Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.
Author's Note: Yes, I realize Shino is OOC in this chapter, but admit it you love it. Sorry it took so long for this update, but between House of Hades, Pokemon X, The Savage Blue the World Series and Playoffs, work and other general business I just haven't really wanted to write anything, no inspiration. But I got a bit of the bug back so hopefully you'll enjoy.
Yamanakas Are a Pain
Chapter Four: He Is Now My Steed
Kiba sighed with relief. After a week of walking through the forest, climbing up and down cliffs and trees and an unfortunate incident in a creek where Shino had fallen on top of him, much to Ino's amusement, they had completed their mission only to find that the only big topographical change they had to make was a mudslide took out a few meters of woods. He was now walking back towards the village with the three girls a couple feet ahead of him chatting about who knows what and Akamaru next to him. And as pleasant of a trip back home it could have been, two cut girls in front of him, a gorgeous angel as well, his best friend next to him and beautiful weather, it was all marred by on simple thing that ruined the entire situation. And that was Shino riding Akamaru home.
"Come on Shino. I understand you won the bet but do you really plan on riding Akamaru home the whole way. He needs to rest too."
"Unfortunately I cannot do so as per our bet he is my steed to ride whenever I wish for the remainder of the day. Why? Because you foolishly thought you could catch more fish than I. You have brought this shame onto Akamaru alone."
Kiba glared at his teammate as his brain was not coming up with an argument to counter what the Aburame had said.
"Hey if you two boyfriends are done making out back there maybe you could help us carry back all this stuff." Ino shouted behind her at the two boys.
"Maybe if you didn't pick every other flower that we passed we wouldn't have so much "luggage" to carry back," Kiba responded to the blonde. Seriously though, she had three bags full, Sakura had another three and Hinata had two.
"Hey moron, if you didn't quite catch the hint, take Hinata's bags. Seriously didn't your mom teach you how to be a gentleman?"
Kiba glared at Ino before marching up to Hinata and taking her bags.
"You shouldn't have to carry these," Kiba looked at Hinata and then at the other two kunoichi, "these two are the ones who picked all these herbs, not you."
"Oh, Kiba-kun, yo-you don't have too, it's my...it's my pleasure to do it."
Kiba smirked at Hinata before taking the bags out of her hands. "Well, this is my pleasure." He promptly took both of the bags and hung them onto Ino's arms.
"What the hell, Kiba?" Ino growled at him.
"You know exactly the hell, Ino." Kiba smiled at her as Sakura started laughing.
"Onwards, you plebeians. My steed needs rest and we have short while to go before we reach our destination."
The four other ninja looked at each other. Sakura spoke first at the sight as Shino passed between them on Akamaru, "What just happened? Did Shino just call us plebeians.?"
Ino shrugged, "Better than peasants, at least plebeians sounds fancy."
After another half hour they reached the gates of Konoha. Sakura looked over at Ino, "Ino want to go to Tsunade's office to report, we can drop off the herbs while we're there and spare these guys the trouble.?"
"Sure, why not?" Kiba grew worried when he saw the sly smiles on Ino's and Sakura's faces.
"If that is the case, my steed and I shall ride home. He shall return to his pitiful owner after sunrise. Good day." Shino took off on Akamaru once more.
"You filled the whole goddamned creek with your bugs! Fishing in it would have killed me!" Kiba shouted after him.
Hinata giggled slightly at the exchange between her teammates, causing Kiba to smile.
"So what are you up to tonight Hinata? Any plans?"
"No. I was going to head to the training grounds to practice a bit and then return to my house for dinner."
"You need a training partner? I mean I don't have anything else to do," Kiba lolled his head to the side looking up, acting as though he was going out of his way for her before smiling back at her, "Plus Shino has Akamaru for the night. And I could use some training any ways."
"That would be fine Kiba-kun. What were you planning on training on this evening.?"
Kiba looked up in though for a second before Ino's and Sakura's advice came to his head. "We could do some projectile training? And then finish up with a quick spar?"
Hinata nodded and the two made their way to the training grounds.
"So could you manage that sometime next month, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked her mentor after her and Ino had finished their mission detail and gave her the medicinal herbs that they had collected.
Tsunade leaned forward putting her hands together to rest her head on it. "Let me get this straight, you want me to hold off on a C-rank mission for Kiba so that he can go on it while withholding any mission from Hinata until he returns and to add a "cute" female member to the mission in order to make Hinata jealous? And neither of you see a problem with it?"
"We understand that it is quite unorthodox Tsunade-sama but it is in the name of true love," Ino explained to the Hokage.
"Really, in the name of true love? It's true love because Kiba likes Hinata. I'm sorry but I have to say I never knew that true love was one-sided. So then doesn't Hinata truly love Naruto? Or that Naruto truly loves you, Sakura? You're teenagers, none of you understand true love. Lust? Yes. Crushes? Yes. Liking someone so much you can't live without them? Well, you all claim that you do. But no, you don't get to use the true love card here. Give me a convincing argument or I'll have you both go on a mission that involves cleaning cow manure."
