Kiba! (One of my personal favorite characters, I’ve got to say.)
You are fourteen, and Kiba is fifteen.

Name: Whatever it is in real life, but Kiba calls you Yoka. He’d gotten it from the word Aibyouka, meaning cat lover, which he had decided on calling you because no matter how hard he tried to make you see the light, you were a cat person. For obvious reasons, you call Kiba Aiken (pronounced I-ken, not like Clay Aiken), which is short for Aikenka (dog lover). You call Akamaru Kenshi (dog tooth) because of the way he almost bit you when he first met you. You have nicknames for practically everyone in Konoha, and you never really call anyone by their real names.

You and Sakura, seated next to each other, grimaced in slight disgust as Kiba and Naruto shoved ramen down their throats like there was no tomorrow.

“You’d’ve thought they’d grow out of this now that they’re fifteen, but I guess not.” She commented to you out of the corner of her mouth.

“Same old Kiba, same old Naruto. Even though he’s been gone with Jiraiya, he hasn’t changed one bit. But have fun with him!” You replied.

She was tinted pink the tiniest bit at your last comment, glad that both boys were too busy wolfing down their food to hear you. “What do you mean by ‘have fun with him?’”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” You leaned back further in your chair and laced your fingers over your stomach. “The way you’ve been acting around him since he got back, one could almost bet you were entirely over Sasuke and onto someone else.” You paused. “So, have fun with him!”

Sakura (or Taikou, [light pink] as you called her) was silent for a minute; you could just see the gears turning in her head before she sat up straighter and turned to you. “Well, at least Naruto and I don’t share spoons, spend every minute of every day together, and have cutesy little pet names for each other.”

At this statement, the ramen noodle you’d been chewing shot out of your mouth and practically landed on the wall behind the ramen counter. You stifled an upcoming blush and composed yourself before responding. “Oh, you’re imagining things. Kiba’s been my best buddy since I was three.”

“No, I’m pretty sure we all agree.”

“Who is this ‘we’ you speak of?” You lifted an eyebrow.

She shook her head a little bit, a smirk now plastered across her pale little face. “Oh, no one. But Akamaru agrees with me, you know.”

“And how do you arrive at that conclusion?”

“Well, whenever Kiba’s leaving to go home, and you’re nearby—which is always—Akamaru tries to drag you along with him and knock you into Kiba. And he’s always trying to push you closer to Kiba.” Taikou [Sakura] giggled.

Now you were thankful the guys weren’t able to hear you due to their ramen binge. “It’s your imagination.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s not.” She turned in her chair to look at Akamaru. “Aren’t I right, boy?”

Kenshi [Akamaru] wagged his tail excitedly and let out a bark of approval.

“What does he know? He’s a dog.” The giant dog’s tail stopped moving. The look on his adorable face seemed to say, ‘what do you mean, just a dog?’

“I win, ‘Tebayo! (or, Believe it! [For you English viewers.])” Naruto shouted out suddenly and launched his fist into the air. Kiba smacked his forehead in defeat, having finished his bowl a few seconds after his opponent (no surprise there).

“Yep, same old Naruto.” You said to Sakura. “Have fun with him!” You half-whispered, smiling to both her and yourself.

“Sakura, let’s go. I heard Kakashi-sensei wanted to see us.” Naruto proceeded to pay for his bowl and half of Sakura’s, leaving her to lecture him about how he should have paid for her bowl.

“Again, have fun!” you whispered to your pink-haired friend, who glared at you as she slid out of her stool.

“Have fun with your ‘boy friend forever,’ Mrs. Inuzuka!” She told you in your ear before walking off after Blondie.

Your face gained what must have been a million shades of red, and the number only increased when Kiba began talking to you. “Hey, Yoka! Since we’re both free, what do you want to do?”

‘Pet names… spending every minute of every day together… dang Taikou, gong and making everything all uncomfortable for me.’ “I didn’t have anything particular in mind, what were you thinking of?”

“Nothing in particular. It’s too dark to train, and everyone’s so busy, so how about we rent a movie?”

