Day 1
It had been years since he returned to his hometown, strange for someone bawling his eyes out and clinging to his mother while being carted away by exasperated airport officials. Even stranger was how he had taken to his new place like a happy duck to water—or a happy dog to the toilet—so much so that it had taken him years before the idea of returning actually turned into action. And while he admitted to missing his hometown when it finally sank into him, an hour after his plane landed reminded him why he rarely got the urge to go back in the first place—despite the bawling of "I don't wanna leave youuuuu!!!" of the past.
"Move it, slowness!"
Hana.
"Nee-chan, I just got back!" Kiba whined, three boxes of dog food in his arms obstructing his view. He was still in the clothes he had worn when he left Kiri eighteen hours ago, and to say that he was tired was an understatement. He had been reminding his older sister, Hana, of the differences in the time zones between Konoha and Kiri. Time and again, her only answer had been—
"Suck it up, Inuzuka Kiba! You've been gone for five years and you owe me a hell lot of chores! Now move it, sloth. Move!"
Oh, if only he had chosen a day when their mother was home—he would have been soaking in a hot bath right now and smelling his favorite food being cooked!
—and then she would have allowed him an hour's nap so he could lug around six boxes of dog food after.
He tried to sigh loudly but it came out as a strangled groan. See? He couldn't even sigh properly!
Tou-san probably kicked the bucket because of these domineering females, he grumbled. Great, now he learned he had Benedict Arnold for his father.
"Nee-chaaaaaaaaan! I'm tired, let me sleep!" Kiba howled. He abruptly stopped and set down the boxes, then plopped down on a box in weary defiance. He was also hungry, dammit—the flight attendants had been pissed with him and refused to give him anything from their carts. Bitches.
It wasn't as if it was Akamaru's fault! How would've the head bitch felt if he stepped on her tail, if she were a dog? Akamaru only reacted as any dog worth his salt would. Hell, Akamaru had even restrained himself and didn't bite too hard! She shouldn't have been such a scaredy-cat and she shouldn't have gone around throwing the food trolley at all the other passengers!
Talk about rude.
And they didn't have to yell at him for smuggling his dog in!
"Is that what you've been doing in Kiri all those years?" Hana asked, standing akimbo as she glared down at her younger brother. "Turning into a weak-ass pansy whiny little pussy-bitch?"
Kiba began cursing in the Southern Kiri dialect. Hana reached down and smacked her annoying brother upside the head. "I know the language, you ass. Remember those weeks I couldn't watch my soaps? Remember you being an even greater pain the ass? Remember Fabio dying and me not being around to watch it?!"
He scowled, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away in defiance. Fabio was a douchebag, anyway. And shiny. What did girls see in shiny douchebags? "Serves him right," he muttered.
Hana's eyes widened. He cringed, his hands belatedly flying up to cover his big mouth.
That was the wrong thing to say.
"What. did. you say?"
"Nothing, nothing!"
Hana took a deep breath, ready to begin what was fast becoming the raging rant of a lifetime. Kiba's eyes darted around, desperately seeking an escape—
His eyes widened and he gasped.
Hana, not putting anything past her idiotic little brother, got ready to deliver a punch to a set of alarmingly wide eyes for epically failing at diverting her attention. The idiot never was good at acting.
"Nee-chan, Nee-chan!" Kiba whispered, his voice dripping with great excitement. Hana raised an eyebrow, still suspicious. "Do you believe in love at first sight, ha, ha?"
Of all the things—
"Eh?!"
"Love at first sight!" Kiba hissed impatiently, though the disturbing glint in his eyes hardly wavered. In fact, if she was in the mood to throw up right now, Hana would say that her baby brother was giddy.
Ugh.
To dispel the disgust crawling up her spine, she reacted like any self-respecting older sister would to rouse their younger brothers out of their creepy stupors.
"What the fuck."
It seemed Kiba was too far gone already, though, as he raised a shaking hand and pointed with all the passion and feelings thrumming in his body.
"Look!"
Hana followed Kiba's excited finger, past the wall of pet food boxes and landed on a pair of shining brown eyes looking back with all the love and affection the whole world over. She felt her soul melt into a puddle of happy goo, a brilliant smile brightening her features.
Kawaii!!!
"The puppy?"
"No!" Kiba exploded, getting frustrated at his sibling's idiocy and destroying the smitten expression on her face. He jabbed his finger in front of him, as if by jabbing he could enlighten the illiterates of the world. "Not the Lab! Her!"
Hana glared at him before rolling her eyes—"Idiot, you should've said so!"—and looked past the chubby dark puppy wagging its black tail in false assumption of reciprocated undying love. Her eyes squinted. A look of recognition dawned upon her face.
