Archive of Our Own

Inuzuka Kiba learned early on that his life was not going to be what other Konohans expected of a clan shinobi. From the very beginning, civilians tended to give him and his family extra space, even when he was a toddler on the playground. And not just because he was loud and boisterous and had a habit of churning up mud like he was preparing to plant rice. The Inuzuka clan wasn't like other clans, even among shinobi; still a bit wild, chakra natures twisting into unexpected patterns and pooling in strange places, matriarchal with a higher proportion of kunoichi than most, more concerned with the lines of the dogs they partnered with than their own clan leader's inheritance; a sprawling compound made of interconnected family homes and kennels, where any Inuzuka child and their friends could show up for a big bowl of overcooked rice and undercooked meat and a few vegetables on the side for good measure if they were hungry. The other clans in Konoha didn't work that way. And shinobi that acted a bit more weird than most made civilians nervous.

His personal life was much the same, following strange paths that he would only be able to follow with his nose. His dad showing him the latest litter of pups, promising him that his partner dog was among them, and that together, they would grow up to be strong and brave, and then leaving them two days later. Iruka-sensei grading him on what he could remember and say out loud, and not the horrible squiggles his homework always turned into no matter how many times Hana walked him through the stroke order for the simplest kanji. His mom teaching him to cook Konoha's best pajeon, one of the rare times an allium was allowed in their house, and his aunties teaching him to cook everything else, mostly variations of beef bowl or salmon and brown rice or chicken and roasted sweet potatoes that could be chopped up small and shared with their ninken partners, and every other genin being shocked that he could cook at all. Being put on a sensor team when he graduated instead of a fighting squad. Losing a match in his first chuunin exams because Naruto had gas. Being in a war. His third cousin becoming Hokage.

And Kankurou, the Sand shinobi.

Kankurou was completely unexpected.

They met at the chuunin exams, Akamaru scared out of his wits because of Kankurou's blood-crazed little brother and Kiba too stuck on please don't let them notice us to process any differences in the members of the too-strong Sand team. Then they existed in the same space in the tower in the Forest of Death, waiting for the time to run out before the next phase of the exam, a few genin haunting an empty tower with cots for napping and food delivery three times a day. Team 8 had avoided most contact with the Sand team beyond an initial polite greeting, too wigged out by the way the one with tanuki eyes had dealt with the rain nin to approach them.

Kankurou ended up being the one to come up to him on their second day in the tower, holding one of the trays of food that had been delivered to the genin. Comfort foods were too much to hope for; Kurenai-sensei had told them that, should they make it to the survival portion of the exam, meals like ramen, mackerel and miso, and Kiba's favorite, samgyeopsal, weren't going to be provided. They might get food pills; they might get real food, they might get foreign grub that tasted strange and had a texture that was hard to get down, but they wouldn't be getting a choice.

"Chuunin learn to eat what's provided and eat when they can," Kurenai-sensei had said. "When you're abroad, serving the village, you have to keep going. Even if you don't care for the taste, you eat, you make sure your body can go on. Sometimes that's the only way to make sure you get home."

After that talk, Kiba had been expecting much worse than covered trays with obscure meal choices. Whoever was in charge of the food dishes seemed to have some kind of sense of humor because they were delivering things on the weird end of Konohan cuisine. Shino had been happy to eat the hachinoko; his family culled their insects when they got to be too much or the hives weren't producing, and Shino ate bee larvae like Choji ate crisps. Kiba and Hinata were also fine with the bee larvae; no one could be on a team with an Aburame and stay weird about bugs.Eihire was lunch that day, and Team 8 ate the stingray fin with no complaints and no more hesitation than they had approached the bugs. Dinner was practically a treat; kujira and kakinora-zushi. Kiba was happy enough to trade his zushi to Hinata for more kujira for him and Akamaru, and it was then, when Kiba was fetching more bottled water for Team 8, that Kankurou first approached him, carrying one of the trays in his hand.

Kiba looked at him as he got close, still chewing a chunk of kujira in his jaws and his eyebrows raised. Akamaru was tucked behind his feet, gnawing on his own chunk of meat. It was tough, and Akamaru was still small then. He really had to work to get it down.

"Hey, kid with the dog, can you tell me what this is?" Kankurou asked - although Kiba hadn't known his name at the time. His accent was strong, Kiba remembered thinking, the way he stretched his vowels and turned his arrs and bit down on the tees. He was direct and abrupt, too, right on the edge of rudeness, but Kiba wasn't an idiot enough to actually take offense, not when this guy's teammate had made it rain blood.

"We don't have whatever this stuff is in Wind, get me? One of my team had some, ah, stomach problems with breakfast."

If Kiba's mother was around, she would smack him upside the head for pushing his finger at someone else's food, but she wasn't, and the Sand Shinobi were opponents, and this one was rough enough in speech that Kiba felt he didn't have to worry about pretending to be polite. He swallowed his mouthful down, and the Sand shinobi, all in black, just looked at him as he poked at the plate.

"Yeah, they're having fun with the food, I think. The leaf stuff is kakinora-zushi. Uhh, do you get a lot of seafood in Sand? Because it's just salmon or mackerel on sushi rice. Don't eat the leaves. They're persimmon leaves. I mean you can, but they're bitter. They keep the fish fresh, or something, I'm pretty sure. It's a Nara clan thing. "

"Thanks. And this stuff?" he asked, pointing to the dark kujira. "It looks like meat, but it doesn't smell like any meat I've had."

"That's kujira," Kiba said. "You know, whale meat? We don't get it much. It's pretty chewy."

It was hard to read the guy's expression between how squinty he kept his eyes and the way the paint changed the contours of his face, but Kiba thought the Sand shinobi looked interested as he took a turn to poke the food. His fingernails were painted black. They were still pristine, too, no chips or flakes. The kind of nails Hana would love to be able to maintain.

"Whale? You're not shitting me?"

When Kiba shook his head, the Sand shinobi snorted.

"Konohans will eat anything," he said with a shake of his head.

"Whale's not that weird," Kiba insisted. "It's not bad. It's kind of like if a deer and a swordfish got melted together to make a meal."

"I don't guess we can expect any straight up rice or noodles and jingisukan if this is what they're giving us, can we?"

"What's jingisukan?"

"Ahh, I don't know what you'd call it in Konohan dialect. Different words in Suna, get me? Sheep? With vegetables and mushrooms in sauce?"

"Like a curry?"

"Not a curry. Not a Sunan curry, anyway. I've tried your Konohan curry, it's just rice with stew on top. This kujira - what's it cooked in?"

At some point Akamaru had poked his head around Kiba's feet to look at the other shinobi and was not actively shaking in fear. His tail wasn't wagging, and he wasn't relaxed, but it was a big step forward from cowering inside Kiba's jacket. Kiba felt a little better about that.

"This is just roasted with salt, nothing wild. I don't think whale gets seasoned very heavily."

"Should be okay for him then." He poked at the deep red-brown meat again. "Whatever those bugs were this morning were too sweet for his stomach, like bugs need to be sweetened. Scorpion nymphs are easier to digest." He turned and walked away, raising one hand behind him. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem."

Kiba was mystified how baby scorpions would be easier to digest than bee larvae. Weren't scorpions poisonous? Deadly poisonous, he thought. Bees just stung you. When he asked Shino about comparative digestibility, he gave a very Shino sort of answer.

"Scorpions are arachnids, not insects. The Aburame clan doesn't work with them. I don't know much about scorpions. But I do know they're venomous, not poisonous. Technically bees are venomous as well."

Kiba felt that his question wasn't really answered, but soon enough he had more important things to focus on. And it was a long time before he talked to Kankurou again. Months. He saw him, yeah, found out his name at the qualifiers, watched him whip out a puppet and completely destroy a much older genin, gotten his own embarrassing loss due to Naruto's bad digestive system, saw him and his siblings around Konoha a few times in those weeks between the Forest of Death and the exam finals. Kiba didn't talk to him, then, and Kankurou made no move to talk to him. Kiba was rooting for Shino in the tournament, and even if his teammate wasn't Kankurou's opponent, what did he really have to discuss with a Sand shinobi? His crazy brother with literal living sand armor? His sister who could apparently summon a tempest? The puppeteer's own techniques that required more finesse that Kiba had thought possible? Kiba didn't go in for that kind of chakra control and manipulation, and technique discussion would not be an acceptable conversation topic before a contest of skill like this even if he did.

One conversation about unusual food wasn't a foundation for any kind of friendship. No, through the chuunin exams and the attack on Konoha that followed (which Kiba slept through thanks to that jackass in the ANBU mask), Kiba remembered Kankurou and his siblings as overpowered adversaries, and then as deadly enemies. And that Kankurou spoke like a tough guy.

Honestly, Kiba never thought he'd meet Kankurou or his brother and sister again.

The next time Kiba saw Kankurou was on the cursed mission to bring Sasuke back. At first, he was excited to go on his first real mission, without his jounin sensei and with someone of his own generation acting as the taichou. When Shikamaru had said they could all end up dead, it sobered him up. This was serious shit. Even though anyone else would have just been declared missing nin, it seemed like the last Uchiha was worth six other shinobi lives for the chance to bring him back.

Still, he and Akamaru had been assigned the spearhead position, and they took that on with pride. This was the kind of mission Kurenai-sensei had been preparing him for - the use of his scouting abilities as valuable as his fighting skills, all with Akamaru as his partner. They were a major factor in being able to follow Sasuke and the Sound Ninja, in breaking out of the Earth Prison Dome jutsu, in grabbing Sasuke's barrel during Naruto's diversion, in setting the paper bombs to slow their pursuit.

Then Akamaru had gotten trapped in chakra wire, and Kiba went after him, and the force of a paper bomb threw them and the Sound ninja both into the canyon.

Sakon and Ukon were the most challenging opponent Kiba and Akamaru had ever had to face. If their weird curse mark wasn't enough, the freaky body sharing and oni faces that seemed to come with extra chakra made it seem hopeless. He and Akamaru had already been trickling chakra away for hours on the chase, and their Two Headed Wolf form drained so much of what was left from their bodies. Then the bastards regenerated another half body each, and they summoned that fortress he and Akamaru had to break, and then Akamaru gave them an acid piss bath, and then one of the invaded his chakra network, all the way down to his very cells.

That was vile. Joining up with Akamaru for Two Headed Wolf was one thing; they were partners. They worked together all the time. But this guy invading his body made Kiba nauseous. It was far too intimate. He felt unclean, not just tired and hunted, but soiled all the way through. He couldn't keep dealing with that. And with Akamaru down and one of the two in his body and threatening to eliminate all the parts of Kiba that were Kiba, stabbing himself to at least take one down with him made sense. He thought that maybe one of the guys would find Akamaru on their way back to Konoha in time to save his life.

But he wasn't dead yet, and he was too stupid to give up.

Two smoke bombs, a decoy trap, the briefest scent of familiar shinobi from the Sand village, and an abandoned coat later, Kiba was paddling down river with Akamaru on his head, considering all the ways his stab wound could get infected, and wondering how long he had until blood loss or shock took him down, even if the Sound ninjas didn't follow him.

But of course, they did. Kiba was at his limit, beyond moving his body any further, when a wooden savior in a raggedy cloak came between him and the kunai.

He really had thought it was the end for them both when he caught the scent of the Sand shinobi while Sakon was preparing to kill him. Then Kankurou, in his black jumpsuit and bunraku hood appeared, and Kiba wondered if any parts of him would make it back to Konoha for his mom and Hana to mourn between the Sand and Sound shinobi before him. Surely this guy, whose village had been part of the attack on Konoha, was there to make sure a Leaf nin was finished off. His brother had killed and nearly paralyzed Leaf nin the last time they were in the village. There was no way that this guy was different.

But instead, Kankurou put his puppet in the way of a death blow, and Kiba's eyes widened as he looked at him around the tree trunk. If Shikamaru was here, he'd probably say to stay quiet and get away. Kiba was never one to keep his mouth shut.

"It looks like you're an ally, now?" he said. "Weren't there three of you?"

"Two guys went on ahead. You guys are weak, so."

Kankurou didn't keep talking, just moved his hands and fingers to manipulate the puppet and hold the Sound nin off. Kiba's only contribution for the rest of the fight was shouting out a warning and what he knew about the body sharing ability. Kankurou had pulled his puppet substitution again. He thought the Sand Siblings had been frightening as enemies, but apparently they were just as dependable as allies.

And Kankurou and he shared a grin when his Black Ant puppet shredded Ukon-or-Sakon to scraps with his razor arms. When they merged again, Kiba suggested a retreat, but Kankurou refused to back down after being mocked. Apparently he didn't like his puppets being called toys. Kiba was genuinely impressed with the amount of coordination and chakra control he must have to force Sakon-and-Ukon to dodge and dance where he wanted them to go, eventually trapping them in his Black Ant puppet.

