A/N: Hey there reader! Sorry for the long wait, School's been tough recently on my leisure time! As well as watching Bleach, oh god I'm so in love with that again! I'll definitely write something on that one day, but I digress, this is Naruto! Or is it? hehehe I hope you enjoy this chapter :) Have fun and leave a review if possible! ^_^
Naruto and Kiba had left the Hokage's office and ventured out towards the bottom of the tower steps, going at a fast pace to get to Amatores as soon as possible. Both teens had remained pretty quiet, their minds in conflict whether to be happy or not to liberate the village, as it meant that although they could practice fighting together, it also brought back the crisis of The Manipulator to the fore-front on their minds, which was undoubtedly draining.
They walked briskly down the steps and continued on straight yonder to the path leading towards the exit of the village. Naruto got bored with the reflective silence both boys were in and decided to initiate conversation by doing something quiet impulsive even to him, as he went to hold Kiba's hand.
Naruto's right hand slowly and nervously snaked towards Kiba's left one and his fingers brushed against them, causing Kiba to look towards the now blushing blonde. Both boys blushed, more so with Naruto, but the brunette decided to take the next move, lest an eternity of awkwardness would follow.
"I-I was wondering if-" Naruto became more like Hinata, trying to resist her dreaded influence but ultimately failing.
"Of course I'll hold your hand, my Naru-kun." Kiba blushed more fervently as he took hold of Naruto's now frozen hand, intertwining his fingers with the blondes own. A smile broke through on both of their nervous faces, but Naruto decided to start a conversation to help soothe his anxiety with all this contact, even though he was the one who impulsively started it.
"S-So I was wondering how exactly we're gonna "collaborate" as baa-chan said?" Naruto looked over to see Kiba just as confused, but hopefully having an inkling to what the slug princess meant instead.
"Well I'm guessing she meant we could train to become better at working together all in all? I mean, like getting to know each-others attack patterns, jutsu and stuff I guess."
"But where's Akamaru? I thought all your attacks are used with him, aren't they?" Naruto asked, wondering why of recent events his closest companion had been absent so much.
"He's been a real lazy mutt recently, but he's just wanted to spend more time at home now... I don't really know why though."
"But wouldn't that mean you can't use your Jutsu then?" Naruto impatiently replied.
"Of course I can baka! I'm just a little more limited, but I got some tricks up my sleeve, you'll see!" Kiba snickered strangely and Naruto eyed him dramatically, thinking he was an agent in disguise from his creepy laugh.
They both laughed it off and continued walking down the path to the exit, nearing the forest that led them to the besieged town. The teens had finally left the village and were now on a dirty forest road, both eyeing the surroundings cautiously.
Kiba's ears visibly twitched like a dog as he heard sounds of bushes rustling behind the walking teens, bringing Naruto's attention too.
"Who goes there?!" Naruto shouted into the wilderness.
"You really think that'll work Nar? God you really are a knucklehead!"
"Shut it you-"
Naruto stopped his comeback as he heard the rustling enclose on them. He turned around fully as did Kiba, both of them holding their ground as they were expecting an ambush at any given minute. Naruto pulled a Kunai out of his weapon pouch and held it in front of him, ready to strike.
"We'll say this one last time, who goes there?!" Kiba now shouted, also holding his ground while crouching into a dog-like form, ready to pounce.
The rustling intensified and Naruto decided to go and preemptively strike this mysterious person before they got to him. He ran towards the right side of the path by the bushes that were rustling, letting off a passionate battle cry that was pretty loud. His body disappeared into the bushes, warranting Kiba's worry.
A scream could be heard.
Naruto!
Kiba's protective instincts kicked in as he dashed towards the bushes, fearing that his boyfriend could of been kidnapped, or worse. His vision blurred as the foliage and bushes obscured his view, whipping and attacking his face with leaves and branches that left scratches all over. He got through the seemingly endless bushes and pulled his Kunai out, ready to charge who ever hurt Naruto.
He saw a strange sight though, causing him to put his Kunai away as he stepped forward slowly. Two figures stood in an open plot of grass, looking very closely stood or... held together.
"Naru-Kun! I'm so glad you hugged me first this time! My brave compatriot that you are!"
