A/N: And here we are again, dear readers! Thank you all of you who have commented; I appreciate your time and questions, always!
For future chapters, the "- -N- -" sign indicates a time skip (N = Naruto, in case you're curious). Onwards!
Chapter 5: Disoriented
As Kiba woke up, he groaned. At first, he wasn't sure where he was, but a long scan around assured him he was in his room.
He groaned as it registered that his head throbbed, his eyes burned, and his stomach pitched dangerously. There was fuzz over his teeth. The blinds were open, letting in searing light that worsened everything considerably.
Kiba groaned as he stumbled to his bathroom, using the walls to help his progress. After peeing and washing his hands, he brushed his teeth. The mint toothpaste helped soothe his stomach, but not enough to help him feel a whole lot better.
He groaned as he rummaged around for some aspirin, swallowed three, and took the time to close the blinds before burrowing under the covers again, sinking back into slumber.
Over and over, he heard his name called, and each time a different voice said it. Yukari's voice, Ino's voice, Hinata's voice, Hana's voice and others all syncopated and chorused around him. More times than not, it sounded like his mother calling him, and when he realized it was her, it took him a while to respond.
"Kiba? Kiba…get up." Mom shook him, not gently. "Get up."
He had buried his head under the pillows, and he peeked from under them. "Hunh?"
"It's time for yer chores."
"Wha…?" He didn't understand what she was talking about.
Her eyes narrowed. "Yer chores."
"Chores?"
For some reason his brain didn't click. He honestly could not remember what 'chores' meant; it was like Mom was saying a foreign word that he didn't know.
"Chores, boy!" she said again, and he could tell she was getting annoyed. "Yer still on punishment."
He said nothing, lost in his confusion, and stared at her blankly. Mom grabbed his arm and yanked him up. She lowered her face to his, and Kiba shrank back from her low growl.
"Get around in fifteen minutes, or there'll be hell to pay."
With that threat, she straightened and left his room, slamming the door as she did. The noise caused him to cringe as pain bounced from the back of his brain to the front and back again over and over.
Several minutes passed as he collected himself. He moved carefully, worried that any jarring movement would agonize his already stinging brain. After opening and closing the five drawers to his dresser, forgetting what he was looking for each time, he found a clean shirt and a clean pair of pants.
Undressing and redressing ate up several more minutes because when he finally got the pants figured out and on, he couldn't remember where he laid his shirt. So when Mom opened his door, he was in the process of staring at his bedroom floor, half-dressed, wondering what he was looking for in the first place.
Mom crossed her arms. "What're you doing?"
He could feel her working up to a rage just by the way she stood in front of him. Kiba couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong to deserve her anger…suddenly he felt very helpless and upset, but he didn't know why.
"What's wrong with you?" Her voice held a sharp edge.
His eyes stung. Kiba ducked his head and shrugged. He couldn't remember; he didn't know how to answer her. He waited for her to yell at him to get his ass in gear, to stop messing around and do as she said. Instead, she surprised him by gathering him into her arms and giving him a tight hug.
"Yer still sick," Mom said, stroking his back. "Poor child, yer still sick."
He went with it, even though he wasn't sure what she was talking about, and turned his face into her neck and closed his eyes. He breathed her, and for a short while, he could ignore his illness in favor of the love he felt from his mother. When she patted him, he knew she would draw back, and so he prepared himself for the heaviness that would drop in his chest.
She released him. Only, for some reason, the heaviness fell worse than usual and made him feel liable to crack under the pressure of it. All his sickness swirled and came back with more potency than before. Willingly, he allowed her to usher him back to his bed, and she let him situate before pulling the covers all the way up.
Time, for Kiba, was marked only when Mom came to check on him, his meals- -barely eaten- -and then a few times when Hana came in. He was always in a state of semi-consciousness and their conversation was a low, soothing murmur. They only disturbed him when they unburied him and stuck a thermometer under his tongue to check his temperature.
He slept through that day and night.
Warm, steady licks on his face woke him up. Akamaru. Wordlessly, Kiba rolled to the opposite side of the bed right into a nice cold spot between the sheets. Akamaru hopped up to lie next to him, his weight and size sinking the mattress enough that Kiba slid downhill.