“Sure, why not? Sounds great.”

When Ayame came out to the counter, Kiba proceeded to pay for your half-eaten bowl and his entirely consumed three. Seeing just you and Kiba there, an idea popped into her head. “Aw, I always knew this would happen! You two make such a cute cou—“

“That’ll be all, thank you!” you glanced up to Kiba, who stood on your left and had already paid the bill. “Let’s go.”

As you and Kiba walked away down the street, Ayame counted the money. That’s strange; he paid almost twice what he had to. I guess he just wanted me to finish my sentence. I don’t know why, though; it’s so true!

* * *

“So, what did you want to see?” you asked. You were halfway to the movie stall (I know they don’t have movies in Naruto, but I don’t care. At least I didn’t say Blockbuster’s.), and you were still attempting to settle on a movie to watch.

“I don’t care. Preferably something funny.”

“I guess we’ll see what they have there, then.”

‘Pet names…. Spending every second of every day together….’ Then, you thought about what she’d said about Akamaru. ‘Ha, take that, Taiko! He hasn’t pulled me over to Kiba!’ You looked down, then realized, to your dismay, that Kiba was on your left and Akamaru was on your right; Akamaru was practically leaning on you, and you noticed that you were several inches closer to Kiba than you had been when you’d started walking.

‘Akamaru’s out to get me…’ you whined in your head.

* * *

“Don’t hog the popcorn!” You snatched the bowl and curled up in a ball around it on the other side of the couch.

Kiba laughed to himself and gave up, turning back to the movie. “Oh, you hypocrite.”

“’Scuse me? What did you say I was?”

He slid down in his seat next to you. “Only the best friend a guy could ever have.”

“Just a guy?”

“Okay, you’re the best friend anyone on earth could have.”

“Well, what about on Mars?” you were messing with him now and had uncurled from your ball.

“You’re the best friend anyone anywhere could ever possibly have.” He rolled his eyes.

“Good, that’s what I thought you said.”

There were a few moments of silence, followed by a whole lot of laughing provoked by what had happened in the movie.

“Man, comedy never gets any better than this.” You said, wiping a tear from the brim of your eye.

“Yeah.” Kiba agreed, then paused. “Now give me that popcorn!”

He lunged for it, but you had it out of his reach just before he could get his hands on it. “Nice try, Aiken.”

A few minutes passed and you watched as the main character, currently wearing a spandex uniform, flew through the air and promised the girl in his arms that he’d always protect her; Both of you started cracking up as both the hero and his passenger were rammed right off the screen by a passing helicopter.

As Kiba sat in front of the DVD player and put the disc back in its case, an idea struck him and he turned around. “How about we watch as many more movies as possible. If either of us falls asleep before three thirty, the other gets to whip cream them and eat the rest of the popcorn themselves.”

‘Ha,’ you let out a sound of triumph in your head. ‘I’m never first asleep! Aiken’s going down!’ “Deal.” You said, and shuffled over to the entertainment center. How bout an adventure movie first?”

You ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 not because of its story plot [in fact, you were still confused by it] but because of its almost-three-hour length. By now, it was one in the morning and you were both blinking to moisten your irritatingly dry eyes.

“Ha, you look like you’re ready to fall over!” he said to you, even though the phrase looked as if it just as easily could have applied to him as well.

“Just you wait, Dog Boy. I won’t lose. I’ll have a belly full of popcorn and you’ll have an entire upper body smothered in whipped cream.”

“You’re not gonna win. Anyway, this level will be harder. Let’s watch one of my mom’s girly movies, and it’ll be that many times harder for you to stay awake.”

Pride and Prejudice was what you ended up watching, and a third of the way through it, you were smacking your forehead with force every five minutes or so and blinking frequently just to ensure lasting consciousness. Looking to your immediate left, you noticed Kiba was doing the same thing, his arms crossed behind his head and his foot tapping in attempt to keep him conscious.

But it was so quiet, and the background music was so peaceful, not to mention how amazingly soft the couch was under you. This movie was so slow, so relaxed… and it was so late….

* * *

KIBA’S P.O.V.