"Oh."
"Oh?!? That's all you can say? OH?!?!" Kiba whispered in a high-pitched whine. What the hell kind of answer was that?!?
"What do you want me to say?" Hana retorted. "Okay, fine! I'll say you better find someone else to go love at first sight over because the last person you should be doing that with—" she jabbed her finger at the window, "—is her!"
Kiba gaped. She seriously sounded kinda serious back there. "Nee-chan?"
"Geez. You're just asking for trouble, you stupid pup."
"Hey—!"
"Oi Hana, you in here?" a voice floated in cheerily. Both Inuzuka automatically turned to the door and Kiba tried, really really tried, to stop the insane grin from splitting up his face—
It was her! In their shop!
—and he may as well try to steal Akamaru's dog mix and get away with it.
A girl—golden hair in twin ponytails, sporting an oversized bright orange shirt and dark sweatpants—stood inside the pet shop grinning at all the excited puppies yipping from their cages. Hana didn't think she could pick Kiba out from all those puppies right now—in fact, she wouldn't even be surprised had her baby brother grown a tail to wag along with the cutie, widdle, wuvvy-fuzzy-wuzz—uh, puppy tails.
Who was, incidentally, currently chanting in his mind—
We're sharing the same air! The same air! The same air!
Hana stepped out of the storage room, kicking the door shut before his frozen brother's goofy, besotted face. Kiba jumped up, suddenly a bloodhound on the trail, and stopped her with a well-timed hip thrust. He tried to peek over his sister's shoulder, unable to stop his grin from growing wider as the girl turned to his direction, her face appearing directly in front of his line of sight.
—which was cruelly blocked by his ass of a sister and a box suddenly shoved into his face.
"Oi. 'Sup?" Hana greeted. Kiba's mouth dropped open, aghast. The hell she's greeting the goddess like that?!?
"Just passing through the 'hood," the goddess replied. Ah, such a forgiving and gorgeous creature! "I thought I'd drop by and tell you Kyuubi's back to fighting form. You're one damned super-vet, Inuzuka Hana!"
Kiba sighed. How could she curse and make it sound like a blessing?
"Hey, who's that?"
He shot up in surprise, dropping the box unceremoniously shoved in his hands. The impact hardly covered the sound of sniggering. Hana was not doing any real job of holding herself back. "What're you talki—"
"H-Hi!" Kiba exclaimed. He pushed his sister away to cover up the blush of mortification at his stutter. Damn, what just happened to him?!?
He watched as golden eyebrows furrowed, gorgeous blue eyes squinting with curiosity and confusion. He ignored his sister, who chose to snicker louder instead of glare at him.
"Um, hi," Beauty Incarnate greeted back. Kiba inwardly swooned. Outwardly too. "How's it going?"
She's so friendly! Blue eyes flickered to his sister in the flailing throes of hilarity before transferring back to him, and he found himself short of breath as eyes shimmering like a beautiful lake looked directly into his, as if waiting for him to say something.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—
He couldn't think of anything.
"Are you her brother?" she asked after a short eternity of drowning him in blue. Kiba was deaf to everything else, even the uproarious cackle of his demented sister. "You guys kinda look alike."
Smart too!
Kiba was ready to die of drowning in the presence of the angel.
"Unfortunately," Hana answered, abruptly shattering Kiba's vision of a perfect death. He glared at her and she had to place a firm, couldn't-even-count-as-slightly-gentle hand on his shoulder. "Naruto, Kiba. Kiba, Naruto."
His hand shook as he reached out to grasp hers. He almost gasped at the jolt he felt. Her hand was so warm and he knew he'd never get rid of the feel of it for many many days to come.
"P-Pleasure to-to-to meet y-y-you!"
Along with this sudden attack of fatal stupidity.
She smiled and his thoughts of suicide at his embarrassing idiocy died a happy death. Her handshake was firm and her skin was so soft. The most gorgeous contradiction in—ever ever!
"Same here." She glanced at his sister and he wanted so much to punch the snorting sadist away. "Didn't know Hana have a brother, though."
"It's not something to brag about," Hana replied off-handedly. At Kiba's enraged sputter, she laughed out loud. "Nah, I'm proud of this buffoon. He's won a lot of dog-training contests for Konoha. He just got back from Kiri this morning."
"Sugoi!" Naruto exclaimed, blue eyes shining with admiration. Kiba felt himself melt at the brightness in her eyes. "Our Chi's a pain in the ass. Won't follow whatever I say." She made a face and Kiba almost pinched her nose. Or squeezed her cheek and feel her adorable whiskers. Whiskers? She had whiskers, gah! "Bitch only follows her master. At least I have my baby Raz."