How're you feeling? Akamaru whined at him, smiling in his doggy way.
Kiba scratched the base of his companion's skull as he struggled with an answer for Akamaru's question.
"Blah."
He did feel better, not dizzy or confused like he had been, but he wasn't at one hundred percent.
A series of soft growls. What happened?
Kiba closed his eyes to think. He remembered sneaking out to meet with Yukari, the visit to the Yamanaka Flower Shoppe, and taking Yukari somewhere. Vague lights, dark, and blurriness- -a skitter of nerves. But after that, no definite sense of time and no definite events. Just…nothing.
"I'm…not sure."
You don't remember?
"I…" Kiba flung an arm over his eyes, trying to make sense from the broken apart puzzle pieces his mind seemed to be in. "I don't know."
Akamaru licked his arm, and he reached out to stroke Akamaru's head. Amicable silence followed. Kiba, ill as he was, could still tell that Akamaru was working up to something.
That night…something strange must have happened. The nin-dog touched a cold nose to Kiba's neck. Ino brought you home.
At first, he thought he heard wrong. He stared at Akamaru, stomach twisting unpleasantly.
"What?"
Ino brought you home, Akamaru repeated patiently. You were unconscious. Did you get into a fight?
Kiba didn't know how to answer him, and a knock at the door saved him from any more probing Akamaru might have done.
He smelt lilac- -but instead of sending him into the stratosphere, the smell made him gag. Thinking quickly, Kiba shuffled his pillows around so that he would have his mouth and nose partially covered. It helped, but minimally.
"Kiba? It's Yukari." The door opened, and Yukari's small form slid into the room. Her eyes travelled over Akamaru, finally locking on Kiba. "Your mother said I could visit."
I was just leaving.
Akamaru hopped off the bed and gave Kiba a last glance, like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it.
Yukari awkwardly stood and looked around his room.
"Hi," Kiba said, gesturing Yukari over. "I'm glad you came."
Yukari smiled shyly, crossing to sit on the edge of the bed. "You look terrible!"
"I feel terrible."
Kiba tried to enjoy how Yukari leaned over him, but when she touched his face, he suppressed an urge to brush away her hand. They looked at each other for a moment, and Kiba frowned behind his pillows, wishing he felt like being more agreeable, but asking her to leave after she'd made the effort to visit seemed rude.
Then his eye caught the outline of a bruise on her shoulder, under the short sleeve of her dress.
He rubbed the spot. "Where did this come from?"
"Oh, this." She stopped his hand. "It's…it's…"
"It's what?"
She looked down at him, traced one of his clan marks with a finger. "You don't want to know."
But her lip quivered. Kiba gave her a serious look. "Tell me."
Some angry blotches formed on the pale skin above the collar of her dress. To his dismay, she burst out crying as suddenly as a summer thunderstorm.
"It's…M-miss Ino!" she bawled, burying her face in her hands. "S-she's crazy!"
Kiba struggled to understand her over the sobs, but Yukari's accusation was crystal clear. He couldn't believe that Ino would go to such extremes to stop him from spending time with Yukari.
But the tears…the tears were real, splashing down Yukari's pretty face and dripping onto his bedspread. The bruise was real. His own state of mind was real.
Against all that evidence, and the sobbing girl next to him, he felt helpless and terrified and cold.
"We were…we were having such a wonderful time! But she…she showed up and ruined everything! She did something to you and she…she…she hit me and threatened me!" As she cried, Yukari curled up next to him, and Kiba put a comforting arm around her. "I can't believe she would…she would do that to us! Why can't she find someone else to be jealous of?"
Yukari sobbed harder. Before anything else, Kiba wanted her to stop crying.
"Hey…hey," he said, not knowing what else to say as he stroked her hair, thinking he shouldn't have messed with Ino. "It's okay. Look, I'll go and take care of Ino. It'll be okay."
Yukari shuddered in his arms. "No…please, please! Don't do anything! I want to be with you…I just want to be with you," she repeated softly, nuzzling into his neck.