"Eat this," he growled, and sent blades stabbing into Black Ant to finish them off.

When Kankurou said "The play's over," the tension and adrenaline that had kept Kiba going since he and Akamaru went into the river drained out of him and he sagged down.

"Cheese and fucking rice, I thought we were going to die," he said and didn't do anything to move but cling more tightly to Akamaru.

"Why you chose to go up against that guy on your own I don't know," Kankurou said. He was rustling with something, and Kiba had to work to turn around to see what he was doing.

He retched when he saw that Kankurou was essentially draining the remains of Sakon and Ukon out of his Black Ant puppet into a foul pile.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Gathering the leftovers to seal in a scroll to return to the village. As soon as you've had some water and caught your breath, we need to start heading back. Unless Gaara sends some sand to me, your Hokage asked us to bring all her Leaf nin back right away."

"I can't walk, man. I've got a stab wound, and -"

"What?" Shit, why didn't you say something? I thought the blood spatter was from some minor lacerations or something. Hold on, let me clean my hands."

Kankurou poured alcohol over his hands, straight alcohol, and Kiba wrinkled his nose. That shit was strong.

"Dude, I have water -"

"Leaf nin and their water," he said. "There's no point in wasting water on my hands when I'd need to sanitize them with alcohol anyway. Come here, let's see it. I can bind it up at least."

"You should check in on Akamaru first."

"I'm not a vet. I'm not even a med nin, I just know some basic first aid."

"Without Akamaru I would have died already!" Kiba said, even though Akamaru had gone down first. He would have died without Akamaru, for sure.

"Look, I will take a look at your dog after I make sure you aren't going to die before I get you back to Konohagakure. Now come on and get rid of your armor and show me where you're bleeding from."

Kiba was pretty sure taking a look at Akamaru was the best he was going to get, and his pup was breathing still. He'd take it.

"I seriously can't move. I'm kind of wondering why I haven't gone into shock yet. Maybe I am in shock. How do you know if you're in shock?"

Kankurou knelt beside him and took Akamaru from his arms, setting him just a few inches from Kiba. He could at least move his arm to keep one hand on his dog like that.

"Fuck. Man, Black Ant and the Crow are going to get gunked up. They really need to get cleaned fast - can you take this off? Or should I cut it off?"

Kiba's lamellar armor on his chest and back was tied on at the sides and his shoulders with leather thongs. Normally he didn't have any trouble getting out of it one handed, but today it was beyond him.

"Cut it off," he said.

A shuriken appeared from Kankurou's sleeve and he sliced through the leather to remove Kiba's top layer of armor.

"Damn, this stab wound ruined this plate. And tore your mesh armor. What did he use, those claws?"

"I used a kunai."

"You did this to yourself? Why did you stab yourself?"

Kankurou seized Kiba by the shoulders to pull him up and get the mesh armor shirt off, then rinsed his hands again with alcohol.

"I told you that guy could merge with your cells. He was inside me. He said he could erase all the cells that made me me. It was disgusting."

"And you stabbed yourself to force him out of you? I guess as long as it worked. Let me try to clean this."

Kankurou was carefully pulling shreds of metal mesh armor out of the wound with chakra threads. Kiba didn't watch very closely. He didn't like seeing his own insides.

"My medical training is mostly poisons and venoms, dog boy, so the best I can do is wrap this well to stop the bleeding and get you back to Konoha. Tell me about your puppy while I work. Gotta figure out if I can do anything for the dog."

Kiba knew well enough that Kankurou was trying to keep him awake. Talking about Akamaru would do it though.

"He's not doing great. But he's breathing. And he's not actually bleeding very much. I think it must be being tired from working so hard."

"I don't know anything about taking care of ninken," Kankurou said doubtfully as he pressed an absorbent pad to Kiba's stab wound and started winding a long bandage around him. "Can he talk?"

Kiba hissed at the pain of the cloth being wrapped. He was pretty sure his ribs were bruised as well.

"No, but I understand him. It takes a long time for our ninken to learn to speak so anyone else can understand them. He got thrown pretty bad. We both did. I think my ribs are bruised."

"Hold still then, dog boy, I'll get your ribs wrapped tight. I could wrap his ribs, too, if you think it would help."

Kiba might be slightly distracted by the warmth of Kankurou's hand on his chilled skin, and the strength he was using to support Kiba's weight in one hand while he worked with the other. Strength was attractive. Kina was supposed to find a strong mate to join the clan one day, he thought, deliriously. Kankurou might fit. But that might be shock talking. And the blood loss. He tried to focus on what Kankurou was saying.

"You can call me Kiba. Unless you just forgot my name and that's why you're calling me dog boy. And yeah, I don't think it could hurt."

"Kiba? Like a fang?"

"Yeah. it's an Inuzuka thing. We all get dog-themed names. Kiba, Hana, Tsume, and our dogs usually get some kind of color name. I don't know why. It's been that way for generations. The Ino-Shika-Cho names are from the Hanafuda card match, but they chose it themselves. I don't know who decided we all got dog names. But there ends up being a lot of repeats every generation. I know two other Inuzuka Kibas, but one's just retired."

Kiba was yapping at this point, trying to keep his pain off his mind. And it was keeping him awake. But that was okay, because Kankurou wanted him to talk. Kankurou just gave occasional grunts as he moved on to bind up some of Kiba's other, more minor wounds.

"I think there's at least a dozen other Kibas in the clan registry since Konoha was founded. I think we ought to branch out with the names. But it's not something I need to worry about because I'm not the clan heir. That's Hana. I might get married to another clan to solidify a deal or something, and then I guess I'd have to follow that clan's naming traditions, if I end up having kids with whoever I marry. I don't know how I feel about kids, though."

"You just say whatever comes into your head, don't you?" Kankurou asked, tying the bandages off around a nasty gash in his leg. "Hopefully that supports your ribs and all enough. Let's see the puppy."

Kiba maneuvered himself stiffly to try to help with Akamaru, but Kankurou's warm hands caught his and pushed them away.

"You're so hurt you can't even crawl. Sit there and let me work."

"You have to be gentle with him! He's only little, still."

"I just saved your lives; I'm not going to hurt him now."

True to his word, Kankurou was more gentle with Akamaru than he had been with Kiba. Akamaru was still a year or two off from the growth spurt that most ninken hit eventually, and he looked comical with the trauma pad and the bandage wrapping his ribs, fat enough to be pregnant.

"Alright. Sit there, don't move, hold your puppy close. I have to at least do some cleanup on the puppets or they'll get so jammed up they'll be useless if we run into anyone else. And I got to figure out how I'm going to get everyone and everything back."

Kiba went quiet when Kankurou went back to work, sealing the nasty pile of what had been Sakon-and-Ukon into a scroll and essentially power washing his puppets with a water jutsu.

He muttered something about needing oil, then raised his voice.

"Hey, Kiba. Don't stop talking now, you need to stay awake more than you need rest. Come on, keep yapping."

"I didn't know you knew any elemental jutsu," Kiba said after a long minute of groping for a topic. His brain was feeling fuzzy. But not fuzzy enough for him to blurt out anything about how he found vicious and decisive victory hot. He'd never hear the end of it. "I mean, I saw your puppet jutsus at the chuunin exams, and Shino told me about what you could do after, but I don't know, I kind of figured you were all puppets, all the time."

Kankurou was now using his chakra threads again to reassemble his puppets, folding up arms and retracting weapons and fixing the Crow's head back on.

"Puppetry is a specialty," he said. "It's not in place of the shinobi basics or the foundational techniques. I learned all that and the chakra threads and engineering for puppet maintenance and the poisons."

Damn, that was a lot.

"How are you not already chuunin?"

"Because of my kusooyaji and his damned plans. Shitty old man wouldn't let Temari and I take the exams until Gaara was able to keep it together for long enough to go through the tests. And the council wasn't ever able to hold him back with what he wanted."

"What does your dad have to do with your council?"

"He was the Kazekage before he died."

"Whoa."

Kiba went silent for a few minutes while Kankurou put the storage scroll inside his Black Ant puppet, folded Crow into impossible contortions and put it in along side, and wrapped the puppet back in its cloth rolls.

"Keep talking, Kiba. You have to keep trying to unlock my tragic backstory, or whatever. Dad's a piece of shit and the Kazekage, what else can you learn?"

"My dad's shitty, too. He left us when I was six. Never found out where he went or what happened to him."

Kiba closed his eyes, just for a second, and was woken up by a sharp tap to his cheek. Kankurou must have shunshinned or something, because he crossed that meadow really fast. Kiba was pretty sure he just blinked. Kankurou had to have shunshinned. And his hand was still warm when he poked Kiba in the cheek.

"Keep talking so I know you're alive," he said. "And you're going to have to hold your pup close. I'm going to help you on my back, but I need one hand for Black Ant and the other free, so you have to keep your dog where he is."

Kiba kept talking about almost anything that ran into his head, carefully avoiding how strong Kankurou felt when he hauled Kiba onto his back, muscles flexing between Kiba's thighs, and how warm he felt when Kiba wrapped on hand around his shoulder, holding Akamaru close with the other. He did his best not to whine about the cold he felt or the wind on his face, and Kankurou seemed to be going for speed over stealth as he took them back towards Konoha.

Every few minutes, Kiba would go quiet and Kankurou would shout at him, rough as ever, and give him another topic to ramble on.

"Wake up! If you die on me now, I'm going to find a way to kill you. Tell me about the jutsu you used with your dog again. Merging with a dog; now that's weird."

"I think I smell home," Kiba said.

"Who cares? Weird merging with dogs jutsu, now."

"It's not weird," Kiba protested. "It's very cool. We worked on that for ages."

"Yeah - Temari, Gaara! You found the other Leaf genin."

"This one's a chuunin, and a crybaby at that," a girl's voice said.

Familiar sighing let Kiba know Shikamaru was okay. Alive, at least.

"Naruto went on to face Sasuke. This is Rock Lee. He is hurt, but I did not hurt him," came a boy's voice. Had to be Kankurou's siblings.

"Gaara-kun squashed a forest!" Rock Lee.

"This one knocked down a few acres of trees." Shikamaru again.

"This one stabbed himself," Kankurou said. "And I again managed to defeat my opponent without restructuring the entire damned landscape."

"Shut up. Here, give me Black Ant, I can manage it with my tessen. You go ahead and get him to Konoha. These two aren't in danger."

Kiba was too comfortable, stealing Kankurou's warmth, and too tired to really process what was going on. But after some shuffling, Kankurou took off again, faster this time, and the scent of home grew stronger. Eventually, Akamaru stirred in the warm pocket he was in between Kiba's chest and Kankurou's back. He whined and gave a small yip, and Kiba heard shouting.

"Hey, Kiba, wake up! Damnit, do not die within sight of your stupidly visible village gate. Hey! Kiba!"

When Kiba eventually woke up with his ma and Kuromaru at his bedside, it took him a while to put together what had happened and where he was. For all the scrapes he got himself in, the only time he had actually been in the hospital at Konoha was just after the Chuunin preliminary tournament and his fight with Naruto. After his mom and Kuromaru told him they were proud of him and that he was stupid for pushing himself so far, he was allowed water and some rice porridge. Tsunade-sama visited his sickbed after a few hours, looking like she herself was very close to chakra exhaustion. Later, Shikamaru told him about the hours of surgeries she had done to save Chouji and Neji's lives.

"Yours was actually pretty simple, once they got you here," Shikamaru had said. "Kankurou stopping the worst of the bleeding helped. It was a knick to your liver and a small puncture of your intestines. Her assistant, Shizune, fixed you up faster than your sister did with Akamaru."

Despite Kiba getting off relatively light, the Godaime Hokage had a lot to say about internal organs and internal bleeding and intestines and stitches and broken ribs and the advisability of stabbing oneself, and Hana had almost as much to say about Akamaru's broken back leg and contusions from being thrown around. And as bad off as Kiba was when Kankurou brought him back to Konoha, Chouji and Neji really were a lot worse, and once she gave him and his mom instructions on his recovery, the Hokage went back to work on her other charges. Even if he was antsy resting in bed, Lady Tsunade just didn't have the time, the willingness, or the instant chakra regeneration that would have let him get back to fighting trim in a day or two. He had to convalesce over a few weeks.