The movie was so boring, and you were so tired…. The comfortable couch you were on didn’t make it any easier to beat Yoka. You looked at your friend, sitting directly to your right. It was getting harder to open your eyes when you blinked, and the minutes on the clock seemed to crawl by more and more slowly. You fixed your eyes on it, waiting impatiently for it to say three thirty, deeming you the winner of your own little wager. But it did not heed your wishes, for it dragged on without any hurry. 2:01… 2:02… 2:03… 2:0…..

“So you’re finally awake,” said Hana.

You blinked a couple of times, roused from your sleep.

“Oh. I guess you weren’t. But now you are. Wake up, you love bird! I made waffles.”

Who does that Hana think she is, waking me up like that? You flexed your toes to wake them up. And what does she mean ‘lo-‘

You noticed that your right side was warm, and your right arm was, too. It took you a minute, with your dysfunctional morning brain, to realize that you’d never finished your bet. You’d fallen asleep, but you weren’t covered in whipped cream and the popcorn bowl was on the floor in front of the couch, just where it’d been the night before. However, you were not in the same position as you had been the previous night; and neither was Yoka.

You had turned so that your armrest was against your back, your right leg up on the edge of the couch and your left one splayed on the floor. Your friend, however, was now lying on your side between your leg and the couch, her head on your stomach and her arm around part of your leg. Your right arm was resting on the border of her rib cage and her stomach, almost around her, and your left hand was entangled in her silky (insert color here) hair.

Your eyes widened in alarm. Usually, you hugged a pillow when you went to sleep; but considering there were no feather pillows in the living room, you must have grabbed Yoka instead. Oops.

“Come on!” Hana called from the other room impatiently, not feeling like waiting for you.

You looked down at Yoka and wondered whether or not to wake her up. You had to admit, this was pretty comfortable. You decided to tug on her hair lightly, talking quietly. “Yoka! Wake up! Hana made waffles.”

“Hmmm…” She rolled over a little bit, opened her eyes, and froze when she took note of where she was and in what position she happened to be.

Gasping to yourself, you removed your arm from around her torso.

She released your leg and shot up to a sitting position and sat with her knees pulled up to her chest between your leg and the back cushions of the couch. “Sorry about that,” she said, “I must’ve been really tired.”

“Yeah.” You scratched the back of your neck, struggling to hide the evident tint of red you could sense beginning to take over your face. “And I usually hug a pillow when I sleep.”

“Same here.” ‘Man, this is uncomfortable!’ you thought to yourself.

Just then, you heard thumping on the stairs and smelled your mom coming. Sure enough, she passed through the room you were in, but then walked back to the doorway when she saw Yoka seated on the couch.

“You’re here early today, _________.” She said in a friendly voice with only a hint of suspicion evident by her tone.

“’Cause she never left yesterday.” Hana called from the kitchen with a hint of a giggle in her voice. ‘Remind me to send Akamaru to injure her…’

Your mom straightened her housecoat. “What do you mean, never left?”

You began to explain. “Well, we were watching a movie last night. But then—“

She seemed to loosen up, for one reason or another. “Well, it’s nice to know you had fun.” She turned to your friend and adopted her contented smile again. “I always knew I’d be seeing you around more at some point or another. Well, I’ll be off to breakfast.”

As she disappeared toward the kitchen in her slippers with a trail of dogs behind her, you couldn’t help but feel as if she took your fragmented sentence the wrong way.

It was then you realized you’d still been lying down and sat back up. “We going to eat waffles?” without waiting for an answer, you tossed yourself into the air and trotted off past all of the dogs’ water bowls and after your mother.

Your breakfast was served, and Yoka sat nibbling at her food while you dumped a bucket load of syrup on your stack of eight waffles and wolfed the entire thing down. By the time you’d gotten settled, both your mom and sister had finished their meals and taken off to do who-knows-what.

“It’s too quiet.” Said Yoka, breaking a long, uncomfortable silence. “How about some music?”