Kiba saw Naruto turning crimson-red as all his oxygen was fast escaping his body, which was clamped down on by the death-grip only one strange fellow could administer.
"S-Sai?! What are you doing here?"
Sai turned around to see Kiba looking at him, demanding an answer.
"Oh, It's the puppy! Still growling at rats nowadays?"
An anger vein popped out of the brunette's temple, however he held back a growl as to not prove the sarcastic artist right.
"No, I'm not. And let go of my Nar!"
Kiba waltzed over to Sai and pried the suffocated blonde from his grip, taking all of his strength to do so. Sai released Naruto and looked inquisitively at Kiba, who was now holding Naruto protectively. Naruto regained breath and complexion and looked up at Kiba, blushing at his protectiveness.
"Hmm, do you love each-other?"
Kiba and Naruto looked to Sai with utter surprise, not expecting him to say that. They both felt conflicted on the issue, as Love was always very risky ground in a relationship, especially as early on as theirs was.
"W-What?! No of course not!" Naruto brazenly shouted at Sai, looking ready to pommel him for prying into their personal life. Sai's face turned from one of confusion to passivity, getting the answer he wished for. Naruto turned back to see Kiba smile sadly back at him, showing something was up.
"Uhh Kyu? Why does he look sad? I mean, there's OBVIOUSLY no love between us, it's too early for that! Right!?"
'People are always different Kit, so for all we know he could be considering that.'
"B-But I don't want that yet! It's too soon!"
'Stop screaming baka, he's probably just upset how you instantly denied those kind of feelings, when it was probably just to shut Sai up.'
"Well I was telling the truth... right?"
'You're right Kit, don't worry about it and just get on with this damn mission already!'
Naruto snapped out of his mental chat and saw Kiba was now talking with Sai, while holding a book that he never saw before. He joined to two other shinobi and was intrigued by the book that Kiba was now holding.
"Uh Kibbs, what's that?" Naruto pointed to the grey book in his rugged hands, which had a picture of an Oak tree with the truest of green leaves adorning it. The book itself looked quiet well-made, and was kept in good condition to match.
"Me and Sai were just talking about suspects for all the stuff that's been happening, and he had a good idea of how to narrow it down some more."
"Yes, as Kibbles said, I have a way or perhaps narrowing down the search! Or expanding it, I'm not to sure..."
"Huh? What do you mean narrowing or expanding it?"
Sai took the book from Kiba's hands unexpectedly and received a glare from the brunette, adding to Naruto's confusion even more.
"You both have to finish the mission. We can read the book after, as I'm assigned to be your back up thankfully!"
"Heh, the old bat really planned this through, didn't she?" Naruto grinned as he felt it was all somehow coming together, thankful that they had the tactile Hokage helping them out in unorthodox ways.
"Now, fly my lovebirds! Liberate the town of Amatores!" Sai flamboyantly exclaimed as he glided to the tree canopy above, leaving behind two bewildered partners.
"He, is officially the weirdest person I've ever known." Kiba looked up to the canopy, his mouth agape.
"Yep, that's Sai for ya!"
The boys eventually broke out of their trance and went back to the path they were originally on, needing to get to the Town ASAP. They walked along side each other while moving at a quick pace, feeling more secure with the knowledge that they had backup, so they didn't have to always check their backs as opposed to before.
Kiba this time decided to take it further, as he went to hold Naruto's hand as they were before. He grasped the blondes hand with confidence, surprising Naruto but making him feel pleasant nonetheless.
I love how he doesn't mind doing this in public, well, with people watching at least!
Naruto smiled warmly back at Kiba, glad he wanted to be at least a little intimate before the nearing battle. He clenched Kiba's hand tight, wanting to be secure in his hold.
"So, Nar." Kiba spoke out of the comfortable silence, trying to gain Naruto's attention, with the blonde looking over to him after.
"What's gonna happen after we catch The Manipulator?"
Naruto looked back at Kiba surprisedly, yet the brunette showed only seriousness on his features.
"I-I don't know... what are you thinking of in particular?" Naruto became curious to why Kiba brought this up, as it was pretty spontaneous when there was such a nice silence.
"Well... us."
