time." she said and he nodded and let her continue. He really should stay awake but he was tired. He stared at her as she worked. She was pretty, beautiful, hot and why did she always smell so good? As if she wasn't awesome to behind with! She was great, perfect. He liked her. He liked her personality, her smile, the way she talked, how she laughed, her strength, her skill, her hotness, her smile, her smell. He liked her. He must really be in pain to be thinking like this but he had felt worse than this before. He was pulled out of his thoughtful but slightly hazy state as she pulled the last tie on his wrappings. He must have lost a good amount of blood along the way. Man, he was tired.

"There we're done." she said making sure the bandaging was done properly. Akamaru had already put away Kiba's dirty clothes. She was probably going to have to wash them so that his mom didn't find them. She was still bent before him when she reached over to check his temperature. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Yea and I know how I can feel even better." he said with a weary smile. She raised a brow at him in suspicion. He held his arms open to her. "Hug?"

"A hug?" she asked sceptically and he nodded. He really ought to stop that, he'd get a headache soon enough. She thought about it for a moment before sighing then leaning forward to carefully wrap her arms around him. He inhaled deeply taking in her usual nice scent. He was just so tired, he could sleep right here. He hugged her tighter and took another deep breath closing his eyes. Just so tired.

Temari was not surprised when she felt him pull her closer though she was surprised she heard him sigh into her shoulder. However that surprise was nothing compared to when he pulled her towards him and onto the sofa with him. She was surprised he even had the strength to pull her to lie down beside him between himself and the back of the sofa. She froze. She could feel the even rise and fall of his chest from where her head rested on the uninjured side of him, telling her he was already asleep. There was no way she was going to get herself out of her corner without hurting him. She lifted her head to glare at his peaceful sleeping face.

'How did I get myself into this?' she thought dejectedly as she brought her head back down with a sigh. She didn't know how long it would be before she could move. She stared at Akamaru before asking "How do I get out?"

He gave her a soft bark in answer. Oh what she would give to understand him just this once. If she could she would have heard his simple smirking answer:

'You don't.'

XXXXXXX

Tsume entered the house and immediately sensed something was different from when she had left earlier. Kuromaru entered the house through the door she held open for him.

"The pup is back." he said moving towards the living room with a smirk. "With company."

"I figured." she stated following him. They stood with matching smirking faces as they looked at the couple sleeping on her sofa. Akamaru gave them a laughing look from his resting place but quickly went back to sleep. No use doing nothing.

"Are you really sure about this? You really don't mind her?" Kuromaru asked scratching at head. Man, that was one big itch.

"Sure. She might actually be good for the pup. Keep him away from all those hooking hussies." she said with a small snarl at the thought of all those girls that her son had been around with. This girl would keep her little promiscuous son on a leash even if it was only until this game fell apart. Hopefully when it did it wouldn't be just a game anymore and she could actually have some hope of extending the family within the legal bonds of marriage. She would love grandchildren! It would teach the little brat what it was like to raise little hellions called Inuzuka's and their partners in crime called nin-dogs.

"If you say so but how do you feel about her? Do you like her or not? I'll bite her if you don't. She looks tasty." Kuromaru suggested with a smirk as he continued staring at the two. Yup, her skin would be tasty.

"She's ok now stop drooling over her or I'm going to tell her you were having perverted thoughts about her." Tsume said finally walking away. Kuromaru instantly followed her with a curious look.

"Define perverted?"

"The little porn book you keep under your pillow." she answered referring to an orange book that looked awfully familiar to the one that a certain silver hair ninja usually had his head buried in. He made a choking sound; he hadn't thought she found that.

"I only read those to better understand what it is the pup does with all those females." the nin-dog stated with a huff. "It's still too darn complicated though. You'll have to show me one day and I was only thinking how nice she would taste as dinner."

"Yea, right. When do you think they'll wake up?"

"Cook some bacon and we'll find out."

XXXXX

Temari woke to the warm feeling of comfort. Tightly wrapped in a calming heat and pressed against a soft spongy surface. No bed could possibly feel this great. She snuggled more into the comfy warm but froze when this warmth stiffened for a second before relaxing again. Pillows don't move... they weren't warm either. Not wanting to open her eyes, she tried to move the arm that she wasn't lying on. That arm was on the other side of the 'pillow'. She ran a finger against the 'pillow' and felt the material of bandages. Now she was panicking. She slowly cracked her eyes open to state at a bandaged chest. Going by the fact that she had just woke up, she'd say she had fallen asleep at some point during her waiting. She looked around and began to assess the situation. It seemed that at some point during their sleep, Kiba had rolled over and wrapped his arms around her. Now she was wedged between him and the back of the sofa and held firmly in his arms. How she was going to get out was a mystery to her.

"Hey Tsume! The female is up!" a voice shouted from somewhere that she couldn't see from her position. She could only be Kuromaru which meant Tsume was here. Shit! That can't be good. "I win the bet! I want my prize, woman! I want my prize!"

"Yea yea." Tsume called back and she could be heard mumbling angrily in the kitchen. Temari could smell bacon and hear the sizzling as it was fried. Well that explains what woke her up. Kiba was slowly waking. He had subconsciously tightened his arms around her, pushing Temari's face more into his chest, and buried his face in her hair. Temari stayed still hearing him mutter something in a heavy exhale.

Kiba only half awake taking in a wonderful scent that he had really started to love. "Temari." He muttered in his half-sleep haze. Then a new scent slipped into his senses. His eyes flew open instantly. "Bacon!"

"Glad you're awake." Temari said and Kiba moved just enough to be able to see her face. She held a look of annoyance. "Would you mind letting me go now?"

"Why?" he asked playfully with a pout before pulling her closer to him again. "I like hugging you."

"Kiba." Temari growled in annoyance and shoved him away. She wasn'tabout to let him just let him get all comfortable now.

"What? You're comfy." he protested. Too late.

"Let me go." Temari growled again shooting him a glare. A look of realisation lit his face.

"You slept with me." he said with a smug look.

"What?" Temari sputtered. Did he really just say that?

"You slept with me."

"Don't say it like that. You make it sound like something it isn't."

"You slept with me." he said again this time with a smirk.

"Kiba!" Temari exclaimed and his expression changed to one of amusement.

"My, my Temari, what are you thinking? I only meant you slept beside me." Kiba said finally letting go and sitting up. He looked over his shoulder at her. "And they call me the pervert."

Temari watched with a glare as he got up and walked away. A smug looking Akamaru stared at her from a comfortable place on the floor.

"What?" she asked him. He simply got up with a yawn and followed Kiba onto the kitchen. What was she getting into with these Inuzuka's?