“Sure.” You hopped up from your chair and sat yourself down in front of the radio, deciding to play the CD that was already sitting inside of it. Unfortunately, you had to go through quite a number of songs before you could find one…. Suitable…. For the occasion and company.

This was a disc with Queen on it, and it seemed to you as if it was the disc with the most songs on it that you didn’t want to listen to. ‘Dang radio,it’s out to get me….’ You ended up listening to the intros of and then skipping past ‘A Dozen Roses for my Darling,’ ‘A Kind of Magic,’ ‘Killer Queen,’ ‘Body Language,’ ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love,’ ‘Don’t Stop Me Now,’ ‘Funny how Love Is,’ ‘I Was Born to Love You,’ ‘I Can’t Live Without You,’ ‘Need Your Loving Tonight,’ ‘Love of my Life,’ ‘The Words of Love,’ ‘One Year of Love,’ ‘The Kiss,’ ‘Somebody to Love,’ ‘You Take My Breath Away,’ ‘You’re my Best Friend’ [the title is deceiving] and finally, ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy. [This one made your face turn red. Dang Hana, dang Mom, making me uncomfortable on purpose.]

By the time you could find a single song you were halfway satisfied with, Yoka was already done with her food and reading a magazine you had sitting on your kitchen table. Actually, judging by the number of magazines and newspapers splayed across the tabletop and how slumped in her seat she was, Yoka had read quite a few of them. Now, she seemed as bored as you’d ever seen her.

“Meh, I give up.” You announced. “What now?”

She sat up in her chair and stretched her back and her legs. “Well, how ‘bout some training? We should probably also bring lunch if we want to get more training time in.”

“Kay, that sounds good. How about sandwiches and apples and Jell-O?”

* * *

Your P.O.V.

You were now walking through the forest with Kiba and Akamaru, staring at the trees and the sky as you thought about this morning, the most uncomfortable time you’d spent with Kiba—scratch that, the most uncomfortable period of time you’d ever spent with anyone. You’d woken up lying practically on top of Kiba. You’d spent seven and a half hours sleeping on the couch with him and cuddling with his leg! And then Mrs. Inuzuka made that embarrassing comment—what did she mean by ‘Nice to know you had fun’ and ‘I always knew I’d be seeing you around more at some point or another’? And Hana didn’t make it any better with her voiced ideas, eith—

“You okay, Yoka?” Kiba’s hand was being waved in front of your face. “You haven’t said anything since, well, we left!”

“No, I’m fine. Just thinking about…” you paused. What could you say you were thinking about? “Training. I wanna be a jounin, so I’ve gotta work harder. That’s part of why I suggested we come here to train today.”

“Oh. Got it.” Kiba then proceeded to continue talking about who knows what. However, you weren’t paying any attention to what he was saying.

‘Ugh, Sakura was right… Everybody’s hinting, Akamaru’s at it again, we DO have pet names, and I haven’t been in a different room as him since before we went to the ramen shop yesterday… But ha! We’ve eaten three whole meals since then, and we haven’t shared a spoon even once!’

* * *

You were searching through your paper bag after eating half of your apple, wanting to start eating your jello; but you couldn’t find what you were looking for. “Can’t find my spoon.” You looked down at the ground from where you were sitting on your tree branch. “Eh, I must’ve dropped it. I’ll go get it.” Balancing your bag next to you, you prepared to jump down from the branch and locate your missing utensil.

“No, it’s fine. I already ate my Jell-O.” Kiba was holding his spoon out to you, and sure enough, he had already finished his Jell-O and half of his apple.

“Thanks,” you said, and took it. You’d already opened it and taken a few bites of your fruity, red food when you realized what you’d just done. You halfway crossed your eyes, looking down at the spoon in your mouth.

‘Oh, my goodness. Kiba just had this in his mouth, and then I started—Oh, we DO share spoons….’

“Uh, what’s wrong? You’ve been crossing your eyes at that spoon for what, a minute now?” He was almost laughing.

You weren’t going to make this situation uncomfortable like this morning, and you weren’t going to have him know there was anything wrong.

