Oops.
It's been a while.

Officially I think I'm putting KNTM on hiatus until I actually gather my wits and pump that shit out. It'd probably be one big one for the finale and then an epilogue.

I'm sitting on another idea that basically has a good handful of my favorite characters. Actually, I'm sitting on a lot of stuff right now, but each of them have like one or two chapters and I feel that if I update, I won't finish. Hah.

Oh yeah, I had a review about using a tad too much swearing and I'm sorry for that. I changed the rating on this because I didn't think many people minded. Also keep in mind that I tend to swear more when I'm in the point of view of a particular person who I thought would swear. I'm sorry again if my colorful language offended anyone, but I'm not going to tone it down except by a little.

Sakura looked at Kiba once and they both nodded, understanding the unspoken plan. In a flurry of pink hair she tore off after Sasuke while he stayed with Hinata.

You see, Sakura was known as a rather… eh… violent person. So when she reached Sasuke, who was staring at the scene with Kiba and Hinata in minor horror, she punched him straight to the jaw. The hit made him fall back into his apartment, which Sakura promptly stepped into before shutting the door.

The last thing that Kiba heard before the elevator door closed with him and Hinata inside was Sakura shouting, "What the fuck did you do to her?"

They both had their jobs to complete. Agents are… go! (A/N: Lol Elite Beat Agents line there...)

"Sasuke, I don't even care that you were an ass to us for the last few days," She growled, glaring down at Sasuke who was sprawled on the floor, holding his jaw. "But if you did something asshole-y to make her cry, as the best girl friend I will fucking murder you, do you understand? Now what did you do?!"

Sasuke was not glaring at her as she had expected him to. He was looking pained and depressed. "I don't know what I did…" His gaze dropped to the floor, looking at Hinata's abandoned shoes.

His low and quiet voice made Sakura's drop as well, to a pitying level. "Sasuke, what happened?

"I was… we… I think she…"

Dropping to his side, she made a face that urged him to continue. What's wrong with him? He never talks so spaced out like this…

"Sakura?" He looked up at her, his obsidian eyes smoldering with a terrible sadness. He seemed to be shocked to his core. This was weird; this was not like him at all. Did he just turn into Naruto or something? "I'm in love with Hinata, but I think she just rejected me."

Ne? Someone rejected Sasuke? Hinata? Sasuke loves Hinata? The truth in his eyes and in his voice caught Sakura's breath in her throat. No way…

And so, sitting on the floor of his apartment, near where his and Hinata's shoes lay unorganized by the wall, Sasuke recounted much of what happened in a monotonous voice. He even told her about his brother and everything about his family massacre.

Sakura decided then and there that both his and Hinata's lives were just big fucking messes. Seems that had been one of the things that had drawn them together, and then she had to just ruin it by freaking out. This was all just a big fucking mess!

The cheesy elevator music wasn't making things any better. Kiba stood holding Hinata to his chest, still clutching tight even though she had stopped struggling when they passed the twelfth floor.

"Hina… can you tell me what happened?" He asked lightly, putting his hand in her hair as he held her tighter to him.

"No," Her voice was muffled and stubborn.

"I'm not kidding when I say I will hold onto you into your senile years until you tell me."

Hinata's ragged breathing stopped suddenly and she looked up from his chest. Apparently she had stopped crying up at the twelfth floor as well.

He pouted at her, trying to coax her into telling him something. Hinata smiled weakly at his face before the smile seemed to melt off her face. No! Not more shitty realization!

Kiba was leaving via airplane to go to his college in little less than a month. He was going to leave forever as well.

A fresh wave of tears began to fall. "N-no… not you too… C-can't you just leave me alone?"

Huh? Not me too? "Hina, what are you talk—"

It was quick, just as she it had been with Sasuke. She pushed against his chest with all her might and backed up against the wall of the elevator. "Why do you have to make this hard on me too? Y-you and Sasuke-kun both just don't understand!"