The worst part was having to use crutches to get around Konoha, with Akamaru limping on three legs at his side. He wasn't even sure why he needed the crutches; his legs weren't hurt. Much. Maybe that cut on his thigh was deeper than he assumed. He thought maybe Tsunade's orders were to support his ribs, or maybe just force him to take it slow once he was allowed out of bed. Kiba wasn't a take-it-slow kind of guy, but he didn't have much choice. Hana had threatened him with eight hells worth of torture if he brought Akamaru into any kind of foolishness, and Lady Tsunade gave him a steely glare that promised worse if he undid her hard work. Kurenai-sensei wouldn't even hear of him do more than stretches and careful walks before he and Akamaru were cleared, to the point that she banned him from Team 8 workouts since it got Akamaru worked up and excited and too likely to strain himself.

So slow walks around Konoha with the crutch it was.

Iruka-sensei called out his name one day when he and Akamaru were close to the Academy, and Kiba, bored out of his mind, went towards the Academy gates for the first time since he was assigned to Team 8 under Kurenai-sensei.

"Kiba-kun," Iruka-sensei said with a big smile. "I heard you were recovering well. I hope you are proud of what you did to try and bring Sasuke back. I know Naruto and Sakura appreciate your help. And Tsume-sama must be proud that you and Akamaru were able to pull through on such a difficult mission."

"I really didn't do much," Kiba said. "Well, the tracking. But the Sound nin I was up against was more than Akamaru and I were ready for."

"I heard that you held your own well," Iruka-sensei said. "And you did what you needed to do to save your partner and keep the mission going."

"Who said that?"

"Ah, that would be Sabaku no Kankurou. He was the one that helped get you back to Konoha, wasn't he? He said you did well."

Somehow, Kiba didn't quite believe that, and he snorted.

"Well, he said you did well for a Leaf genin, which I am given to understand is high praise from him. The Sand Siblings don't seem too keen on complimenting Leaf shinobi, but they do seem to be coming around finally. They have been spending a few hours a day here, seeing our Academy system and discussing how Sand could adapt it. They're sharp, those Sand Shinobi. If he said you did well, I am going to believe him."

Although Kankurou and his brother and sister were in Konoha for several weeks after the Sasuke Retrieval Squad was retrieved, Kiba only ever saw him in passing until the day that they were due to leave for Sunagakure. And that was because Akamaru caught a scent and hobbled away from Kiba, despite the fact that they were both bone tired. Kiba's arms were aching, and he wanted to go home, but he wasn't about to let Akamaru wander by himself with his leg still bound up.

When Akamaru lead him to the Sand Siblings, Kiba raised his eyebrows. The last interactions that Akamaru had been conscious for, he was terrified of Gaara and leery of Kankurou and Temari. But Akamaru didn't hold grudges, not the way Kiba did. Maybe he remembered Kankurou's smell from the rescue, and he put it together that their scents were now friendly.

Kankurou raised his eyebrows as well when Akamaru came up to him and sat by his feet, wagging his tail. Temari and Gaara were a few building lengths ahead, but the sight of poor Akamaru, still bandages and limping, was enough to make Kankurou stop.

"Hi, puppy," he said. "Where's your dumb partner?"

"I'm not dumb," Kiba said, pushing himself forward on his crutches. "He wants to thank you. For the save. Me, too, I mean. Thank you. I don't think we would have made it."

"Yeah, well, what are allies for?" Kankurou said awkwardly. "Saving allies and all that."

"You all are headed home?"

"Yeah, we did what we needed and we have a lot to share with the Council about the new treaty. And your schooling system. I don't know if its practical for how small Suna is, but we'll see."

"Well, see you around."

"Yeah. See you around."

It was some time before Kiba saw Kankurou again. Or thought much about him. He had to heal, and then get back into fighting shape, and then they were training hard for the next chuunin exams.

The first mission that Kiba got to Suna was over a year after that last conversation in Konoha, a few months after he finally made chuunin. Shino had made chuunin the exam before that, and now that Hinata and he were chuunin, they could take C ranks without a jounin-sensei. For B-ranks, their squad would still need a jounin taichou for now, until they got more experience, but that didn't matter much. Kiba was still excited about his promotion.

He hadn't been excited about being on a sensor team, not at first. Akamaru and him should have been a strike team, front line fighters, or distance runners. But the Sandaime and Iruka-sensei - who knew that Iruka-sensei had had so much influence over the team compositions? - had put them together for a reason. Their different sensor abilities weren't just suitable for different conditions and landscapes; their combat styles complemented each other enough to prepare themselves for most foreseeable scenarios. After a few years together, Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, and him were a real, solid team.

A real, solid team that needed a medical nin.

Lady Tsunade had called in a good dozen teams of chuunin and mixed chuunin and genin, looking over their rosters and frowning.

"I've let some things slip, " she said. "Including things I feel quite strongly about. And one of them is having a med-nin on each three nin team. I fought for that, years ago, but after the loss of the Sandaime and the betrayal at the chuunin exams, there wasn't time to address this. Now, we have enough genin and chuunin again, and I've found that all of your teams are not up to standard. None of the ninja in this room have more than basic first aid knowledge. I want you to talk to your teammates, your jounin sensei, the other med nin in training, your families, whoever you trust to decide who will be stepping up for this roll. You have forty eight hours to submit the name of shinobi on your three nin team who will begin medical training."

For a variety of reasons — Hinata's dad being a grade-A asshole, Shino having difficulty changing the chakra natures of his insects to meld with healing, and Kiba insisting that whoever became their med-nin would have to be able to treat Akamaru, too — Kiba's name was put forward. Shizune's eyebrows rose when he turned in the form.

"Ah, Kiba-kun, you'll be doing the med-nin training for Team Kurenai?"

"Yeah. I dunno if a sensor team is ever going to need a med-nin, but I'm it! And I'll be able to take care of Akamaru, too."

"Excellent. Unexpected, but excellent. I'll be running the initial courses for our new med nin in training and drawing up a suggested study schedule. This is to be treated with the same importance as your ongoing martial training and missions, under our Hokage's orders. Do you have any questions?"

"Not yet. I'm sure I'll have a tonne of questions once we get started. I've never been great with studying."

"Well, to become proficient in medical ninjutsu, there's a lot of hands on practice. I'm sure you'll be fine."

The next two months were rough, trying to balance individual training and team training and missions along with the medical courses. His and the other newbies' curriculum wasn't as intense as the work that Sakura was following directly under the Hokage, but it was still a lot of work. Shino and Hinata both worked with him on the required readings and note taking and memorization, but he did find that Shizune was correct about the hands on work. He could be steady with bandages and syringes and surgery, and bending his chakra into the healing energy required wasn't too different from bending his chakra to work with Akamaru's.

And his Inuzuka senses came in handy again. After some practice and exposure to the smell of illness, rot, and poisons, Kiba was getting pretty good at diagnosis. He could smell infections as they started to take root, the sour smell of jaundice, even the beginnings of a viral infection. Fevered blood just smelled different. And poisons - he was really good at detecting poisons. Or venoms. He still didn't completely grasp the difference between them. Either way, he was good at sniffing them out. Good enough that Lady Tsunade decided to send out Team Kurenai on a C rank to Sunagakure with some medicinal texts, a small sample of the Nara medicines, and other medicinal plants and fungi from the Land of Fire. They would trade these for a collection of anti-venoms and texts on poisons, which Suna had a lot of. Apparently everything was venomous in Suna. And Kiba was supposed to observe as many venom and anti venom samples as possible and record them to add to Konoha's medical library.

Kiba, Shino, and Hinata sat in one of the smaller courtyards in the Hyuga compound, prepping booties to protect Akamaru's feet from the hot sand, and discussing how best to carry water for the three day trip.

"Akamaru's fine to carry water," Kiba insisted. "And we'll need plenty of it. Shizune said water's rationed in Suna, and we should bring enough for the trip there and back, at least."

"I thought Akamaru would be helping to carry the venom samples and medical texts," Shino said, using an awl to poke holes in the leather base of Akamaru's bootie. "There's supposed to be quite a lot to bring there and come back."

"Iruka-sensei is putting all the stuff we're taking in a sealing scroll," Hinata said. "And I'm sure there's someone in Suna that will be able to seal their materials for us."

"And if not, there are three of us! It's not anything to worry about, Shino."

Shino didn't really respond, just beetled his brows as he continued his work with the awl. Kiba was actually putting the pieces together, while Hinata added the straps that would tighten the booties around Akamaru's feet.

"I admit that I am concerned about visiting Suna," he said. "I know we are allied with them now, but my main memory of the Sand shinobi continues to be how vicious they were. And the poison the puppeteer used against me — all the poison in Wind country really — is something to be concerned about. It was very damaging to my colony."

"They aren't that bad," Kiba said, squinting as he used the bodkin to pull the leather thongs through the holes.

"Kiba-kun, weren't you the one that said 'I absolutely wouldn't want to fight with those guys' during the preliminary matches?" Hinata said.

"Well, then, yeah. But things have changed. We're stronger now. But they're probably stronger now, too. We aren't going to be fighting them, anyway. They came in handy as allies. And the Kage that was behind their big beef with us died, didn't he?"

"Gaara-kun became their new Kazekage," Hinata said. "And he's very fond of Naruto-kun. Our Godaime seems to be very pleased with the Sand as allies. I'm sure we don't have anything to worry about from them. The shinobi of Suna can be relied on."

In the end, all three of them were right.

They should carry as much water as was feasibly possible. The poisons of Wind country were something to be concerned about. And the shinobi of Suna could be relied on.

How Hinata was the one that got bitten was beyond him, but with the extra water Akamaru carried, Kiba was able to keep her well hydrated while Shino's beetles helped bleed off the envenomed chakra. And as soon as they made it within three klicks of the little ravine that led into Sunagakure, there was a familiar shinobi coming out to greet them, two other Sand nin trailing behind him.

"Leaf-nin running late," he said with a laugh, before he realized that Hinata was slung over Kiba's shoulders while Shino walked steadily behind him, directing his bugs.

"Oh, shit, you all run into trouble?"

"She got bit," Kiba said. "I've got the thing that bit her in a bubble in the pack. Never seen it before. No idea what it is. Akamaru ran it down for us. Been keeping her hydrated. The bite's on her ankle, and we've kept her up to slow the movement through her systems."

"Good work."

Kankurou moved around to scoop Hinata off Kiba's back. He took her easily, and Kiba ignored the movement of his muscles underneath his black puppeteer get up.

"Hey, I've got her!"

"You aren't used to the heat, and I can tell you're dehydrated. Follow me, she needs the hospital. And bring whatever bit her along so we can identify it."

Kiba, Shino, and Akamaru followed him as he jogged through the crevasse and into Suna, calling for medics and ordering the guards to check the Leaf nin in quickly. Shino had to pull out Hinata's ID papers, and once they were checked in, Kankurou took off at an easy jog towards the hospital, meeting medic nin carrying a stretcher after a few minutes. They took Hinata , keeping her heart elevated above the knee, and the rest followed after, Kankurou finally stopping in the lobby of the hospital.

"They'll take her to our poison ward right away. It's good you kept her hydrated and her heart up above the bite. The sooner we can get the right anti-venom, the better off she'll be. Bring out whatever it was that bit her, let's get a good look, and I can go down to the cold storage to see if we have it in stock."

Kiba reached into his pack and pulled out a chakra bubble with a nasty little creature inside it. It looked like a big rat to him, with velvety fur, a stub tail, and wide front paws, but he had never met a rat that could poison someone with a bite. When he saw it, Kankurou's painted mouth turned down in a grimace, and his broad nose wrinkled in disgust.

"These bastards," Kankurou said. "It's good you caught it; we never have enough anti-venom on hand from these guys."

"What is it?"

"We call it the 'Bastard Mole', but it's also known as a chakra leech. They hang out in places where the natural background chakra is high and bite and stockpile the prey they immobilize. The venom isn't injected like a snake, it's mixed into their saliva, and it dries up fast. We always need one on hand to make the anti-venom, and they're tricky to catch."

"But you can make an anti-venom?"

Kankurou snorted. "Of course we can. Every damn critter around here is either poisonous or venomous except the burros and horses, and the poor burros get used to make the anti-venoms all the time. Leave this to me, you two go join your friend. If anyone asks just say I okayed it."

"I want to come with you to see the anti-venoms."

"They're just a bunch of labeled vials, unless I have to make a new batch and go out to see the burros."

"Lady Tsunade has me training as a med-nin. I want to learn. That's the whole point of this mission."

Kankurou's eyebrows rose at that.

"Yeah, alright, Kiba. I guess stabbing yourself once was a good reason to get medical training."

"You know, I was just telling Shino that the Sand nin were alright a few days ago, and now you're being a dick."

Shino went up to be with Hinata, and Akamaru followed him when Kiba asked him to guard their teammates. Kiba, with the bastard mole still contained in a chakra bubble, followed Kankurou. Every time they passed a hospital worker or a med nin and they saw Kiba, Kankurou waved away their concern with the same phrase.

