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The Dog's Blossom By Alden ------------------

Kiba nodded, grinning at the people standing in front of him. This had been a GREAT idea! A dog training class where the teacher could communicate with the dogs! And consequently could probably tell them what to do too. Even if they didn't understand human language, Akamaru could translate.

Hm... He quirked his eyebrow, then started walking around the field. He'd already given the first lesson, and now was twhen they tried it out. He wasn't quite sure how this worked, considering his sister usually taught the class, but-

"Kiba! Kiba!"

But she'd made sure to tell him everything he needed to say, and how to help people with their problems-

"KIBA!"

And even-

"Kiba!!"

"What, Akamaru? I'm TRYING to think!" Kiba growled at his companion, crouching down to look him in the eyes. Akamaru waas too big for the hood now, and Kiba was too big for the jacket. At fifteen, he was a popular chuunin. The green was a nicer shade, anyways-

"Don't you know that girl? The one with Shinka?"

Kiba groaned, and looked where Akamaru pointed with his paw. Unfortunately, crouching over was bad for surprised people, because he fell over. He got up quickly, and looked for a better look.

Chinese dress, big smile, a killer figure, a high hairline... And fabulous, cherry-blossom-coloured hair that fit her poetic name perfectly. He tried it out, after maybe a year of not seeing her and having no reason to use it.

"Sa... Sakura?" Kiba made his way over, through the small group to his fellow fifteen year old chuunin. She'd been sorta cute a few years ago, but now... she was a knockout!

"Huh... Kiba!?" Sakura grinned, standing fully, waving and walking closer. "You're here too?"

Don't look there, don't look there, don't- Kiba struggled to raise his eyes to her face. Come onnnnnn...

There! Right into her clear, shiny... angry...eyes.

"PERVERT!" She said, smashing his head on the ground as women tended to do in Konoha. After, of course, there was a (small) apology as she helped him up.

"You deserved THAT one, Kiba!" Akamaru barked playfully, tugging at his sleeve. Kiba waved him off, muttering, then looked up into Sakura's green eyes.

"So... You go to my sister's classes?" He attempted a smile.

"Yeah... Shinka here really needs discipline!" Sakura kneeled and rubbed her dog on the head. The dog's fur was white, long and silky, and her tail wagged furiously.

"I do not..." Shinka muttered, grinning any happy dog would. Of course, Sakura didn't understand her dog's playful barking, but got the message the same way anyways.

"Anyways, she always listen's to Inuzuka-san. Is it true you can understand dogs?" Sakura looked really interested, smiling and leaning forwards to look into Kiba's eyes - And Kiba managed to keep his own locked with hers (which wasn't hard, because her eyes were captivating). She smiled wider, reached her hand over and ruffled his hair. He waved her hand away.

"What was that?" He asked, snorting. "I'm same age as you are."

"I know... But you have the best hair I know! Any girl I know.. INO would KILL for your hair! How do you..."

Kiba had decided to grow his hair out, like a lot of his family did. "Inuzuka gorgeous gene, I guess," he laughed, shrugging.

"Well it's awesome! My hair... it's going limp, because Konoha doesn't have any good shampoo..." Sakura twisted a strand of it around her finger.

"Yeah, it does!" Kiba said, grinning.

"Let me guess, dog shampoo? Don't tell me you're serious?" At Kiba's nod, Sakura laughed out loud. "Well, Kiba... You're full of surprises..."

Then, a bell sounded. Akamaru was across the field, a heavy rope in his teeth, and he was pulling hard. CLANG! CLANG!

"Class over! You guys can go!" Kiba waved everyone off. "Hey... Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"You... wanna have lunch?"

Sakura smiled and sighed. "Sure, Kiba... Can I trust you to go straight home, Shinka-chan?"

"Akamaru will watch her, won't ya, boy?" Kiba ruffled Akamaru's head, and the two dogs wandered off.

The two sat, looking at eachother across a table.

"I'll have the Beef sandwich, and you, Sakura?" Kiba asked, grinning.

"Ehh... Ummm... I think I'll have the ramen..." Sakura said, grinning awkwardly. "I mean.. it's the only breadless item,and I... have a problem with bread..."

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked as the waitress walked off.

"Well... I sort of had a bad incident when I was little, where I almost choked to death on a piece of dry bread my mother gave me.... I needed CPR..."

"Ehhhh.... So, Sakura... how's everything? Naruto, Ino..." Kiba saud hurriedly, determined to get away from that unpleasent subject."

"Ino's good. She doesn't work much in the shop anymore, but she's content. Naruto... I never expected him to reach Jounin at 15! He's... really great, Kiba. He's been with me, through this whole thing. Ever since, you know... he left. Ever since then, Naruto's been there. We moved in together, you know... Last spring. He's... like a brother to me, Kiba."

Kiba smiled and nodded. "It's been hard, hasn't it? First that weird Chuunin Exam war, then Tsuna- I mean, Godaime-sama became Hokage, then the war with Orochimaru. And all with that... that damn... I mean-"

Sakura only sighed. "It's okay. You can call Sasuke 'that damn bastard' or whatever. I'm okay, now. He's dead, it's all over, and I've moved on... But, you never really did heal from that, did you?"

"It's hard to heal from someone attaching themselves to your body, isn't it? And that stab wound... The scar's still there..." Kiba opened his Chuunin vest and pulled up his shirt. Sakura leaned in to take a look at the scar, and Kiba's face flushed.

'Don'tlookdon'tlookdon't-'

She reached out and touched the scar with her finger. "Ouch, that looks painful.... It's a good thing you survived." She pulled back, and his face returned to it's normal colour.

'Phew...' He thought, and took a hearty bite of his sandwich.

"So, I hear you and Hinata were quite the couple..." Sakura said, smiling.

"Were being the operative word...." Kiba frowned. 'Damn Naruto... Wait...'

"That means, you and Naruto aren't..."

"No, not really. As I said, he's like a brother to me. Not much else, really... He's got Hinata, right..." Sakura smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Sakura!" He blurted out. "Willyoudinnermetomorrownight!?"

"Hm?" Sakura looked up at Kiba.

"Errrr... I mean... Would you want dnner... tomorrow night... I won't burn down the apartment, I swear..."

Sakura leaned across the table, and kissed Kiba's forehead. "Kiba... I'd love to."

Then, she stood up, and walked away. Kiba smiled, sat back and closed his eyes, imagining-

"Sir? Your bill?"

- End -