He was lost. Slowly the clockwork in his brain started to move again, gaining speed until it was once more able to process coherent thought. And once he got it back, instead of quiet, useless questions like Sasuke had sputtered out, he took the sharper approach.

"Well, that makes a lot of sense considering that none of us know what the hell you're talking about!"

Hinata jumped as he said this and she took a deep and steadying breath. Why'd he have to yell at me? She thought bitterly.

"Please just calm down and tell me why you're acting so weird!" Kiba said, quieter than his outburst of before.

"Fine!" Hinata burst out, her lower lip quivering. One of the most intimidating things about the gentle Hinata was that she would look someone in the eye when she talked to someone, a feat that unnerved even the steadiest people. He had experienced it before, but was still mildly frightened by it.

This was her game-mode.

"Fine! None of you get it! I-I'm the only o-one who has to suffer through all of this!" To her shock and odd amusement, Kiba reached over and punched the 'Emergency Stop' button. The elevator jolted to a halt, making them lose their balance for a moment.

"Hinata, what do you mean?" Kiba asked sharply, throwing his arms up in the air in his exasperation. One noteworthy fact about Kiba was that he was rather impatient.

"You're all m-merrily skipping off to college while I have to be stuck here reminiscing over everything we've been through together! You're trying to uphold the friendship we had when you know that it'll never be the same! C-can't you see how much harder that makes it for me?"

She was never a selfish person, so this was unprecedented. For once she started caring about herself, and the outcome was complete depression. Oh joy…

"I…" Kiba choked out, starting to piece it together. Hinata had been planning eventual bridge burning for all of them to make being abandoned a little easier. She was a sentimental being, so being left behind was probably harder on her than it would be for anyone else. Also, with her being shy and characteristically not opening up to someone within a year of comradeship, this would all really blow.

"And to make matters even fucking worse," She continued, and Kiba totally missed her use of a swear word. "I am stuck here with my father, being f-forced to learn something I care nothing about!"

Kiba understood it all now. That was the true killer blow. She would have been better off if she had been going to college and having an exciting adventure of her own, but she wasn't. She was stuck in a terrible routine made worse by her solitude and the fact everybody was having fun without her.

She wanted everybody to just stay away.

"Now I find out that I have feelings for Sasuke and he likes me so that just messes everything up!"

She must be rambling at this point. I thought I heard that Sasuke and her like each other… He mused, trying to just push aside that fact for a later time. That would be… weird if that were true. Player Sasuke and chaste Hinata? Nah…

Now a question presented itself. What would he do now? He couldn't go embrace her because she would just flip out again and that'd be worse in the long run. But it was against his touchy-feely nature not to go to her.

"Hinata, what do you want me to say?" Kiba muttered weakly, screwing up his face to mimic his inner turmoil.

"Nothing. P-please just leave me alone." She cried softly, shaking her head.

"I know things will never be the same. I know that." He started and she was suddenly aware that a monologue was about to take place. "The only reason that Sakura and I would maybe ever work out is because our colleges are within forty-five minutes of each other. I know that. I'm probably not going to talk to Shino or Shikamaru or anybody for a while, maybe never again. That's part of what makes it so exciting for me I think."

Hinata just stared at him, drinking in his words.

"Yeah, you're alone here doing something you hate. I get that too. But since when has the ever-optimistic Hinata been such a downer like this? You are the one of the most amazing people I know, and I know that you are the only one who is strong and adaptable enough to deal with this. If Sasuke really does like you, then it's obvious that he wants to spend as much time as he could with you. Don't you get it? We're not trying to punish you or make this harder! We're trying to soak up the most of our friendships before they have to undergo a bad change."

Kiba had never ranted this long or had gone this deep before. Maybe he had been sitting on the same thought as well.

"We're… reinforcing these friendships as strong as we can so we never forget. Did you honestly think that we would forget about you… about anyone that we love? True, your situation is fucked up and unfair. True, you have it worse than a lot of us. But if anyone, you can make the most of it!"