"He's with me."

They dropped the Bastard Mole into a deep glass tank in a room Kankurou called the specimen room, and then went down several flights of stairs. The cold storage room was just that - well underground and cold enough that Kiba's skin hurt. Kankurou checked a few charts.

"We have two doses left. Good thing you got the little bastard because we'll need to make more. You up for that, too?"

"It's what I'm here for."

"Alright, let's get your teammate taken care of, and then we'll get to work on the process."

Kankurou delivered the antivenom to the med-nin caring for Hinata, and Kiba and Shino watched as it was injected intravenously. Kiba checked her over after the med nin, finding that her chakra flow was evening out, as was her breathing and heart beat.

"It's working!"

"Of course it is, I wouldn't give our Konoha allies the wrong anti-venom. What do you take me for?"

"You did poison me," Shino said. "Just after the chuunin exams."

"Yeah, but we were enemies at the time. Now we are allies from cooperating villages. And our Kazekage really likes the Leaf, so I'm not about to go making him mad."

"Isn't your brother the new Kazekage?"

"Yeah, and you've all seen what he gets like when he's mad. Although you should probably turn in your mission paperwork to him."

"Shino can do that. I want to get to work on the rest of the anti-venom course for Hinata."

"Let's go, then."

That started off two solid weeks of research that left Kiba tired and his brain itchy with new facts. He ended up working with Kankurou almost every day. And that ended up being pretty alright.

"I'm the highest ranked active field shinobi that works with poisons," Kankurou explained. "And the Kazekage wants our Leaf allies looked after by the best."

"Are you the best?"

"The best that's active. Old lady Chiyo retired ages ago, and we lost a lot of people in the last war. Suna's still recovering from that shit show."

As Kiba spent days milking venom from snakes, scorpions, and spiders and collecting the saliva of the bastard mole and recording the process by voice into a sealing scroll prepared by Iruka-sensei, Hinata and Shino spent their days in Suna's medical library, working with their archivists to sort the texts from Konoha and make copies of relevant texts from Suna's shelves and writing down the notes Kiba recorded in the seals.

And Kiba found out that Kankurou was pretty okay to hang out with.

He was clever, smart and sly and ready to crack jokes. When he was being watched, he made exaggerated expressions that were stretched into the bewildering with his paint, and he had an easy confidence that Kiba never thought he would wield. It might be something to do with the way every Sunan citizen called him 'Kankurou-dono,' which Kiba brought up one day when they were working with the burros to get the serum that made the anti-venoms for Suna's many, many, many biting creatures.

"Why do they do that? You're not a daimyo or the heir."

"No, but I'm Kazekage clan. Son of the Yondaime, brother to the Godaime Kazekage. The village leader is hereditary in Suna."

"What, the Kazekage is decided by family? That's wild."

"I think it's strange that your Hokage is chosen from any shinobi in your village. How to run a village and diplomacy and all that was part of our education, even Gaara's."

"Damn. So you could be Kazekage one day?"

Kankurou snorted emphatically.

"I'm technically in line for that position, but I won't ever have to wear the hat. I don't want to. Something would have to happen to Gaara and Temari before they'd even ask me, and I could probably find some bastards and clan off shoots if it came to it before I actually had to take it up."

"You don't want to be Kazekage?"

"Hell no. Would you want to be Hokage?"

"Well, yeah. I could change things. Get better care for ninken. Help change the Academy system."

"Well, I want to be an active shinobi, working with puppets and poisons and leading missions. The kage do things like paperwork and listen to council meetings and never actually get to do anything unless the village is under attack. Not my kind of life at all."

"When you put it like that, it does sound a bit shit."

"Right?"

"Yeah."

It was one of those days, working with the burros that Sand used to produce their anti-venoms, that Kiba first saw Kankurou without his makeup. One of the burros took offense at being an anti-venom factory and kicked Kankurou in the stomach, hard enough to knock him into the yard's cistern before he caught himself. Afterwards, Kankurou had no choice but to wash his face, since he had streaks of purple and water mixed with donkey spit running down his skin. Kiba knew he was pretty decent looking, but he looked different without the paint. Just a guy with spikey hair and muddy eyes and a mouth that seemed made to bullshit but could probably do more.

Instead of saying that though, he said, "You have the ugliest nose I've ever seen. You're lucky no one knows what you really look like."

The emotions moved across his face differently when Kankurou wasn't wearing the face paint. Kiba watched as five or six different expressions crossed his face before Kankurou settled into a grin.

"You're a real dick, Inuzuka, you know that?"

On Team Kurenai's last morning in Suna, Kankurou was the one to walk them through the crevasse and out to the desert. Kiba felt more disappointed than he expected on having to leave. Not that he'd be sad to be able to take a nice long shower and to give Akamaru an overdue bath. But he did enjoy hanging out with Kankurou.

"Thank you for taking care of us," Team Kurenai said in unison with a bow to Kankurou. When Kiba looked up, Kankurou was rolling his eyes.

"Cut it out with that. Gaara's the one who gets bowed to, not me."

"Whatever you say, Kankurou-dono,," Kiba said, tongue in cheek, and Kankurou rolled his eyes again.

"I think I ordered you to cut it out, dog boy. So. Akamaru's panniers have been refreshed, so you have plenty of water," he said. "But don't get bitten by anything else. If you have to crack open that sealed case of anti-venom, they'll get too hot and the rest will be useless."

"I'm not the one who got bit," Kiba complained. "And I know. You've lectured me three different times on how to make sure the anti-venoms stay potent."

"Yeah. Well, take care of yourselves. I'll see you around, Kiba."

"See you."

It was significantly less than a year before Kiba saw Kankurou again. They had done good work together in expanding Konoha's poison-and-venom based medical texts, good enough to get some praise from Tsunade-sama. After that mission, they weren't close, exactly, but they were friends, at least. And as the months passed, they got closer. Temari would pass on a greeting from Kankurou when she was in Konoha; Kankurou would make sure he got extra water ration tokens for Akamaru when Kiba was in Suna with his team. On the occasion that Kankurou acted as liaison instead of Temari, Kiba would shout him a meal, sometimes just the two of them plus Akamaru, sometimes with the rest of Team Kurenai.

It was at one of these meals that Kiba found out that Kankurou was gay.

Kiba liked having a friend come to visit, to break up the training and the missions and clan business and his rounds in the hospital. His ma always gave him a break at least, when Kankurou was in town, although Godaime would sooner stop drinking than let any of her medic-nin trainees skip a hospital shift. And Kiba was sure Kankurou liked it when he had the chance to take a mission in Konoha, for all that he said the Leaf shinobi weren't as tough as Sand nin. He especially liked the fact that showers wouldn't shut off after eight minutes, the public baths were always open, and ice cream lasted more than two minutes after being scooped.

Kiba had asked, exaggeratedly leaning on Kankurou, if hanging out with him was his favorite part about visiting Konoha, and found out that he lost that coveted position to the concept of "free refills with ice" on drinks. Kiba had laughed, and pushed away the feeling of being bothered by that, somehow.

Kiba was waiting at the Hokage Tower on the day that Kankurou was supposed to arrive. At some point, he had become Kankurou's designated handler when he came to Konoha, just as Shikamaru had become Temari's. He was fine with it. It was an easy mission for good pay, and Kankurou got to put a lot of stuff on his official Suna diplomacy account, meaning Kiba ate for free for a lot of the visit.

On day one of this visit, though, Kiba was treating him to barbeque at Yakiniku Q. Kankurou had made jounin, and Kiba wanted to celebrate him a bit with something special. Akamaru sat below the table with a bib around his neck and got lots of bits from the both of them; Kankurou liked the tenderest, most moist bits of meat, while Kiba always went for the chewier cuts at barbeque. Akamaru took it all, and Kankurou thought it was funny that Akamaru was allowed to sit in the restaurant, tail wagging with every new cut of meat delivered. They didn't get too rowdy, not with just the two of them and Akamaru, but their table was full of not-serious insults and jokes with a bit of a mean edge and lots of laughter. It suited them.

Kankurou wasn't a really serious guy, not when he wasn't at work or in battle. Neither was Kiba, really. Shino described their friendship as "smart ass and dumb ass," and Kiba had the sense not to ask which was which. Which is why Kiba thought it was a bit strange when Kankurou was so stiff at Yakiniku-Q when the server kept leaning over him. He had been laughing just before they entered, as Kiba lamented that it took him almost eighteen months to go from chuunin to jounin, and how Kankurou was letting the Sand down with a record like that. Then when the waitress came over - it was fine at first. She had fluttered her eyelashes at Kankurou when he ordered his soda - black currant - and given Kiba a fond shake of her head when he ordered the next weird flavor from Yakiniku-Q's line of offerings. This month was eel soda. When their first tray of meat and soda's came, Kiba's abomination of a soda was set down with a smile, but Kankurou's was accompanied by a cock of a hip and a very different smile.

Maybe Shino should revise his description of them to label them both dumb asses, because it took the third time of the server reaching over Kankurou to refill his black currant soda, her chest near his face, and multiple times checking that everything was alright with their food, and to please let her know if she could do anything for the handsome Sand shinobi, for it to click for Kiba. Kankurou apparently hadn't noticed. He just stiffened up every time she got into his personal square. Which, he was a shinobi, so yeah, that made sense, she should know better, but she was easy on the eyes. And so was Kankurou. They would make a good match.

Kiba had the vague idea that Suna was more conservative about dating and flirting than Konoha was, given the lengths Shikamaru went to make it appear he and Temari weren't doing any thing romantic together. Maybe Kan just wasn't used to someone trying to get his attention like this.

"She's flirting with you," Kiba said helpfully, in case Kankurou really hadn't noticed the server's attention.

"I noticed," Kankurou said. "I thought at first she was some kind of honeypot, but if she was, her handlers have done a shit job at picking her target."

"What?"

"I'm not into women," he said. And then, before Kiba had the chance to respond, he was already leaning on the table, fist clenched by his soda and painted angles around his eyes misshapen by a scowl. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Kiba was genuinely confused. The only time same sex partners were an issue was generally around clan inheritance, at least as far as he knew. There were plenty of couples in Konoha that everyone knew were together, even if people rarely did more than hold hands or occasionally kiss on the cheek in public. Maybe an embrace after a long absence. More then that wasn't done, whether the couple was queer or straight.

"No? Why would it be a problem?"

Kankurou leaned back in his bench and gave Kiba a long, silent look that had Kiba grabbing for his truly disgusting eel soda just to have something to do aside from be stared at.

"It was illegal to be a 'practicing homosexual' in Suna until recently," Kankurou admitted, and Kiba was no less confused then he had been.

"Why? Is it an inheritance thing, like your Kazekage? But that should only really matter for like, inheritable techniques, right?"

"No. People in Suna just don't like queer shinobi. Or queer partners at all."

"That's weird. Konoha has always had queer shinobi. Like, one of our Hokages was gay, I think. I know at least seven or eight active duty shinobi that are. And I'm bi, I'm pretty sure," he said, almost as an afterthought. Then, "Or maybe pan? I don't know which one fits. But I literally do not care where you want to stick your dick, Kan."

Kankurou relaxed minutely at that, enough to take a sip of his soda, and Kiba turned his attention to their meat before it got dry and overcooked.

Then he realized he had another question about how people were illegal.

"What do you mean, a practicing homosexual? And how recently? Like - years or months or what."

"Practicing meant actively participating in sex with another man. Or another woman, or whatever. And I mean a few weeks. Gaara just forced it through by threatening the council."

"Well, that was good, right? What, did you come out and he changed the law?"

"Not exactly. I never came out until I got caught with a guy and our jounin commander was going to have us both whipped in the central square. Gaara put a stop to that."

Kiba dropped his eel soda, splashing liquid over his now ruined food and onto Akamaru's snoot. Akamaru licked his face clean and whined.

"What do you mean, whipped?"

"I mean that they were going to take a lash and give us each twenty hits for being caught with our pants down in a very compromising position."

Kiba just gaped at him.

"That's awful. What the hell, Suna?"

Kankurou shrugged.

"It's always been this way. But at least it's not now. And Gaara wrote the law so anyone who had been punished for it in the past got that censure off their records. The Council really isn't happy with him."

Kiba's only response was a time honored one among shinobi.

"Man, fuck the Council."

That was the last time they got to hang out before shit started popping off with the Akatsuki and every Uchiha still alive. Naruto came back; Kankurou got poisoned and Sakura was the one who went to patch him up, even though Kiba had done all that practice and research; Gaara either almost died or did die and was revived — Kiba wasn't super clear on that — Kurenai-sensei told her team she was pregnant and then lost her partner, Asuma-sensei; and their attempt at tracking Sasuke down again kept coming up too little, too late. Neither of them had time for friendships, and for months, the only word he got from Kankurou was the occasional letter.