Her tears continued to pour, dampening his shirt and pillow. Their conversation ended, and Kiba petted Yukari and murmured soothing things to her as she cried.
At long last, her crying tapered away. Her breathing evened out; she'd cried herself to sleep. But Kiba was a long ways from sleep.
Ino. What had she done? Everything Yukari told him- -Ino had the capacity to execute such underhanded retaliation. An aggressive urge to find and throttle Ino crashed into his system.
But logic dictated that if he went now, he would not be able to defend Yukari (or himself) under an onslaught from Ino. He had seen Ino in a full-tilt tirade; it wasn't a pretty sight. Kiba had to prepare for her cleverness, the verbal lashing he was sure to receive.
Although Kiba lacked details, he was sure he knew the whys and hows of his evening with Yukari: he imagined that Ino, enraged with jealousy, had followed him and Yukari. Ino must have slipped him something- -she was, after all, a med-nin.
That would explain why he couldn't remember anything after going with Yukari to the club. Incapacitated, Kiba had not been able to prevent Ino from hurting Yukari, physically and emotionally.
His jaw clenched as his muscles tensed- -he hadn't thought Ino as dishonorable as that. There were rules, rules!, shinobi followed, especially involving relationships with civilians, and he had expected Ino to obey them as faithfully as her teammates. And attempting to get to Kiba by beating up Yukari was just…just…
He didn't have an appropriate word to describe what she'd done.
Even though Kiba had made a conclusion based on evidence, several pieces of that night didn't fit. For example, why would Ino drag him home after going through the effort of getting him out of the way?
Had she felt sorry for him? Had she wanted to do something nice after what she had put Yukari through? Had she been repenting for her disregard to the rules?
Answers eluded him. Questions made his head ache. Slowly he stored away the questions. He would find Ino and get some answers; while he was at it, he would make sure she left him and Yukari alone. For good.
Resolved, Kiba relaxed and closed his eyes.
When he woke up, Yukari had left. He smoothed the bedspread where she had lain, and he picked up a hint of lilac. It was still too sweet a smell for him, but what was worse was the funk that emanated from his own body.
Feeling motivated and better rested, Kiba left bed and showered. The steam and hot water cleared his head further, and when he scrubbed his arm, he found a little red hole on the inside of his elbow.
It looked like the kind of mark a hypodermic needle would make. Now who would he know who would have use for a hypodermic needle on him?
Ino had a lot of explaining to do.
Pounding on the bathroom door broke his thoughts. "KIBA?" His mother.
"YEAH?"
"YER ON CALL! HURRY YER ASS UP!"
Oh, good, he had a mission. Ino, and Kiba's problems with her, would have to wait.
- -N- -
Kiba rode on Akamaru, not having the energy to walk beside his animal companion. The mission hadn't been difficult- -but Kiba had been grumpy and pessimistic the entire time. Hinata, Shino, and Akamaru had not made mention of his negativity, only quietly accepting Kiba's dark mood and avoiding any confrontation that would agitate him.
It had been three days since he'd seen Yukari; five days since that ruined night with her. The mission had taken up his concentration and he had not had time to think about either Yukari or Ino, but now that the mission was over, the two of them dominated his mind.
Yukari and her sweetness, her tender admissions and touches versus Ino's red-hot looks and kisses and her blunt and sharp observations.
Yukari and her claims that Ino had sabotaged their evening brewed in Kiba's mind.
You're awful quiet, Akamaru growled.
Kiba didn't feel like talking. A nice, neutral response was in order.
"Hm."
Akamaru sighed, his chest cavity expanding and contracting. What has you so upset?
"Nothing."
Kiba glanced around to gauge how far they had left to go before home where he could hide in his room.
The nin-dog grunted in disbelief. Yukari and Ino again, huh?
There was no point in lying to someone who could smell it in him.
"Yeah."
What's going on? Akamaru tilted his head to look over his shoulder at Kiba.
"I don't know," Kiba admitted, having trouble assigning words to his churning thoughts and emotions. "I really like Yukari. But there's this…thing…with Ino…" he trailed off, trying to decide on the best way to describe the explosiveness he felt around Ino, looking at her, touching her…kissing her.