So so cute...
"Oh, how are they?" Hana asked.
"Ask the bastard about Chi," Naruto said, pouting. Gah, her lips, so pink! "Raz's growing up nicely and he can play dead now! I'll ask the bastard when we can bring them for their shots."
Kiba could feel his heart start to sink.
"Bastard's probably waiting too..."
There was clear affection in the way she spoke about this Bastard.
"Anyway, I've to go now," Naruto said, eyes curving. "It's my turn to make lunch and the asshole's probably awake. Always sleeps in on weekends, see."
"Ah, don't let me keep you then," Hana said, waving her hand, her brown eyes amused as she took in her brother's dejected slouch. Naruto nodded with another bright smile and turned to her brother, who immediately straightened up and attempted a smile. It came out so weak that Hana felt her protective instincts come up.
She reached out and thumped him on the back.
Hana watched in satisfaction as Kiba coughed to full consciousness.
"I've to go, and it'd be downright awesome if I could get my hand back," Naruto said cheerily. Kiba's head suddenly felt so hot he thought his head was going to explode and he hastily drew his hand away. He could still feel the warm tingle from where their skin touched each other.
"S-Sorry!" he apologized, wincing as his voice came out high and squeaky. He cleared his throat, angry at his stupid voice, his stupid body betraying him, and nervously scratched his forearm with his envious unblessed hand. "Well, see ya around?"
He meant that to come out suave, not hopeful. Really. See ya around?
Shit, he was hopeless.
Naruto nodded with another smile and turned to leave. The pet shop door chimes tinkled behind her as it closed. Hana immediately turned to her brother only to have said brother cling to her in an undignified grabby hug.
"Nee-chan!" Kiba cried out. "Nee-chan, I'm such a loser!"
Hana reached up a hand and patted the broad back awkwardly. "There, there. At least now you finally know what we all think of you. Better late than never, ne?"
Kiba abruptly pushed back and glowered. "Nee-chan, I'm serious!"
Hana sighed. "So am I. Find someone else. You're just asking for trouble if you go after her."
"Why?" Kiba demanded, eyes burning with bright, bright fire. "Because of that—that bastard?!?"
His sister grinned. "Wow, you're having a smart moment for once!"
"Nee-chan!"
Hana waved a hand as she picked up the neglected box. "Heard ya the first time, pup. And yes, he's the problem." She glanced up. "But there are others too."
Kiba howled. "Nooooooo!!!"
Hana smacked him upside the head, effectively stopping him. Kiba was lurched forward. "Oh grow up, Inuzuka Kiba! Howling's stopped being cute when you turned six."
"B-B-But Nee-chan—"
"Don't 'but' me, idiot," she muttered. "Uzumaki Naruto is a great catch but a lot of people would make sure you don't get her. If you really want to die, go sniff around. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Then you'll help me?" Kiba asked, eyes hopeful with the brilliant sheen of the Lab puppy he had dismissed earlier.
Hana snorted. "Of course not. I'm your sister, not your friend. No way am I coming near your non-existent lovelife. Besides," she smirked, "I don't buy love at first sight. This just looks like that massive crush you got for Hinata years ago."
Twin spots of red sprouted on her brother's tattooed cheeks. "Hey, that's different!"
Hana sneered. "Really now. I recall you chasing after her for three years without her even knowing about it. Next we heard she's with Shino and you're off to Kiri licking your wounds."
"I was not licking my wounds!" Kiba screeched. Hana had instinctively tilted her head away to escape the explosive sound waves. "It just so happened that my application at Mizu Tech was approved! And anyway," Kiba sighed, rubbing his temple, "I've known that she and Shino were dating. He's my best friend, you know. He asked me if it's okay to hook up with her and I gave my blessings."
"More like gave him an IV drip," Hana scoffed. Her lips stretched into a sadistic grin. "I still owe him for landing you in the hospital, y'know. Silent waters run deep and apparently his punches too."
Kiba grimaced. "I hate you. Why do I have to get such an evil sister?"
Hana shrugged. "Probably because I get to have such a stupid brother in return." She winked. "Fair trade, don't you think?"
A flash of sharp white teeth and, in a dramatic flip of mahogany-brown hair, Inuzuka Hana returned to the storage room. Kiba stared after her, recognizing her affection for what it was, and grinned. His grin softened as his mind went back to another girl.
"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" he murmured. His brows suddenly furrowed. "Now why does it sound familiar—?"
"And by the way," his sister's voice called out, "for someone supposedly in love at first sight, you sure didn't seem interested enough to ask for her number."
"... Shit!"
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