They said things like, "I did get poisoned and almost died, but your Leaf medic friend saved my life. I guess all those texts on poisons you got helped me out in the end."

Or, "Neither of them will say so in front of the Council, but they're both shaken up by what happened to Gaara. So I opened my big mouth in front of the Council to get assigned as Gaara's official guard, so he always has one of us with him, even though he doesn't really need a guard at all."

And, "Even with Gaara's law, the men in Suna don't want to be out in public. Especially not with the target of Kazekage clan on my back. It makes trying to date anyone a huge pain in the ass. You've taken me better places, and the only place you take me is barbeque."

Kiba did his best to write back, even though his spelling had never improved and kanji still swum in front of his eyes. His letters tended to be shorter, more to the point, written in handwriting that looked like it belonged to a grade schooler. He had even thought about going to Iruka-sensei for help writing it, but it felt wrong to share the contents of a letter to a friend with anyone else. Kankurou never complained about his bad handwriting, anyway.

His letters said things like, "You should try not getting poisoned so often. Maybe live somewhere where not every thing that crawls, walks, flies, or slithers can kill an elephant."

Or, "Awwe, someone loves his brother! It's okay. Gaara probably likes knowing you want him safe."

Or, "Miwa broke up with me. Not because of the dog this time! She's getting a post in the capital, and she said she hates long distance. I would have tried, but I know better than to try to convince a kunoichi to change their mind."

Letters were enough for a long while. Friendship could grow over long distances.

Then Pain showed up and pulled Konoha down around his ears, killing dozens or hundreds until, quite abruptly, they weren't dead any more.

The Inuzuka compound wasn't spared. And they lost more than a few dogs and a few ninken. The dogs didn't seem to be affected by whatever it was that brought the fallen civilians and shinobi back. And more were lost after, shinobi and ninken both, when disease and exposure ran through the rubble of Konoha.

Shit went really bad after that, really fast. There was the failed hunt for Sasuke and Sai and Sakura's lies, the mess with Tsunade and Danzo, and the outbreak of war and the white Zetsu army.

The war was hard on Kiba, but it was hard on everyone, even though the actual fighting only lasted barely any time at all. All he really heard of Kankurou in that time was that he got appointed as Captain to the Ambush squad. Kiba and Akamaru were on the front lines, fighting the Sound Four (again) and forming the three headed wolf with his shadow clone. There were no letters sent then. The only missives that were sent were goodbyes and notifications to next-of-kin for shinobi who fell in battle.

And afterwards, there was a lot of talk. Praising Naruto, discussion about what Sasuke's fate would and ought to be, how long it would be until the Godaime stepped down. If Naruto would ever actually make chuunin. And people loved discussing what they experienced inside of the Infinite Tsukoyomi. Everyone wanted to talk about it. How life was better inside, how sweet it would be to experience that life for real, and not just in a dream. To have the people they had lost close. To hold the people they loved closer.

It didn't take long for Kiba to notice that his dream in the Infinite Tsukoyomi was different from a lot of other people's dreams. There were no lost family members, not even his runaway dad. There was no lover, no one burrowed deep into his heart. Even his ma and sister, his teammates, his sensei, none of them appeared in his vision of a perfect world.

Kiba dreamed of life as the Hokage, side by side with Akamaru, but that was it. He had no one in his dream with him - just the robes, the goofy hat, and Akamaru. And he loved Akamaru, he did, more than anything - but Kiba couldn't help but wonder if that meant something was wrong with him.

The idea weighed on his mind, but there was too much to focus on after the war than to allow him to just brood on where he fit in with the rest of the world. Rebuilding Konoha took time. And with Hana pulled between active duty and being the lead vet, it was up to Kiba to get started on breeding the ninken again and tracking their bloodlines. With everything going on, Kiba almost forgot that he was alone even in a supposedly perfect dream, until Hinata told him hers was coming true.

"Naruto-kun asked me on a ramen date," she told him shyly. "It was even better than what I dreamed."

"That's great, Hinata. He better treat you right!"

He and Shino made all the correct noises about taking Naruto down if he ever hurt her, and then did their training cool down wander by the river bank.

"Shino," Kiba said after a bit, breaking their silence. "You don't have to answer this, but what did you dream in the Infinite Tsukoyomi?"

Shino answered immediately.

"I found a species of bug large enough to ride on and fly with," he said. "And I brought them back to the Aburame clan where were able to form new bonds with them. Even mother was happy, and I got to spend a lot of time on research, even after I married."

The bug thing was very on brand for Shino, but -

"So there were other people in your dream? And you got married?"

"Yes, but I don't remember anything about her. She was just there. Perhaps because I don't have anyone in mind, unlike Hinata."

"Ah."

They were quiet for another few minutes, and then Kiba asked, "Do you think it's weird that I was alone in my dream?"

"Why would it? The dream shows what you wanted, not what I wanted."

"What if that's not what I want anymore?"

Kiba was sure that Shino was giving him that "you are a whole dumb-ass" look behind his sunglasses.

"Then what you wanted changed? It was just a genjutsu, Kiba. It wasn't a life plan."

They split up to return to their respective clan compounds, Akamaru walking beside him. He was going to be a father soon, to the first litter of possible ninken born since Kiba took over the bloodlines. He had to focus on that, working with Hana to get the pups born healthy, then evaluate them in their first few months for signs of being able to use chakra and be trained as ninken. Not all Inuzuka pups were ninken - but the ones that weren't would go all over the Land of Fire as pedigree show dogs, guard dogs, service dogs, and a few pampered companions. But once the litter was well established, he had some time. He could request a few weeks leave before the next time he would have to decide on breeding lines. Maybe a vacation in Wind Country would help him get his head on straight.

Luckily, the litter came through just fine with six little blind puppies, and by the time they were weaned, Kiba had chosen two that showed signs of being able to sense and use chakra to become ninken partners for other Inuzuka with the right training. And, with a letter sent off to Kankurou to secure a visitor's pass, his leave approved by the Hokage, and his mother placated, he was off to take a much needed break. Kankurou was a good guy. He'd help Kiba get his head on right.

He was looking forward to seeing him.

But when Kiba arrived in Suna, just before sundown, Kankurou was in a foul mood. He didn't want to talk about it, no, and he did want to get out of the village as soon as possible. Just for a few hours to blow off some steam. Kiba put his stuff in one of the guest rooms of the Kazekage's complex and followed him out into the desert straight a way. They went a few klicks out, far enough that the bluffs that surrounded Suna were not much more than a smudge on the horizon.

Kankurou lead the way up to a ridge in the sand near some raggedy scrub and tossed out a thick canvas onto the ground before flopping down with his hands behind his head. His bunraku hood was gone, but he wore his paints. The angles around his eyes and his spikey hair emphasized his bad mood, but Kiba flopped down beside him anyway, Akamaru at his back. For some time all they did was look up at the sky.

It was gorgeous. It took Kiba a while to admit that about Suna, but it was.

The night sky in Suna never ended. Kiba wasn't used to that. Konoha was an ocean of trees. He didn't think it was anything weird, growing up, but since becoming chuunin he had seen more of the world. He had seen the ocean, the real ocean, and being surrounded by water for as far as he could see reminded him of nothing so much as being among all the trees of Konoha. Those trees kept the sky small, except in the center of the village where you could look up and map the stars.

Suna wasn't like that. Out at night, in the desert, even just a half hour out of the village, every star was on view. Kiba knew there was an edge, a proper horizon, but from where they sat on the rise of land, all there was was sky.

It brought back the Infinite Tsukoyomi dream, where there were endless possibilities, but in actuality, it was just him and Akamaru. Kind of like right now. Except right now, it was him and Akamaru and Kankurou. Kankurou, with his warm hands and cutting words who nonetheless had been a steady ally and a steady friend since the retrieval mission. Kankurou who carried him on his back, left his prized puppet with his sister to get him to the hospital in time, and who still called Akamaru puppy. Kankurou who wasn't into women, but always had time to write pages to Kiba even when he could barely manage a page back.

Kankurou who, even when his mood was foul, always made space for Kiba.

He was good to Kiba in a way that Kiba wasn't used to. A way that Kiba wondered, if he had realized this sooner, if he would have appeared in the Infinite Tsukoyomi a long with him and Akamaru.

The thought sent a coil of something down his spine and into his belly, and Kiba pushed the thought away. If he opened his mouth, it would just make things weird.

And after about an hour of silence, the two of them looking up at the sky while Akamaru snoozed, Kankurou finally broke the silence.

"Sorry about dragging you out here. I just really didn't want to be in the village."

"You should be sorry. It's freezing out here," Kiba complained. "How was it hot enough to boil spit a few hours ago? I need a blanket."

"You've got an eighty kilogram mop of fur with you. Just cuddle up to him."

Akamaru did give off plenty of heat, and he was willing to be used as giant hot water bottle at their backs. Kiba scratched Akamaru's head and Kankurou got the base of his tail, and Akamaru was in bliss for a few minutes.

"You're a good dog, puppy, yes you are," Kankurou said when Akamaru's leg started going. Then, when he caught Kiba's look, he defended himself.

"Don't look at me like that. You're a lot more soppy about your dog than I can ever be. I'm just surprised you managed to train such a sensible dog."

"Sensible? Last time we sparred you shouted at me for weaponizing dog piss."

"Because it's stupid and it got in my hair. If we had been in Suna, I would have needed twelve more water rations just to get clean. Akamaru really ought to know better than to follow all of your stupid commands. Normally he's a lot smarter than you."

"Shut up. We were both smart enough to avoid you all in the Forest of Death when you met those Rain shinobi."

Kankurou propped himself up on his elbows to look at him.

"You saw that? I didn't know anyone else was there. I had to focus a lot more on Gaara in those days. But if Akamaru was really scared of Gaara before he really saw him fight, it just shows how smart he is."

"Really, Akamaru was terrified of you at first. And Temari and Gaara. Mostly Gaara, I guess."

"He's got good sense," Kankurou said. "More than you, anyway. But he was there when I asked you about your weird Konoha food, I remember him hiding behind your feet."

"Yeah, the whale meat," Kiba said. "I don't know if Gaara stomached it okay, but I like it. So does Akamaru. It's chewy."

"It wasn't bad," Kankurou allowed. "Haven't had it since then."

"I don't guess you get a lot of whale out here. Where's the nearest ocean, like ten days run east?"

"You know, the stories go that Suna used to be under an ocean. On nights like this, when the sky is clear and cold, and the wind's coming in from the east, the desert remembers that once this sand was under the ocean. And the bakekujira come out."

Kiba had his arms crossed behind him, letting his head rest while he looked up at the stars, but he turned to look at Kankurou. His face was all shadows under the moonlight, but Kiba could see the shine of the whites of his eyes and feel the heat coming off him, even warmer than Akamaru.

He pushed that thought away too.

"What," he said, "Is a bakekujira?"

"It's the ghost of the whales that used to swim through here. You can only see them at night. They've got a glow around them as they travel, just the fleshless skeleton of a whale that buzzes a bit as they get close. And they hold court, with the shades of seabirds and strange fish, following them as they swim through the air."

"You're shitting me."

"I'm not."

"Have you seen one of these bakekujira? With your own eyes."

"Yeah, once, back before the chuunin exams. You won't see one tonight. You have a better chance of seeing them during the rainy season. The rain helps the desert remember."

"Your rainy season lasts all of two weeks. I'll never see one."

"Come back during the rainy season then."

"I don't know if I'll be able to get another batch of leaves all at once, let alone another pass just to see some dead ghost whales. Not all of us are brothers of Kages."

"I'll get you a pass whenever you want. Because some of us are brothers of Kages, and there have to be some perks. "

"What, just to hang out? And see dead ghost whales?"

"Yeah, if you like. I mean, half the time when I visit Konoha, I just check in for appearances and spend the rest of the time using up your village's supply of hot water and soda with unlimited ice. You can come to Suna to sight see. Isn't that what you're here for now, a vacation?"

Kiba scratched his chin.

"I don't want to make things weird for you."

"You get your dog to piss on people, you're already weird."

"I mean, like, me hanging around you. In public. I know your brother and sister are fine with me bunking with you all when I'm on a courier mission and you said it was okay this time, but, uhh, I know you said Suna was. Strict. About that kind of. Fraternization. And I don't want you to get shit about it."

Kankurou's laugh was a rough kind of thing, and it rolled over the sand around them. Kiba felt it in his fingertips and the edges of his ears.

"Gaara legalized that kind of fraternization, remember? And this isn't sex, this is just hanging out."