Tears were flowing again over her face. Her knees buckled under her and she fell, probably scraping them up on the metal floor. Kiba dropped in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"So why are you running? You're not weak." His voice was softer now, but still had that odd power she had come to expect from Sakura and Sasuke as well by now. "If you care about someone, tell them. If you want something, work for it! We don't have a lot of time left, but just because of the deadline we have to make it rock."

From his crouched position, Kiba reached and pressed the button that made the elevator resume it's travel. Instead of jerking like it did when it had stopped, it went smoothly. The terrible elevator music was now the only sound as Hinata tried to think.

As they reached the ground floor, Hinata straightened up right as the ding sounded. "I... I never want to see you unhappy. I thought you'd w-want the same for me." (A/N: Gahahhahaha, song quote)

She stepped out as the door opened, a fierce determination emanating from her body. She tried to go 2-for-2 with the judgmental farewells. "Goodbye Kiba."

She had almost made it out but sadly, old habits die-hard. "I'll c-call you later!"

The doors closed on Kiba because he was unwilling to follow her. When they were shut and Hinata was in the clear, she slapped her hand to her head dramatically. 'I'll call you later'? Why on earth did I say that?

After recovering from her bout of stupid, she rearranged her backpack and walked squarely to the revolving glass doors. Sadly, since karma tends to pray on those who have had bad days, Hinata's backpack got stuck in the revolving doors.

You've got to be kidding me.

She tried to move backwards to go through the doors, but since they were designed otherwise she found herself completely without a way to go.

The sheer unfairness of the whole action just made Hinata start crying again. 'Growing up', though never characteristically kind, decided to target her in particular over the last week. She failed to move for a whole minute, with her bag still unmercifully caught in the doors.

When she did, all she did was drop the bag and continue walking through the doors. She went back into them in nearly the same step, snatching the arm of the bag angrily.

I hate this.

"Okay… wow." Sakura muttered. She was lying on her back on Sasuke's couch, the top of her head brushing against his thigh as he sat cross-legged on the rest of the space. "I really don't understand why she would freak out like that."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, putting up the hood of his recently re-donned track hoodie just on impulse. He knew perfectly well that she still had his soccer sweater, which was his favorite one of the grand load that he had.

But it was no problem because he would rather she had it.

"I'd say she was feeling wrong because of her thing for Naruto-baka, but she… what did she say again?" Sakura asked, playing with the tips of her hair subconsciously.

It seemed like this was the thousandth time that Sasuke had repeated it. "'Don't stand there acting like there is some way this can work.'"

"She has feelings for you. She must like you because she phrased it like that!" Sakura muttered exasperatedly. "I mean, she could have said something like 'don't waste your time on me,' or 'I don't think it will work out," but she totally didn't! It's like she's admitting that nothing can ever work between the two of you, despite how she obviously wants it."

"At the same time," He muttered before letting out a huge, longing sigh. It was something that she had never heard him do. "She could have just been saying what came into her head. It wasn't as if she was exactly levelheaded at the time."

"Psh, since when has Hinata ever said something that monumental that she didn't mean?" She asked rhetorically. It was like they were analysts taking apart a political debate.

Uh, I don't know, maybe when she said she cared about me? Sasuke asked himself sarcastically, his shoulders drooping almost comically. In the situation, nothing was really funny looking. If she cared, why did she reject me like that?

Sakura took his silence for assent and plowed on with her breakdown. "And she ran. What is she trying to escape from?"

"Us."

Sasuke and Sakura both looked up at the same time to see Kiba in the doorway. They privately wondered how on earth he had entered without them noticing, but it didn't really matter what with the colossal information they just received.

He talked as he walked towards the kitchen and sat down at the counter. Since the kitchen was completely visible from the living room, they still saw and heard him loud and clear. "She's trying to distance herself from all of us before we all leave her here alone to stew here in her shitty lessons."

It all made sense now, but there was something off. "Hinata is never irrational like that." Sasuke muttered, staring straight at Kiba who scoffed.

"Since when do you know her at all?"