Naruto looked to the dog-nin's brown eyes, taken back by this serious question that was so spontaneous. The blond turned his gaze away from Kiba and looked down, not knowing quite how to answer his question, as he himself had no clue what would happen between them after the crisis finished. He thought for several seconds, but thankfully found his words.
"It'll be the same as ever Kib, nothing's gonna change, believe it!" Naruto chirped enthusiastically back, trying to make light of the situation, which he was always so good at doing. Kiba stopped walking, causing Naruto to stop too.
"S-So you'll still s-stay with me?" Kiba weakly uttered, his voice slightly cracking.
The Jinchuriki's heart stopped for a moment, that same strange buzzing feeling also filling his stomach. His optimism being replaced with the feeling he still couldn't describe. His eyes met again with Kiba's, looking intimately into them as he saw what looked like... rejection, or fear, of rejection glazing his vision. But, there was also hope, which he saw in earnest.
"... O-Of course I will, you shouldn't even had doubted that, baka!" Naruto grinned ear to ear, his brilliant optimism shining through again. Kiba's face turned from anxious to somewhat a happy kind of shock, as evident by his response.
"Yahoo!" Kiba almost jumped into the air, all his negative thoughts beforehand being annihilated from the reply he got, "We're gonna have a blast Nar! We can watch movies, train together, eat together, L...-"
'Sleep together... mwahahaha!'
"How did I know you was gonna say that Kyu? *sigh*"
Kiba continued to ecstatically list all the fun and innocent activities the teens could get up to with Naruto living there, while Naruto internally sighed at Kiba's almost puppy-like excitement.
Well, he's pretty darn cute though, hehe...
Naruto decided there was only one way to stop Kiba's rampage of excitement, which was that he had to physically shut him up. But the canny blonde knew that there was 'better' ways of going about doing things, so rather then bopping him on the head like Sakura would do, he leaned in to kiss the blabbering brunette's soft lips.
"And we could mw-uhhh!" The stream of consciousness flowing from Kiba's mouth ended abruptly as Naruto pressed his lips against the brunette's, sealing that pesky gap that produced so much noise beforehand. It was only meant to be a quick peck to quiet the babbling dog-nin and done so accordingly, but lasted at least a minute longer then planned. They both finished the joint-kiss after passion ran high, moving slowly away from each-other while retaining blissful eye contact, almost panting from the lack of air.
"Heh- I'm gonna need some more of that Nar, you're too damn good..."
Naruto winked at Kiba, "Oh don't worry about that Kib, after this manipulator is out of the picture, we'll have all the time in the world for it."
He grabbed the brunette's hand again and abruptly pulled, or dragged, Kiba forward on the path again.
"Let's exterminate those damned bandits already! I wanna see your new moves." Naruto smirked at Kiba, who gave his trademark toothy grin back, as well as raised fist of determination.
"Let's do this Nar!" he replied with as much vigor, as they then both jumped to the tree canopy and decided to travel across it to get to the the town quicker, to liberate Amatores with haste.
"Whoa... this place, what happened!?" Naruto gasped, as the sight before his eyes was anything but OK.
Buildings were ablaze: screams being heard inside shops and homes going all the way down the long entrance road of the town. Some people were seen lying on the streets, all those most probably innocent civilians. Kiba caught up to Naruto on the last few tree tops before the village entrance, and was just as shocked by the sight of flames consuming the previously-beautiful town.
"Those... those criminals are gonna pay!" Kiba gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, cracks from him knuckles being heard by Naruto.
"Yes, they are... how in Kami's name could they do this?! All the people here are innocent! We don't have any time to waste Kib, let's get rid of them already!" Naruto growled as his Iris' turned yellow, with his pupils becoming elongated and turning horizontal, showing his feared Sage Mode.
"Wait, Nar!" Kiba shouted across to Naruto, who was about to jump into the town and begin wreaking havoc. "We still need to have a battle plan, you can't just expect to charge right in on these kinda' enemies, I mean look what they done to the town!
The blonde sighed in defeat, knowing Kiba was 100% right about being cautious, not careless. He jumped down to the forest ground as well as Kiba, both of them plopping down behind a tree, hiding themselves in case the enemy got the hit on them first.
"So I was thinking Nar, I've learned some new elemental Jutsu that we could combine with your Rasenshuriken, It would seriously tear the crap out of 'em!"