Akamaru's ears popped. Thing?
"Yeah…thing. You know how we always fight?
Hm-hm.
"Well…it all changed when I went to get flowers for Yukari. One minute we were arguing, the next we were flat on the floor."
That fast, huh? Akamaru chuckled.
Kiba didn't appreciate the humor his companion found in this very serious situation.
"You know what I mean. I never thought I'd find myself making out with Yamanaka Ino of all people. And, goddamn, she was hot!" His internal temperature rose with the memory. "And what's more…I think about it all the time and I wonder what would have happened if we'd really been by ourselves!"
So what about Yukari? Sounds like you're pretty interested in Ino.
"No! I like Yukari because she isn't Ino. Yukari is cute and nice and straightforward. She doesn't mess with my head…like Ino."
Kiba felt his mood darken further into anger. "Ino as good as admitted that she was jealous of Yukari! And that night when I snuck out…I think Ino did something to me so she could mess up Yukari!"
The more Kiba thought about it, the more he realized he didn't want Ino's damn explanations. What he wanted was for her to butt out of his life! How dare she stick a needle in him and then punch Yukari like that! The thoughts served to piss him off.
I think you need to talk to Ino.
Akamaru had been silent so long Kiba had forgotten that they'd been in the middle of a conversation.
"No! No," Kiba replied, mind made up. "What I need to do is make Ino leave us alone! She's got no right to poke her nose into my business."
Kiba. Ino is a shinobi. She wouldn't do anything without reason. Maybe you should find out why she did what she did. And besides that, she knows the laws regarding civilians. Why would she risk being charged with battery?
His companion's reasonable tone upset Kiba further for no good reason except that Akamaru was being more rational than he.
"Fine. You want me to talk to Ino, then I will." Kiba hopped off Akamaru's back. He stepped away before calling over his shoulder. "I'll let you know what Ino's 'reasons' are for battering a civilian."
Emotions boiled into every pore as Kiba stalked down the street, imagining all the cool and mean things he would say to Ino to get back at her for being a conniving bitch. It felt good to be aggressive and purposeful again. He tracked down Ino easily, senses heightened, not hindered, with his anger.
Ino had just exited the hospital, and there was some choppiness in her scent that spoke of stress. He caught up to her as she crossed the large cement square.
"Ino!" he called. She didn't slow her stride, so he called again, louder. "Ino!"
Ino continued walking and made Kiba think that she was ignoring him, so he sped up and yanked her around by her arm. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you!"
At first it looked like she didn't recognize him, but then she blinked a few times and saw him.
"Oh," she said. "Kiba. I was coming to find you."
The completely neutral way she said his name- -like she had done nothing wrong- -ratcheted up his already high emotion. He wanted to punch her, but settled for snarling and growling to convey his mood. Ino's scent fluctuated and a fear-smell gratified him some.
He jabbed a finger at her. "Just who the hell do you think you are?"
Ino stood in front of him and didn't answer for a long time. He wondered if she would play dumb.
She tucked her loose hair behind her ears and took a deep breath. "I see you've talked to Yukari."
"Yeah, I've talked to her! What the fuck?" he snarled. "You hurt-"
"I've got something important to tell you," she interrupted. "Just listen a second."
But Kiba wasn't there to listen. He shoved her a little and was pleased to see a startled expression cross her features.
"No. I have something to tell you." He lowered his voice to a threatening growl. "Stay away from my girlfriend. I'm not afraid to protect what's mine."
There. Kiba had said what he'd come to say. He turned and didn't take but two steps before Ino yanked him around.
Her fury clearly surpassed any he'd seen from her before, and he felt bisected under the sharpness of her glare- -his anger didn't quite hide the nervousness her glare invoked.
"Shut up a second and let me explain," she hissed. "And if you ever shove me like that again, you'll regret it."
Each stared the other down. The atmosphere between them hummed. A huge fight had brewed, bigger than what Kiba had anticipated, and whatever the outcome, he knew it probably wouldn't turn out the way he imagined.
A/N: Well, well. Kiba made some pretty hasty decisions. You hope they don't bite him in his butt, but I do. =)