Sakura flinched as he said this. If what Sasuke had said to her was true, he had harbored a crush on her since the beginning of senior year and had learned a lot just from observing from a distance.

"I know her obviously better than you think I do."

Both of their tones were quiet and almost joking, but there was an underlying layer of anger etched in each word.

You see Kiba was still trying to get over the fact that the notorious player, Uchiha Sasuke had strong feelings for his best friend. "Fine, what's her favorite color?"

Sasuke answered without missing a beat. "Yellow. Light yellow or deep gold depending on the situation or her mood."

Snap.

"Favorite food?" Kiba was not willing to back down.

"Tie between apples, Honeycrisp to be precise, and jalapeño peppers."

Double snap.

The only member of their skulls session without a Y chromosome was getting annoyed. So annoyed that she actually sat up to deliver her statement. "Why does it even matter?"

Sasuke and Kiba both looked at Sakura at the same time, and then both looked away stubbornly in synchronization as well. For all their differences, they were rather alike.

"I mean, seriously, you guys are acting like ki—wait!" Sakura turned on Kiba, her eyes narrowed. "Wait, you let her go?"

Now Sasuke realized it as well. Kiba had returned with news, but without Hinata. Putting the pieces together meant that whatever Kiba said to her had been in vain and she was still distraught.

His eye twitching, Kiba looked away. "Yeah, I suppose I did. You didn't see her though…"

Sasuke and Sakura both shot him venomous glares.

"I basically delivered the longest and deepest speech that I have ever done, and she still wanted nothing to do with me." Kiba was depressed now, and lowered the side of his head onto Sasuke's granite counter.

The trio was silent for a few moments before Kiba muttered something quietly that they, on the couch, could barely hear. "This is all your fault."

Considering it absolutely couldn't be Sakura's, Sasuke turned his head angrily to face him. "Mine?"

I don't know if you've ever heard Sasuke snarl, but it is actually quite terrifying. Sakura flinched, but Kiba kept his composure.

"Yes, yours. You're just one more thing she feels that she has to hold on to!"

"Kiba," Sakura muttered, jumping in yet again. "Shut up. Sasuke's… thing was just the straw that broke the camels back."

Kiba laughed cruelly. "That was one huge piece of straw then."

All right, the place is just outside of the apartment building. The time is around 2:30 in the morning. The weather is relentless rain. The situation is… shitty. Hinata didn't particularly want to venture out into the heavy and ultimately wet rain for one reason besides her terrible mood.

She didn't want to get Sasuke's hoodie wet.

You see the inside felt like someone had skinned bunnies to line the jacket. That's how soft it was. If the bunnies got wet, they would loose their godlike softness.

Bunnies don't like to go swimming, in case you didn't know that. Have you ever seen a bunny swim? No, I thought not.

Something about Hyuga Hinata was that she could just change her state of mind to let things just bounce off her. It was like a shield she would put up that didn't allow in bad feelings of anger or fear or something like that. And to put up said shield, she needed to think about something else, in this case the well being of the hoodie.

I can't stay here… She kept reminding herself. Each and every time she did, she would try to gather the wits necessary to dive out into the rain, and each and every time she lost her will.

I need to go home… I've done too much damage here.

It is now 3:00 in the morning and our heroes (though not the normal heroes) find themselves at one of those crappy and overly publicized restaurants, the ones that are open twenty-four hours a day. (A/N: Like Perkins…)

Hey, Kiba did say he would take her out to breakfast. Oh wait; Sakura had said that he would take her out. Right…

The pair of them, wet and grumpy, sidled into one of the booths, their soaked clothes squeaking on the bright red plastic. Sasuke had said that he needed to get some sleep and think things over, and when Kiba pointed out that he couldn't technically do the two at the same time, he kicked them out.

"So, what do you want to eat?" Kiba asked her, chancing a glance over the top of his laminated menu at her.

"Uh, I don't know… I'm not really hungry anymore." Sakura muttered, scratching at a peeling sticker on the front of the menu.