Ino stared at Sakura before starting her argument.
"Tsunade-sama, as you know I am from the Yamanaka clan whose specialty is mind-based jutsu such as telepathy. As such I am capable of reading thoughts, whether they are conscious or unconscious and am capable of finding out all I need about a person on a whim's notice. And as Kiba admitted to both of us that he likes Hinata, I did not have to read his mind to figure that out. As for Hinata, I was curious as to why she likes Naruto and upon further investigating I found out that she is attracted to Kiba although she is not aware of it and becomes quite confused as to why she'll blush once in awhile around him. As such there is the possibility of true love to be found between the two and it would be a crime to waste an opportunity like that. No one should not have to live without exploring all the possible romances that they could have."
Tsunade glared at the girls. "That was not an explanation as to it being true love so now I guess your next mission is to-"
"There's a pool going on whether or not they'll get together!" Sakura quickly interrupted. She didn't want to play the gambling card but she wasn't going to pick up cow manure for anyone.
"Hmm...not an explanation for true love but I'll bite. What's the payoff?"
"60,000 ryo," responded Sakura.
"Fine I'll do this mission assignment crap but I want 10,000 ryo on them going on a date and nothing coming out of it, got it?"
"Yes, Tsunade-sama." The two kunoichi left Tsunade's office.
Tsunade smiled to herself. "This will be interesting."
Kiba had shed his leather jacket and laid down on the ground under the nearest tree. Sure the girls had said to wait a bit after wooing her before he started stripping but considering that they had returned to the village at noon and he had basically ran around his house throwing all his gear on his bedroom floor and grabbed a sandwich from the fridge and raced towards the training grounds. He really didn't want to be late. He had decided to make use of the time and had done some warm-up exercises and speed training, so they'd forgive him for being hot. Plus it was only his jacket, not like he was going full-on shirtless. Plus girls liked some mystery right? Never mind that she's seen him shirtless on numerous occasions but what's that got to do with anything in his plan.
"Hey, Hinata," he turned his head to look at his pale teammate who was washing her face by the river.
"Yes, Kiba-kun?"
Kiba's heart did a little flutter when she looked at him with water streaming down her face and a small smile on her face. He looked back up at the sky and sat up to cover up his, ahem...excitedness, before finishing his previous thought. "I don't mind sparring with you, but next time can you go a bit easier, my leg is still numb from that last attack."
"I injured you that badly, Kiba-kun? I'm so sorry, ple-please forgive me." Hinata ran over to him and made eye contact with him, a pleading look in her big pearl ovals. Kiba was seriously going to need to jump into that river soon if she kept on being so adorable.
"N-n-no Hinata-chan." "Seriously," he thought to himself, "Hinata-CHAN?" "I'm fine, just make sure to do that next time we run up against some asshole ninjas." He grinned at her showing off his canines.
Hinata sat down next to him determined. "Well, at least I can fix up your leg. Byaku-"
"Wait!" Kiba shouted at Hinata. He might be okay with her seeing him without a shirt on or in his boxers but there was no way in hell he was letting her, at least if he had a say in it, use her Byakugan on him while he was in current state, especially when the injury was in close proximity of what he didn't want her too see...at least not yet. "I'll just take off my pants."
Chouji had no idea what he had walked in on. He had headed to the training grounds to practice his staff techniques and ninjutsu. The sight in front of him though was too great and funny to ignore. Kiba was in his fishnet shirt, leaned up against a tree with Hinata leaning over him, hand on his leg by a certain spot with Kiba pulling down his pants rather hurriedly. He couldn't see their faces, as Hinata's was obscuring Kiba with their position and her hair covered the side he would have been able to see. Chouji decided that it wasn't right to stay and watch these two, but who hasn't given into their curiosity now and then. Plus, Hinata liked Naruto, so what had Kiba done to get her to touch him like that?
"Arghh!" Kiba grunted through clenched teeth as Hinata shot a surge of chakra up his leg, neutralizing the previous numbness. He inhaled deeply after she was done. "That wasn't fun."
"So-sorry, Kiba-kun. But it would have been less painful if..if you, umm didn't flex your leg while I was repairing it."
"Sorry, I guess I was more tense then I realized," he said with a small laugh. In truth he had flexed his leg to impress Hinata, but apparently that didn't work. Kiba sighed, "Well, thanks for that Hinata, wanna go grab some grub?"
"Sure, Kiba-kun. Where to?"
"How 'bout Ichiraku?"
"That is fine with me."
Chouji watched as the two headed off towards Ichiraku. He decided to follow them to Ichiraku after a few minutes had passed for three main reasons. Reason One: He wanted to get to the bottom of what just happened between Kiba and Hinata. Number Two: He wanted to ask Kiba what he thanked Hinata for. It had to be good, seeing as how red Kiba was in the face and that with both of their tracking abilities combined, neither noticed him there. And finally, if he didn't follow-up on this potential gossip and Ino found out, he'd never hear the end of it.
He was almost at Ichiraku's when he heard Kiba yell out, "NARUTO!"
Chouji picked up the pace. There was no way this wouldn't be good.