"You have elemental Jutsu?! What element is it? 'Cause If it's something like earth then I don't think it's gonna work with my wind style, ya know!" Naruto found his statement quite funny, as he couldn't imagine combining Earth and Wind together without causing an atomic explosion from how incompatible the two elements are.
"W-Well... uh hahaha... yeah about that." Kiba broke a sweat and smiled nervously at Naruto, who now had double-face-palmed: an act of true disappointment.
Naruto sighed, "It's earth, isn't it?"
"Well y-yeah, but I'm sure we could figure out how to combine them, no?!"
"I'm not being funny Kib, but they are completely the friggin' opposite, so it would take longer than a 5 minutes pep talk to make a technique out of that baka!" Naruto bopped Kiba on the head, his face and whiskers scrunched up into a ball of frustration at Kiba's dense logic.
"Hey! I was just figuring, so maybe we should just learn each-others attack patterns for now then?" Kiba massaged the now growing bump on his head.
"That makes more sense, you silly pup..." The cheeky fox-boy winked.
"Pup?! You really need to stop calling me that foxy, or I'll have to prove to you that i'm a lot more then that!" Kiba growled with a sly smirk on his face, almost challenging the blonde sage.
"Oh, is that so...?"
Kiba grinned and began to crawl slowly towards the sitting Uzumaki, almost imitating a wolf on the prowl. He closed in and was inches away from Naruto's face, looking into those familiar yet sill marvelous azure eyes. Naruto smirked and began to close in, breathing huskily to lure Kiba in even more, which was evident as the brunette closed his eyes. Kiba pouted his lips slightly and kept going forward, wondering where Naruto's elusive soft lips were.
"Are you gonna try and kiss that tree all day? Or do you wanna get a move on, silly pup!"
Kiba's eyes shot open as he saw he was in fact almost about to make out with a tree, as Naruto had slyly moved out of the way.
"Heh, I'll get you back for that one Nar!"
"I'd like to see you try doggy... now let's get moving already, we've stalled long enough!"
'Ohoho! Nice bit of "playing hard to get" there Kit! Make the pup work harder to get you from now on!'
"Heh, I think you're right, it's pretty fun."
Naruto led the way into the town with Kiba just behind him. They broke into a run as they knew they had to target the main enemy force, as villagers could still be in danger, and they both didn't want anymore lives taken because of their lack of haste. Naruto sensed a huge chakra amalgamation to the north, made up of tens of rogue-shinobi: the main force, he thought. He turned right into an alley, with Kiba confusedly following suit.
"Hey, why are we are here? They're all that way!" He pointed out to the exit.
"We need to make a REAL strategy Kib, I sensed about 20 or more Shinobi that way."
"O-Ok, so what'e the plan of action then?"
Naruto grinned foxily and beckoned Kiba to get closer, so they could whisper the plans without bringing any attention from able-hearing Sensor-type shinobi. Naruto spoke extremely fast and quite, however thankful that Kiba has excellent hearing so he needn't have to repeat himself. He finished speaking after about only a minute of his drawn up plan, which he thought was ingenious if he said so himself.
"Wow Nar, who would of thought you'd have some brains!"
After another bop to the head and a lecture on how "The Knucklehead is a lie.", he let Kiba take the lead so they could let the plan work to maximum efficiency. Kiba ran at a fast rate to get ahead of Naruto, so that the enemy thought he was their only opponent. He spotted a large group of about 20 shinobi, showing how accurate Naruto's sage-mode is at spotting chakra. He became ever closer, grabbing his Kunai from his pouch in preparation for the enemies ahead. He finally was in their sight, as he started shouting to get their full attention.
"HEY, EVERYONE! YAHOOOOO!"
Kiba's blatant shouting done as anticipated, as the enemy shinobi drew what looked like Katana's from their scabbards, and began to charge towards Kiba.
Katana's?! Crap they really do mean business... I can't let those hit me!
He ran towards the charging group and focused chakra to his feet, then just before being run over by the mob, he leaped above them and retained his balance while falling quite gracefully behind the group. He blew raspberries to piss them off even more, which also worked as they began shouting and running even more aggressively, wanting to chop Kiba into confetti.
Heh, it's working so far, now I just gotta lead them to a dead-end.