"Me neither…" He agreed, changing his position so that he was leaning against the back of the booth.

"Nothing like an uncharacteristically negligent girl and her emo boyfriend to kill your appetite, eh?"

Kiba laughed a true laugh. It sounded nice to her, considering all that she had been hearing this morning were tears, muttering and yelling. She smiled up at him and decided that it wasn't worth it to be in a bad mood.

Everybody was facing the same problems that Hinata was. Some, like Kiba, Sakura and Sasuke, tried to soak up the last days of their true springtime of youth. Because of this mindset, Sakura didn't want to ruin this exchange between them, which should have been really fun.

I mean sure, their colleges were close to each other. But it was also true that it'd never be like this ever again.

"Hey, let's dine and dash, okay?"

Kiba looked confused for a moment before a huge grin broke out over his face. "Hell yeah. In that case, lets each eat like a family of four, 'kay?"

Though not promising that, Sakura stood up slightly in her seat, trying to catch the eye of the sole waiter. As they were not alone, he was tending to a hard-core biking couple but he seemed to just finish. She waved him over and smiled at him when he asked her for her order.

"Can I have two orders of the buttermilk pancakes, one with chocolate chips baked in and the other with them on top?" She asked sweetly, smiling toothily.

"U-Uh, sure…" The waiter muttered, writing down her bizarre instructions. "And to drink?"

She put her finger to her lip in mock thought. "Well… how about a large orange juice, a large milk and some hot chocolate. And for you, my love?"

Her question was directed at Kiba who barked out a laugh. The waiter was under the impression that she was ordering for him, but no.

"Yes, can I have the carnivore special, only can you substitute the sausage for a bowl of fruit, the bacon for some mashed potatoes, the ham for toast and the eggs for sausage?"

Sakura had just brought her glass of water to her mouth to take a drink and choked as he said that.

The poor waiter looked down at the picture of the carnivore special and frowned. It was all meat that he had substituted for fruit, potatoes and toast, and two eggs that he had switched with meat.

"O… kay… what to drink?" He asked, shaking his head in annoyance as he wrote down Kiba's order.

"I'll have what she's having, only instead of the orange juice I want tea, instead of the milk I want coffee and instead of the hot chocolate…" Kiba glanced over at Sakura who was shaking with laughter. "Actually I'll have that. Thank you very much… Jon."

"Yes, Jon, thank you for being so understanding!" Sakura said chirpily, getting over her bout of the giggles as she too peered at his name tag.

Jon left without saying anything, without even a nod. When he went back into the kitchen, one cue Sakura and Kiba exploded with laughter.

"Oh," Sakura muttered in-between her laughs. "I feel bad now. It's so early in the morning, we probably just pissed him off."

Kiba shrugged, still chuckling lightly. "And we're not even paying!"

"Right you are, sir."

There was a comfy silence after that, where oddly both diners were thinking about the same thing. Exact same thing. It was just Kiba who decided to be bluntly audacious and say it.

"Are we dating?"

Sakura didn't know. Kiba didn't know. They didn't really know what the hell was going on, but that was kind of nice.

"Do you want to?" She shot back, tilting her head a tiny bit.

Kiba smirked, which was Sakura's favorite face of his. "Absolutely."

"Well…" she muttered, putting her finger to her bottom lip in mock thought. "Let's do it then."

"No details, just us?"

His smirk intensified as she nodded. That was how he liked it, when things happened without actual labels and work. They just fell together.

If their relationship was so unbelievably easy, why did Sasuke and Hinata completely fail?

Yeah, I get it this one was bad and long. I dug myself into a ditch in the SasuHina relationship and so I escaped with KibaSaku.

Don't get me wrong, I will spend a lot of my time (which I don't have much of because of school) into fixing the wreckage of my thoughts regarding them.

Scenes from the next episode:

Lately she had been so elusive that he thought her some ethereal creature that his heart-heavy mind had created. But no, she was here, killing him with a nicely aimed shank. Wow.

"Uh, Kiba… I think Sasuke's brain just exploded."