"I don't want to make things weird for you," Kiba said again. He remembered what Kankurou said about the lashes. "And weren't you seeing that guy? Hikaru?"

Kankurou's laugh was different this time, barked and ugly.

"Don't worry about him. He couldn't handle dating the Kazekage's brother. Or the disapproval that came with our fraternization. He broke up with me like an hour before you got here."

"That sucks, man."

"Yeah."

Kankurou was single again. He seemed to be single just as often as he was with another guy, civilian or shinobi, but none of his boyfriends seemed to last very long. Like Kiba's partners, they came and went. Aside from the people he knew since childhood, Kiba's most stable relationship was actually Kankurou.

But they were just friends. Friends sometimes felt weird in their stomach about other friends.

Kiba admitted he was lying to himself about that. He could be thick sometimes, but noticing things like warm hands and ugly laughs wasn't something he did with Shino or Hinata or any of his other Konoha friends.

They were both quiet for a while. Kiba didn't know what Kankurou was thinking about, but Kiba was thinking about the Infinite Tsukoyomi again. And how it would have been different, more like the bliss other people described, if Kankurou was in it, talking shit and expounding on the finer points of his puppets and waving Kiba's concerns off with an "I got this" in that confident way he developed after twenty years as near royalty in Suna. How Kankurou was always warm, and the makeup at the corners of his mouth pulled his expressions and exaggerated his smiles. How his back was strong and his hands were big and he thought anyone who dumped Kankurou was an idiot. He would never dump Kankurou, if they were ever together.

"You've gone far away, dogmeat. What's caught in your thoughts?"

Kiba debated answering honestly. If he lied, Kankurou would probably catch it, but he'd probably also let it pass without comment. But Kankurou had always been honest with him, so Kiba owed him that much.

"I think Hikaru was a dipshit for breaking up with you, but I won't miss him."

"You never even met him."

"I still know I wouldn't like him."

Kankurou scrunched his face at him.

"Is that all that's on your mind, Kiba? Thinking about my ex?"

"No. I'm also thinking about kissing you."

He didn't really mean to say that, but say it he did, and now it was out of his mouth.

The desert had never been quieter, and Kiba swore he could actually see the stars moving as he waited for Kankurou to respond.

"I'm not stopping you," Kankurou said at last.

Kiba rolled onto his side. Kankurou was a bit taller than him, a lot broader, and he didn't seem flustered at all. He knew this kind of moment messed up some friendships, but others it just turned the page into a new part. So Kiba put his arm on Kankurou's, leaned in close, and licked his lips.

"Okay," he said, and pressed their lips together.

It wasn't Kiba's first kiss. It wasn't even his first kiss with a man. But it was his first kiss with Kankurou, and when Kankurou kissed, he kissed like it might be the last time. It only took a few seconds for him to deepen the kiss, pulling a hand up to cup the back of Kiba's head. His hands were as big and warm as Kiba remembered from his rescue. He bit back when Kiba scraped his lips with his little fangs, and he slid their tongues together, not overwhelming, just seeking warmth and sensation. Kiba remembered his disconnected thoughts about Kankurou proving to be a good mate and a good addition to the pack all those years ago, and tugged him closer. And when Kankurou rolled over on top of him, pressing him into the blanket on the shifting sand, Kiba could feel the muscles and the soft layer of fat on his thighs and belly, just as he had when Kankurou had carried him home.

Akamaru gave a disgruntled boof and moved his warm bulk away from them, but Kiba didn't really mind. The loss of his heat made Kankurou's warmth all the more welcome. Kiba held him by the arms, feeling his muscles or slid his fingers up his neck and over his tunic to touch his hair. Kankurou cupped his jaw, kissing him slow and thorough, mapping out Kiba's fangs and touching the scar on his chin that reminded him of a bad fall as a kid. Even if it wasn't bliss, it was good, so good, to be held, to share the heat of another's body, to feel Kankurou get hard and thick in his pants, to bite his ear hard enough to earn a pinch back. He felt like he was really with someone, and Kiba couldn't remember the last time he felt like this.

By the time they did pack up the canvas and head back to Suna, the stars had moved again, but Kiba wasn't watching them any longer.

But when they were almost back, just out of sight of the gate, Kankurou grabbed his arm. For a beautiful second, Kiba thought they were going to kiss again.

Instead, Kankurou said, "This doesn't have to change anything."

Kiba felt his heart shrivel and drop down his ribcage and settle in the vicinity of his kidneys.

"What?"

"You know how Suna is," Kankurou said. "The folks that know about me, well. Most of them aren't happy about it. You won't be welcomed as readily. And even after Gaara's law, the council — they don't approve of men dating. I don't make it a point to go and make sure everyone knows. If the Kazekage's brother were to — they already give Temari a hard time about Shikamaru, and they're straight."

"Oh, then, yeah," Kiba said, hoping desperately he sounded as cool and collected as he didn't feel. "Nothing has to change. Still, it was nice, kissing you."

"Yeah. We can kiss. It'll be safer if no one knows though."

"Yeah."

That night in the desert was more than two years ago. Almost three, now. Years of letters and casual conversations in public and frantic make out sessions in private, the occasional round of frotting when they could get away with it, in the desert, out under the sky or behind three layers of locked doors in Suna, or in the woods after sparing or behind one firmly shut door in Konoha. It kept the peace for Kankurou. It kept the people of Suna from knowing more than they should. It meant that Kiba was still welcomed in Suna.

But it also meant they weren't together. Not in any official way. They lived too far apart, they had to keep the peace. They were still just hanging out, with tongue now. Kiba didn't think that Kankurou was his boyfriend or anything. And really, they couldn't be together in any official way. Kankurou had been right about that. Kiba wasn't his mom's heir, but he was still an Inuzuka of Konoha. If he got married, it would be to strengthen inter-clan ties, or something like that. And if he didn't get married, he'd be staying in Konoha for as long as he was on active duty. He couldn't just leave for Suna.

If he couldn't leave for Suna, there was no way that Kankurou could move to Konoha. He was basically Suna royalty. Their village's kage position was hereditary. People in Suna called him -sama or -domo. Suna's council had some kind of claim on Kankurou's future. He wasn't entirely sure on the details of marriage and kids for Kan, but he knew that when Shikamaru asked Temari to marry him, it triggered international debate. And Shikamaru and Temari were - you know. Straight.

Kan had never come out and said it, but Kiba was pretty sure that even with Gaara's Law, the council wouldn't actually tolerate a long term same sex partner for their princes. They would make his life extraordinarily difficult if he tried. Definitely not on a permanent basis. Being a "practicing homosexual" was legal now, but that didn't mean the Council in Suna would be alright with it. Not for their not-quite-a-prince anyway. Kankurou was the son of their fourth Kazekage and the brother of their fifth. They weren't going to risk a loss of potential heirs by looking the other way while Kankurou got into a serious relationship with a man. Really, Kan saying that things didn't have to change was the best outcome Kiba could have hoped for. They still got to be friends and get barbeque. It was safe.

One of Kankurou's letters - always delivered the slow way now, by civilian courier, never by hawk or by shinobi runner, because that avoided attention, and one of the things Kankurou had been firm about - one of his letters was almost nothing but rambling thoughts on Temari's upcoming wedding. How the Council was doing little but arguing about the terms of the wedding, the line of succession, whether Temari's children would be Sunan or Konohan or both, if they would be eligible to inherit, where they would fall, when Gaara and Kankurou should marry, who they should marry, who would be a better candidate to raise the next Kazekage.

Kankurou said that the Council was more worried about where he drained his balls than he ever had been, and Kiba had snorted reading the letter and promptly refused to explain to Shino what was so amusing. It wasn't really funny. The way Kankurou said it was funny but - the Council shouldn't have any say in that. Kankurou should be able to choose that for himself. Even if Kiba wasn't the person that Kankurou would eventually settle down with, if he settled down with anyone. Tsume certainly wouldn't sign off on a marriage, even a political marriage, without making sure that Kiba at least was attracted to whoever his spouse was going to be. Kankurou deserved the same.

Not that he was really interested in dating anyone else right now. His mom wasn't worried about that. He dated a little, because they weren't together. Kankurou might be dating around too. It was okay. Because they weren't together. Even if there were days that Kiba really, really wanted them to be.

That feeling came and went. There would be days, even a week or two sometimes in the long stretches when they didn't see each other, when he didn't think about Kankurou. Other days, he sat and gnawed on a pen and tried to find a way to make the words he wrote match the feelings that grew like kudzu behind his sternum. Some days he felt like all he could do was press his face into Akamaru's flank and hold back angry shouts because it wasn't fair that there were three days and decades of tradition and the disapproval of a council and Kankurou's own desire for privacy all conspiring and keeping them apart. Days where he'd tell Akamaru and the puppies he was training that he missed the stupid sticky smell of face paint and poison and sawdust, that all he wanted to do was watch Kankurou work on his murder puppets and listen to him info dump about all the best ways to harvest the deadly venoms from Suna's murder creatures in his accent, with his stretched vowels and hissed sibilants, for Kankurou to tell him not to pester him when Kiba could see that he was working, and later, to feel the scritch of black-painted nails against his scalp when Kankurou finally considered his work done for the day and was ready to relax beside him.

But they weren't together, and as often as Kankurou wrote and as sweet as he kissed and as hard as he fucked when they met up, they weren't going to be together. It wasn't in the stars. Not Konoha's few hidden ones, or Suna's endless expanse.

Then there were a few weeks, almost two months, when he heard nothing from Kankurou. Nothing at all. No casual civilian courier letters; none of the rare notes he would slip in with official paperwork, no announcement from Suna declaring that the Kazekage's brother has been married or assassinated. He figured that Kankurou had gotten too busy for him. Or maybe he found someone that he could date properly after all, someone in Suna, so he didn't need Kiba as a sometime friend, sometime make out partner, sometime booty call any more. It hurt maybe a little more than it should, but Kiba wasn't going to stand in the way of Kankurou finding something real, with someone he really liked. Not just a friend with benefits on the down low.

Then Temari showed up in the village with her fiance after Shikamaru had disappeared for a few days without even telling his mother he had a mission - something no one who knew Nara Yoshino would ever risk doing. Kiba could smell that something was up. Temari and Shikamaru were both jumpy, even for active duty shinobi, and Kiba's nose was keen enough to smell that something was off.

And Kiba was kind of nosy.

"Temari?" Kiba said. "What are you doing in Konoha? I keep thinking Kan's coming up on rotation and then he doesn't."

"My brother's just been busy with official duties," Temari said. "I'm sure you'll be annoying each other in no time."

"Are you acting as the official delegate this time then?"

"Ah, no. I've decided it's time to go ahead and settle in Konoha permanently before the wedding."

"Oh, Suna's council must have changed their minds. Chouji said Shikamaru said that they were being difficult about your guys' wedding plans."

"Yeah, it was a drag," Shikamaru said. "But Temari's here now, and we've got to -"

While he was talking, Kiba's eyes narrowed. Shikamaru was a genius, but his usual mode of misdirection was to repeat what a drag everything was. And Kiba, when he had caught the scent, was too stubborn to let things go that easily.

"So what did you say to them?"

"What?"

"I'm surprised you were able to convince the Council to let you two live in Konoha. Chouji said something about you promising not to have kids -"

Temari whirled on Shikamaru before Kiba could finish.

"What? You were going to promise those old bean bags that we wouldn't have any kids?"

"It was just a possibility! It obviously didn't come to that!"

"But you would have!"

"But I didn't!"

"Wow, what did you say to convince them then?" Kiba said, trying to sound as innocent as a baby rabbit. Assuming those quick little bastards were innocent. "You must have wowed them with your, uhh, rhetoric. And public speaking. And - what's that word? Elocution."

"Don't worry about it," Shikamaru said, still trying not to meet Temari's blazing eyes. "Just some fancy talk. Nothing's wrong."

"Why would anything be wrong?" Kiba said. Baby rabbit, baby rabbit, baby rabbit. "Gaara and Kankurou wouldn't have stood quietly while Temari came to Konoha if something was wrong, right?"

That seemed to get Temari refocused on whatever bullshit they were trying to spill - Kiba knew enough about Suna's council to know they would never let their princess go that easily - and she seized Shikamaru by the wrist.

"No, they're great, just busy, nothing's wrong. We, ah, have to go speak to the priest about wedding plans. Bye, Kiba."

Kiba tried to believe that nothing was wrong, that Shikamaru and Temari were just dealing with pre-wedding jitters and that flock of stuffed shirts Suna called a council had actually agreed that Temari should settle in Konoha early. If something was really wrong, he'd hear about it. Right?

He lasted two whole weeks before he decided he'd have to get to Suna to figure out what was really happening.