So without more than a moment’s hesitation, you plunged the spoon back into the jell-O and stuck the spoon—covered in Kiba’s mouth germs—back into your mouth.

‘Sakura’s right… but it would never work that way.’

As you finished your lunch, you engaged in meaningless small talk with Kiba just because you didn’t think you could handle much more than that. But there came a moment when your entire plan went downhill.

The eleven-year-old girl, strolling through the woods for some unknown reason, happened to spot you sitting there on a branch next to your best friend. “I was gonna ask you why you didn’t come home last night; mom was really worried, but I wasn’t at all. You spent the night at Kiba’s. Man, you sure are with him a LOT. I wouldn’t be surprised if you spent your lives together! Really, I bet no one in the village would be in the least bit. I mean, you practically already do!”

You were glaring at her ferociously, but it still didn’t keep the immensely deep shade of pink from pervading throughout your face.

“___________ and Kiba, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Akamaru in a baby carr--“

She wasn’t able to finish the remaining syllable of her song thanks to the airborne silverware that was thrown directly at her and bounced off of her forehead.

“Oh, you’re so violent! Don’t think mom’s not gonna hear about this!” and with that, the chatterbox trotted away, rubbing her forehead.

At this point, you gave up on repairing the color of your face. “Sorry about the spoon. I’ll go get it.”

Just as you were preparing to jump out of the tree and retrieve the spoon you’d used as weaponry, you felt a hand around your wrist. “No, Yoka, the spoon can wait.”

You turned your gaze to match Kiba’s, and felt the hand around your wrist shift to encircle your own hand. You stared at each other without speaking for what seemed to be a few minutes, but was most likely longer. Then, before you could tell what you were doing, you had leaned in to the point where his breath was warming your nose. “You’re right. It can stay there forever if it wants to.”

That moment was when the prediction made by Sakura, Hana, Mrs. Inuzuka, your sister, and the rest of the village was proven to be true; at that moment you were in love with Kiba, your lips meeting his for the first time.

* * *

Exactly four years later

You were sitting with Sakura in the ramen bar, Akamaru right outside. He’d taken to following you, now.

“What was it, four years ago when Naruto came back and we were all here?” Sakura asked as she stared dreamily at the wall behind the ramen counter, the wall you’d spit your ramen noodle at so long ago.

“Yeah, it was, I guess.” You looked at your watch. “Speaking of Blondie, you should probably get going if you want to catch him before his mission.”

“And you should probably get back to Kiba. For him, missing you and Akamaru must be like Naruto going without his ramen.”

“Meh, he’s been… I don’t know, secretive… lately. But hey, I guess you’re right.” You paid your fee and began walking away.

“I’m sure it’s just a stage. He’ll be back to himself in no time, I’ll bet.”

You’d been walking with Akamaru for a few minutes before he lightly grabbed your hand in his teeth and pulled you the opposite way of your usual turn to visit Kiba.

“Kenshi, what’re you doing?” you inquired, but all he did was tug a little harder, so you decided to go along with him. “All right.”

The moon was a nice crescent, and you watched it through the trees as Akamaru led you by the hand through the woods. Soon, you stopped by a clearing. You didn’t distinctly remember it, but you felt it was familiar. Akamaru planted himself in a sitting position beside a tree, and you walked over him to ask why you were here when you heard a voice.

“Hey, I’m up here.” Kiba extended a hand down from a branch above and you took it, being pulled up onto it next to him. It was now that you recognized this clearing and this tree as the place you’d sat with him exactly four years ago, on the most uncomfortable day of your life.

“So,” you were mesmerized, observing the moon, but then noticed Aiken’s eyes on your face. “Why here?”

For once, he seemed unlike his usual cocky, self-assured character. “Well, today is important, and I thought this place was important, too. It’s the four year anniversary of that day.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“No, but there’s more. That day made me realize something… and I’ve never been able to forget it—never wanted to forget it, and never will.” He opened his right hand, which had been held in a fist, to reveal a shining silver ring and necklace with your birthstone embedded in them. “This is the melted down metal from the spoon you pelted at your little sister.”

Your breath caught, and he paused almost nervously.