Kiba ran as fast as he could to keep ahead of the equally fast group of shinobi, turning into various alley-ways, eventually finding a dead-end.
Perfect
Kiba stopped dramatically at the dead-end, pretending to be distressed at having no way out. He turned around, seeing the mob scoffing at his supposed stupidity, while closing in to attack him.
"Looks like this is that dog-brat we were ordered to capture, heh... I think you'll still live without an arm or two though!" The voice of a gruff woman who led the mob snarled, closing in and was meters away from him.
"Naruto, now!"
"What?! Who the he-ahhhhhhh!" The woman covered her ears as she was almost deafened by a screeching sound of pure energy behind her and the mob, she turned around to see a huge spiraling sphere of energy on top of a blonde boy's arm.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" *** "Earth Style: Self-Burial!"
Kiba sunk under the concrete ground just in time, as Naruto's Rasenshuriken went cascading towards the mob, but somehow went flinging off to the sky above their heads, as it looked like it had misfired.
"You missed?! Ha! Is that all you go-"
"Just kidding, now go to hell you assholes!" Naruto attached a chakra sting to the Rasenshuriken and pulled it back down to earth, literally, as it expanded and consumed the entire alley-way with it's pure wind energy, with screams of the previously cocky woman now being evident. The jutsu ceased after about a minute of Tornado forces, as the mob inside were definitely finished now.
Naruto walked into the now decimated alley and was looking for any hint of Kiba, as he worried he might not of buried himself deep enough to get out of the blast fully.
"Kiba, Kiba! You can come out now!" He called, but there was no sign of the dog-boy.
"This isn't funny Kiba! Where are you-ohhhh!" Naruto finished his sentence as he face-planted the concrete, having been tripped over by something grabbing his leg.
"Hahahaha! Got you back, see!" Kiba emerged from the ground in front of Naruto's face and landed elegantly on his feet, brushing off the dirt and mud from his shoulders.
"Y-Yoo dobe!" Naruto mumbled from the ground, then raising his head to see a peculiar object in front of his face.
"Hehe you got what you deserved foxy! An-... W-What are you looking at?" Kiba looked down to see Naruto staring at something under his legs, he moved backwards a bit and looked down, and saw what looked like a strange pendant or amulet of sorts.
"What's that Nar?"
Naruto grabbed the broken pendant and stood back up, showing Kiba it too to see if it was his that he might of dropped.
"Is this yours Kib?"
"N-No, it looks ancient..."
"I think that's where I almost disintegrated it with the Rasenshuriken, hehe... but I feel a strange chakra coming from this, it's... like The Manipulator's in a way."
"R-Really?! How'd ya know?"
"Well It feels like the chakra from when you was possessed, so it could be linked... as this was probably held by one of the bandits that I got with the Rasenshuriken."
"That kinda makes sense I guess... we should head back to Tsunade's office and get the payment, and maybe ask her to take a look at this thing."
"Yeah you're right Kib, she's got experience with this kind of crap, so we can kill two birds with one stone with this!"
Naruto and Kiba finished brushing off the dirt, debris and other unsightly objects attached to their clothes, and decided to try and detect anymore chakra signatures of enemies nearby. Naruto detected none, and so they went to contact the support squad assigned to them to help the wounded civilians while they went back to Tsunade to report their findings. Kiba called Sai and the artist appeared, also handing over the book he promised, containing the Data of Teachers to help broaden the investigation. After a few death-hugs and growling, Sai took his orders by Kiba to help clean up the town and help tend to the wounded, which he done straight away.
The two teens finally thought it was about time to leave the destroyed village, but were glad to see that water-style users had already began to douse the flames as soon as they left for the forest.
The sky darkened, and rain began to pour as if Kami herself was infuriated at the destruction of such an innocent village, frustrated by Humanities mistakes that they constantly repeated. The rain assaulted the roads that the boys walked upon, making it slightly difficult to walk. They both however couldn't care less of the angered skies, as their hands were again intertwined, and in their other hands they held two new items to help them track down the elusive Manipulator.
A/N: Well there it was! As I said before, I apologize for the wait, but if I was to try and get it out any quicker it would of been obviously choppy and rushed, which I don't plan on doing anytime soon! Leave a review if you can, till next time =^.^=