With the restlessness kicking in, the anxiety of the unknown, and the only word from Kankurou being a much shorter than usual letter that he wouldn't be on the courier rotation for another few months because of Official Suna Business, Kiba decided to take matters into his own hands. Six months without seeing his not-a-boyfriend-they-aren't-trying-to-label-this-just-having-fun-together-in-no-way-serious-about-any-of-this-guy and Temari and Shikamaru acting weirder than usual was enough to set him on edge.

And something brought Temari to Konoha way ahead of schedule. Something that Shikamaru almost let slip, but not quite, and Kiba was going to sniff it out. Even if Kankurou was with someone, Kiba was going to make sure he was alright.

His second cousin was the Hokage. He could figure out a way to get to Suna.

And the key was that the Rokudaime had a soft spot for romance. Even where there wasn't romance. Kiba could bullshit Kakashi when Kakashi was willing to be bullshat. Bullshitted? When Kakashi was willing to believe the bullshit before him for his own unknowable reasons.

And everyone knew that in this time of peace, their Hokage was mightily bored and willing to do almost anything for a diversion. Look at what he did for Naruto and Hinata's wedding!

So when Shikamaru showed him in during what was apparently supposed to be the Hokage's dedicated meditation time, and he was instead looking out the window, twirling a pen in one hand and tapping on a paper tablet with another, Kiba did his best to look pathetic and worried to help sell his need. Which wasn't that hard. He was pathetic and worried.

Kakashi looked slightly put out at having his "meditation" interrupted, but he flipped the tablet over so his words couldn't be read upside down and looked at Kiba with two grey eyes. Even without the Sharingan, Kiba was pretty sure he saw everything he needed to.

"Kiba, my favorite . . .third, I think, cousin, what brings you to my office? Have you rethought that offer about -"

"I'm afraid not, Hokage-sama," he said, heading him off. Kiba wasn't interested in the honeypot squads. "Are there any missions coming up to Suna that I could be assigned? I need to get to Suna as soon as I can."

Kiba was sure that Kakashi knew what was really going on in Suna, no matter how much Shikamaru insisted everything was fine, really, but he would play dumb. Hokages had to amuse themselves somehow.

"Suna? Why would you need to go to Suna? Nothing is happening there, it all seems very dull. And hot. And sandy."

Kiba scowled. Scowling at the village's kage wasn't necessarily the best move, but Kakashi seemed to take some perverse pleasure in not being treated like a Hokage ought to be. Sages knew he didn't act like one around Iruka-sensei.

"Something's happened in Suna to bring Temari here on what seems to be a permanent basis months ahead of any wedding," Kiba said. "And I'm worried about Kankurou. I need a legitimate reason to go to Suna, because I can't get a visitor's pass from him right now."

Kakashi's eyes lit up. Even if it wasn't really romance, Kiba knew that was the way to catch his attention. He did still read smutty romance novels in public.

"Ahh, of course. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. I suppose if we are getting a Suna shinobi in Temari, one of our own Konoha shinobi would be an equivalent exchange. What is it about cross village relationships that capture the heart?"

"We're not like that," Kiba said. "But I am worried about him. Kankurou has been my friend for a long time, and he's Kazekage clan, too, and whatever made Temari come to Konoha has to have affected him."

Kakashi leaned back in his chair.

"And this 'friendship' with Kankurou is enough for you to risk whatever might be going on in Suna, which I have no knowledge of, and even if I did, I would absolutely not be able to interfere with purely Suna business, even for my littlest fourth or fifth cousin?"

"Even if they're fighting a war, I need to make sure he's okay."

"If Gai was about, he would be shouting for joy about the power of youth, I hope you know that."

Kakashi leaned back in his chair again and scribbled out a note on a blank paper.

"There is a package of updated medical texts on long term chakra healing that Tsunade-sama had been waiting to send," he said. "It's only a solo-B rank, but it's the only thing I have aside from the courier packet, which is delayed for reasons quite beyond my knowledge. Go to the mission room for the particulars."

"I'll take it."

That was easier than he thought it would be.

A few hours later, Akamaru loaded down with water and a map of Suna's emergency water caches in his head in case a sandstorm hit, and Kiba was off. The trip to Suna was three days, no matter how much Kiba wanted the time to be shorter, and three days was three days, no matter how much he was tempted to push forward. Once he crossed into scrub from forest, he switched to sleeping in the shadows during the day, traveling once the sun started to sink and before it got too high, and cuddling up to Akamaru in the coldest parts of the night.

And three days later, he was entering the crevasse that led into Suna under the watchful eyes of her shinobi. He could tell right away that shit had definitely gone down in Suna, even if no one would talk to him about it. Everything smelled weird. Akamaru stopped to sniff what looked like molten metal, as if a lava flow had come through the street. Who even had a lava release? There were even scorched marks on the stone and adobe buildings. Suna's shinobi were more on edge than Shikamaru had been the first time Kiba noticed Temari staying longer than usual. The civilians were looking over their shoulders and eyeing Kiba and Akamaru carefully. And there was some kind of platform being ripped down in the square when he passed through.

He showed his pass and delivered the package of medical texts at the hospital before heading to the rutabaga shaped building that was the Kage Tower and Kazekage clan residence all in one. Kiba knew his way well; when he visited, he was always the guest room nearest Kankurou's suite of rooms. Showing his pass from the Hokage and saying hello to the people he recognized, none of them seemed alarmed to see him. He was a Konoha shinobi, but he was known to be friends with Lord Kankurou. Kiba made his way there, dropped off his luggage, and immediately went to Kankurou's suite once the hallway was empty, tapping a little bit of chakra into the wards at the doorframe so no poisonous traps would be triggered. Akamaru stayed in Kan's sitting room while Kiba sat cross legged on Kan's bed across from his workbench, which he dutifully did not touch. It always smelled like sawdust in there. There were worse smells to have to deal with.

It took two hours before Kankurou finally showed up, muttering to himself as he lurched into his room.

"I must be hallucinating from lack of sleep because that looked like Akamaru on the sofa."

"You're not hallucinating," Kiba said, and Kankurou took a visible step back.

"Kiba? Shit, you are keyed into my wards, aren't you? When did you get here? I didn't know you were coming."

"Earlier today. Your gate guards checked me in and they were supposed to send word to you. I brought more medical texts from Konoha."

Kankurou pulled his hood off his head and hung it on a peg by the door.

"Things have been a little crazy here. I'm just getting off forty-eight hours of duty. You mind if I . . .?"

"Go to sleep. I'll hang out until you wake up."

"Don't touch any thing."

"I know. Nothing without my name on it."

Kankurou didn't even bother washing his face before crashing into his bed, fully clothed. Kiba did him the favor of yanking off his sandals as he started to snore, and then went to sit by the workbench so Kan could actually get some rest.

'Don't touch anything without your name on it' had become their rule when Kiba accidentally poisoned himself the second time on one of Kankurou's tools on the workbench that he never cleaned up. It was a solid rule, but it did leave Kiba bored sometimes. Especially today, when he had been in too much of a rush to pack any manga and Kankurou didn't know he was coming.

But there was something with Kiba's name on it this time. An envelope, with the direction "Inuzuka Kiba, Inuzuka Clan Compound, Konoha, Fire Country" written on the front in lettering he recognized as Kankurou's, but dashed off quick and sloppy.

On the one hand, it did have his name on it.

On the other hand, it had obviously been written hastily, like Kankurou was under stress when he wrote it.

On the first hand again, Kan did leave it on his work bench in plain sight.

On that second hand, Kankurou hadn't been expecting him to show up, and he was running on forty-eight hours of no sleep, and didn't have time to clean up his room.

Back to the first hand, Kiba was a shinobi, and information was power.

Leery enough of Kankurou's work bench not to touch anything else, he popped out a claw and slit the envelope open. It wasn't too long, but written on several small pages, like those tiny notebooks investigators had on television shows. Just like the envelope, the writing was clearly Kankurou's, but rushed.

Kiba, it began. This will be short because I don't have a lot of time. I have to say good bye to you, because I'm facing execution in a few hours. That's not important though. It is important that you know I'm a coward. When I told you things didn't have to change, I was scared that they wouldn't last if they did. Good things don't really last for me. And I didn't want to lose you.

I'd rather die than live without you or my siblings, and it might turn out that my death will let them live. I don't mind that so much. But I do mind going to die without telling you how I feel.

You've been it for me for years. It's always been you.

I'm just sorry it took things getting this bad for me to tell you..

I love you.

Yours,

Kankurou

Kiba wanted answers, but Kankurou needed sleep. So he waited a full five hours of hell, running certain phrases chasing their tails around his head. "Facing execution" raced "It's always been you," and "I love you" around his mind until Kankurou woke up, staggered to his bathroom, pissed for an eternity, and came out with a clean face.

Then he did his best shout-without-shouting, an Inuzuka technique he had learned at his mom's knee.

"What the fuck, Kan?" he said, waving the letter around. "What do you mean you were facing execution? What do you mean? Why didn't you tell me after? I was waiting to hear from you! Why didn't you send this - just - what?"

Kankurou wasn't an easy man to surprise, but when he saw the opened letter in Kiba's hand, Kiba was pretty sure he had managed it.

"Damn it, it did have your name on it, didn't it? I didn't mean for you to ever see that," Kankurou said.

"Clearly," Kiba hissed. "On account of I came to see what the hell was wrong in Suna with nothing to go on to find out that someone had been tossing around lava in the streets and my - you - were almost killed! Damnit, Kan, I know we're just friends with benefits, but we're still friends!"

"I didn't mean for you to find out this way."

"I've gone and found out now, so this would be a great time to explain," he said, this time channeling Hana's gift for making her voice drip with disdain.

"Sit down. I'll explain."

Kiba sat on the bed, despite the nervous energy that was threatening to explode out of his limbs. Right now he was focused on the "facing execution" line, but very soon those other words were going to come back to the front of his brain. Kankurou joined him on the bed, sitting by the foot of the bed while Kiba was at the pillows. Kankurou rubbed over his face with a hand.

"This has been building for a while. We knew something was going to happen a few days before, but we didn't know exactly what or where. I couldn't tell you before because we didn't know. Gaara only told Shikamaru by letter because he knew he'd get Temari out. They attacked when Gaara was meeting an arranged marriage prospect with explosions. Then I was in the streets fighting, and that Toujurouu bastard had gotten my own men to turn on me. My fanboy second got me the paper to write the letter before they took me to the Gallows for execution. One of them took my hat. And I couldn't tell you then. It was too dangerous."

"You could have!"

"You know I couldn't have, Kiba. Not - Gaara's position as Kazekage was at risk. This wasn't something we could ask for help with, not from Konoha, not if Gaara had any chance of maintaining power. And you know the kind of shit that's at risk in Suna if someone more conservative takes over."

Kiba remembered vividly how Kankurou had almost been publicly whipped by the jounin commander for being a "practicing homosexual," and shuddered.

"I still could have helped," he said, trying to gentle his voice out a little.

"But I couldn't have let you," Kankurou said. "You read the letter. You know I couldn't have risked you. Everyone else I care about was already in danger. It wasn't an option to risk you, too."

Kiba didn't actually see Kankurou without his make up that often, even when they were hooking up. Being "Lord Kankurou" didn't stop him from having to follow Suna's water restrictions, and he preferred to clean up after they got down to business. That meant when Kankurou said you know I couldn't have his face looked naked and vulnerable. His eyes looked dark, muddy green brown without the purple at his eyes, His mouth and nose were still broad on his face, but without the purple at the corners of his lips, he came off as more serious.

Kiba still needed confirmation from him.

"So you meant it, what you wrote?"

"I meant it. I should have told you years ago. Waiting for death kind of puts things in perspective."

"You're it for me, too, you know that?"

Kankurou didn't answer properly, or maybe he did, because he surged forward to kiss Kiba. It was as good as that kiss under the stars years ago, because Kankurou still kissed Kiba like it was his last time, but he realized quickly it was better this time because Kiba knew that the fluttering in his own stomach was matched Kankurou's own feelings. Just like that first kiss together under the stars, Kankurou deepened it quickly. He pulled Kiba closer to him, then pushed Kiba onto his back, pressing him into the mattress with his hips, but Kiba didn't let him have it all his own way. Their tongues came together, pressed, broke apart; Kiba bit down gently to make Kankurou grunt and bite him back. Kiba had to make sure his nails stayed stubby when his hands went into Kankurou's hair to scratch at his scalp.

Kankurou pulled back with a little half laugh.

"You're needy," he said, when Kiba tried to pull him back by the hair. When he wouldn't cooperate, Kiba started kissing along Kankurou's jaw, at the soft spot of his throat where shinobi only let people they trust come near.

"You love me though," Kiba said, and bit down below his ear. Kankurou grunted again, and his hips shifted. Kiba could feel him, more than half hard, against his thigh.

"Don't be all pleased with yourself about it," he said, and pressed their lips back together, firm at first, then softer. Kankurou was direct and thorough in making sure Kiba felt every centimeter of his lips, cradling his jaw in his big, warm hands. He bit back when Kiba bit his lips, and he hummed with contentment when Kiba opened his mouth more to let him chart the sharp edges of his teeth. Kiba knew this kiss; he had felt this kiss dozens of times before. That made him melt a bit; Kankurou had been kissing him like he loved him from the very beginning. It was better now. Kiba knew it was love, now, not just lust, not just convenience, not just desperation to get off, not just flipping off the council. It was love.

"Tell me what you want, Kiba," Kankurou said, breaking away to kiss the scar on his chin and the points of red on his face. "What do you want?"

"You - I want to feel you against me. Come on, come on —"

"We can do that," Kankurou said against Kiba's lips and started tugging off Kiba's layer of mesh armor and grey shirt. Getting each other undressed was always a rush of skin and cloth and moving bodies. Kankurou liked to see as much of Kiba as possible when they were together, while Kiba was usually more anxious to get down to the main event. He went for Kan's pants, shoving them and his underwear down his thighs. Kan stood long enough to kick his clothes away and find his bottle of lube while Kiba loosened his fly and half knelt to get out of his own pants.

Kankurou was still in his tunic and already on him when Kiba's boxer briefs were still hanging from his ankle. There was a bit of fumbling as Kankurou pushed the bottle into his hand. The lube from the bottle was cool in Kiba's hand, but he knew it would warm quickly with their combined body heat. Kankurou reached down to take hold of Kiba's cock, stroking twice to coat his dick. Kiba wrapped his right arm around Kankurou's neck and smeared lube along Kankurou's own firm length.

They were kissing again, sharing their air and moving eagerly. Kankurou's cock was a bit bigger than him, and circumcised, while Kiba's cock was uncut. Kankurou kept one hand holding Kiba's hip, guiding short thrusts, while his other hand was wrapped around Kiba's left, stroking both of them together. Kiba didn't bother holding back a whimper when Kankurou's thumb rubbed right beneath the head of his dick; Kankurou always liked it when he made noises, and he liked that Kankurou liked it.

"Fuck, Kibs," Kankurou said. "Fuck. Do that again."

"You know how to make me," Kiba replied, trying to fuck back faster even though Kankurou's hand kept him steady. Kankurou grinned that mean grin that painted his face when he was about to win something.

"Hold on then, dog boy."

Kankurou did know exactly what to do; he had done it often enough. Instead of speeding up his hand, he kept his strokes slow, but twisted their joined hands as he thrust, rubbing the velvet heads of their cocks together. As delicately as he could without separating them, Kankurou pushed Kiba's foreskin down so the most sensitive parts of him were exposed and rubbing right against the glans of Kankurou's cock. The sensation made Kiba's eyes roll back. Kankurou hand kept Kiba's own hips moving steadily, not nearly as fast as Kiba would jerk himself off, but thorough and exacting and careful to make sure Kiba felt every inch of him as they moved together. Kiba was whining again in seconds.

"Shit, Kan, 's too much," he said, and stopped holding his claws in on his left hand. They pierced through Kankurou's tunic and into his skin, and because Kankurou was a damn good shinobi, his rhythm never faltered.

"You going to go off already, Kiba? I love that, I love watching you come. It's okay if you go early, I know you can't keep up with me."

"Shut up," Kiba groaned. "How do you - fuck - your dick on mine, it's so good."

Kankurou was kissing his jaw and his neck; Kiba was thrusting as fast as Kankurou would allow him into their joined hands. His own hand was smaller and slimmer, Kankurou's big and warm, both wet with lube and dragging deliciously against their heated skin. Every few thrusts Kankurou moved their hands to twist and pull around them, his thumb rubbing against that spot just under the head of his dick, his fingers pulling a long the ridge of his head. It had only been a few moments, but Kiba already felt his orgasm building, drawing his balls up tighter.

"Kan, Kan, Kankurou," Kiba chanted. "Fuck, Kan, fuck, your hand, your dick -"

The bastard was grinning against Kiba's jaw, he could feel it, but he didn't really care, because Kankurou loved him enough to want to listen to him whine and knew his body well enough to do exactly what was needed to make him come.

"It's okay, you can come, I know you can't help it."

Kiba let go of his own cock to avoid the danger of his claws coming out while Kankurou told him it was okay if he came all over himself, spilled between them because he was too excited, too needy, to in love to stop himself from coming early. And when Kan twisted his hand again, Kiba did indeed come with his claws in Kankurou's flanks and his teeth in his shoulder, brain fritzing out so all he felt was the constant slick drag of Kankurou's hand and cock against his own, whining when his spend joined the lube in Kan's hand. It was so slick, and he was so sensitive. Every nerve ending on his cock felt tender and overstimulated as he started to come down from his orgasm with Kankurou still rutting against him.

"Kan, Kan, slow down, 's too much!"

Thank the Sages, but he did before he pushed Kiba to tears. He did kiss him again, filthy and with tongue and teeth, before Kankurou got impatient.

"Can I move again, or is it going to much?"

"I might pass out if you rub up against my cock again. "

"Turn over then, let me use your thighs."

Kiba was softening and sticky and still very sensitive when Kankurou smeared more lube between his thighs, a little rough on his balls and making him whine again at the touch of warm fingers on his cock.

"Keep 'em together," Kankurou said, and Kiba squeezed his thighs around Kankurou's cock.

Kankurou draped himself over Kiba's back, warm and heavy, before he started snapping his hips, hard. Kiba mostly felt his lubed cock move smoothly between the soft skin at the top of his thighs, but Kankurou was slowly leaking precome. Kiba felt that as well, the head of his cock nudging at his balls and swiping against the underside of his softening cock.

"Kan, Kan, Kan," Kiba was chanting again. Thigh fucking was an old standby for them, the sensation of being used to get off almost as good for Kiba as getting off himself. It was better now, knowing that Kankurou was definitely thinking about him, wanted it to be Kiba beneath him, that Kankurou loved him.

"Fuck, you came so much, I can feel it on my cock," Kankurou was saying into his shoulder. "You're so wet and your thighs are so warm, Kibs, keep them tight, keep them tight."

"Ah, Kan, yeah, yeah," Kiba said. "You feel so damn good, I love you, Kankurou, I love you."

"Fuck, say that again," Kankurou begged. "Say that again, Kiba."

"I love you," Kiba said. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you."

Kankurou sped up between his thighs. Kiba couldn't see his face like this, but he knew he was getting close from the way his breathing went ragged and his teeth were worrying at Kiba's neck. They were both bitey bastards in the bedroom.

"I love you, I love you, I love you," Kiba was chanting, keeping his thighs tight. "Kan, you feel so good, I love you, I love you."

"Fuck, Kiba, fuck!" Kankurou said. Kiba felt his fingers dig into the flesh at his waist when Kankurou came, making him even stickier. Kankurou kept thrusting half heartedly for a minute, riding his orgasm out, before he finally stopped and half-collapsed onto Kiba's back.

"Fuck, I love you, too," Kankurou said, and Kiba wiggled around to kiss him, not minding the two loads of spend on his thighs and stomach and cock.

Afterwards, when Kankurou had used several days of his saved water rations to let them both shower away the sweat and various stickinesses from their skin, Kiba snuck out to let Akamaru out into Gaara's garden for a few minutes. Then he returned to Kankurou's side. His eyes were closed and he was breathing steadily, but Kiba knew he wasn't asleep. When he was really asleep, he snored.

Kiba clambered back into the bed, ignoring their usual "no sleeping together" rules, and dug his chin into Kankurou's sternum to get his attention back.

"Damn dog," Kankurou said with a pained grunt. Kiba's chin was pointy.

"So how'd you all beat back that Toujurouu asshole and stop the coup?"

"My fanboy, the one that got me the paper to write that goodbye note, he snuck me some puppets, I broadcast the lies Toujurouu had been telling with his admission, and then I chopped off his head."

Kiba sat up again.

"You chopped off the bastard's head?"

"With an axe."

"That's kind of hot."

Kankurou looked very pleased with himself.

"I was going to tell you that story in Konoha so I could get you all worked up and fuck you in the kennels where no one would hear."

"Do we have to keep doing that? Making sure no one can hear, no one knows? We're not just fuckbuddies any more. Or are we?"

"I don't want to be anymore," Kankurou said. "I haven't wanted just that for ages."

"Neither do I. For a long while. But your council -"

"The council isn't going to change, and I can't leave Suna. Not with Temari in Konoha. Gaara needs me. But I need you."

"I can't leave Konoha. Not any time soon, anyway. But I'm sick of pretending you're not important to me," Kiba said.

"What if we just . . . stop hiding. We just don't tell anyone. But I'm yours, and you're mine. Right?" asked Kankurou.

"Cause you love me," Kiba said, more than a little smug.

"Yeah."

"I guess I can live with that."

"When did you know you loved me?" Kankurou asked, and Kiba had to think for a minute. Eventually he shrugged.

"I dunno, sometime between me noticing how warm your hands were when you saved my life and learning about making antivenoms and telling me bullshit stories about ghost whales in the desert. It snuck up on me I guess. It didn't happen all at once. You?"

"Me what?" Kankurou said, like he was playing dumb.

"Don't be stupid. When did you know you loved me?"

Kankurou thought, but not as long as Kiba had.

"I guess it was when you said I had an ugly nose when you saw me without the face paint."

"That's a stupid reason to love me," Kiba said, who had been expecting something really dumb, like that time he snorted at Yakiniku Q and corn chowder soda shot out of his nose.

"You're stupid."

"No, seriously. Your nose isn't really ugly, but why would that matter to you?"

"It's cause you saw me. You saw me and my nose instead of my dad and his nose and everything that people stick on me with that shit. You're the first one that saw me, just me, not Rasa's son, and you wanted to be around me anyway."

Kiba didn't end up going back to his room that night. He did go back to Konoha after two days, and Kankurou did kiss him goodbye in a room in the Rutabaga Palace with the door shut, but not locked. Kiba was still a Konoha shinobi, and Kankurou was still a prince of Sunagakure. They had to keep living their lives.

It was better now, though.

Not many people actually found out, even when they weren't hiding it any longer. Public displays of affection were not the done thing in Suna; even holding hands on a busy street was pushing it. They stopped hiding their letters, and Kiba started to recognize the hawk that Kankurou used most often when it glided into the Hokage tower. Kankurou convinced Gaara to request Kiba as their regular correspondence relay when it was Konoha's turn to send a runner, on the basis that he'd like to see him more. Gaara agreed with something about everyone needing friends they could rely on. The first one to find out was Kankurou's fanboy, who seemed mostly disappointed that Kankurou really never would become Kazekage. And Hana was the first in Konoha to put it together when she came to the Inuzuka kennels to give the latest litter of puppies their vaccines and found Kiba pressed between the wall and Kankurou with his shirt off and pants open.

It seemed just not a lot of people thought that the Kazekage's brother would ever be dating Inuzuka Kiba. Kiba himself had never really thought it would happen.

Six months later, Kankurou was blubbering like a baby at Temari and Shikamaru's wedding when they shared the sips of sake and their bows. But afterwards, with his paint fixed, he was all smiles even among the Konoha shinobi that he still complained about. Enough that his new brother in law noticed.

"Temari," Shikamaru said. "Is your brother okay?"

Temari automatically looked around to find Gaara. He was standing near Naruto with a glass in his hand and an intense look on his face as Naruto explained something that required a lot of hand gestures.

"He looks fine," she said. "He's not really comfortable in big social functions like this, but I think he's doing okay. Why, what's wrong?"

"Not Gaara. Kankurou. Look at him."

Shikamaru watched his wife - his beautiful wife - scan the crowd to look for Kankurou, and her eyes went wide when she saw that Kankurou had just thrown an arm over Inuzuka Kiba's shoulders and pulled him in close.

"Is he hugging Kiba?"

"Keep watching."

Kiba, in a blue and red kimono that didn't match at all well with Kankurou's purple obi, returned the gesture, wrapping an arm around Kankurou's waist. He said something that was clearly bold and ridiculous by the way Hinata sighed and shook her head, and Kankurou barked his ugly laugh, long and loud.

"I don't hear your brother laugh like that too often."

"Kankurou never laughs as much as when Kiba's visiting."

"Kiba hasn't had anyone in his string of casual girl-and-boyfriends in a few years."

"You don't think . . ."

"Temari, my love, the light of my life, my wind princess, the best thing that has ever happened to me. I think your brother is dating Inuzuka Kiba."