Bestial

AN: Okay, so I suck, because I’ve had the beta’d chapter for approximately a week and I haven’t done anything with it…::hangs head in shame:: BUT! It’s not my fault, blame school. Thank every deity ever that this is my last semester. So, due to the fact that I have work and papers and chemistry coming out of my ass, I’m instituting a new update schedule. It’s called: give Iris a week and a half to write, Stem a week to beta, and Iris another couple of days to get off her duff and fix the chapter. But thank you so much for all of your feedback, it’s awesome! Keep it coming! Also, thanks to Stem for being an amazing beta!

AN2: Ziri did an illustration! How awesome is that?! Anyway, the link is available on my profile, and on my LJ (coiled-iris (dot) livejournal (dot) com), and I will also put it here:

http:// www (dot) deviantart (dot) com (slash) view (slash) 28017034/

Check it out because it’s a great pic.

A reminder for those who want to keep the OCs straight (including myself):

Rafu: chakra manipulation master; tried to control Sakura by melding their chakra; evil pervert

Keseranpaseran: one of the Grass nin twins; long (waist-length) dark green, almost black hair, pale blue eyes, tan skin; fought against Sakura using vines

Tenseranpaseran: one of the Grass nin twins; shoulder-length hair with layers in the front;
same coloring as Keseranpaseran; fought against Hinata and had his chakra pathways blocked

Manjushage: leader of the Grass nin team; yellow eyes, pale green skin, deep purple hair (length currently unknown); was manhandled by Kakashi


Disclaimer: I own the crazy pervert and the nins with ridiculously long names. I’m not proud of this. Next time I’m naming them all Bob. Bob 1 and Bob 2, and Bob the Leader.

::Inner Sakura::

block of italics is a flashback

Chapter Ten

After a tediously long and formal discussion with the Grass nins, we discovered that they were after Rafu for killing three young women. These women were all Grass nin—two were highly experienced chuunin, and the other was a specialized jounin. Based on this information, and what Rafu had told me, our combined mental power determined that he had been trying to find a mate. However, when he tried to control them by merging his chakra with theirs as he had done with mine, it had killed them. Witnesses to two of the girls’ deaths reported seeing a blob of chakra, and thought it was some sort of long-range ninjutsu. The other girl—the first of his victims—died without witnesses. It made me shudder; that could have been my fate. I hadn’t realized how close to death I had come.

The most likely reason I survived the chakra merge was because I was stronger, and more powerful than the other girls. Kakashi said as much, confirming my private musings. I am, after all, a jounin—not a specialized one, although I am referred to as a medic-nin, and I know more than enough medical ninjutsu to be classified as such. However I am only termed as one because that is the function that I usually play on and off missions (I’m primarily placed in teams in order to fulfill the medic-nin requirement). My skills in other ninja areas—genjutsu, taijutsu, non-medical ninjutsu—is more than good enough to qualify my status as a jounin. And I admit that I may lack the preternaturally immense chakra reserves of Naruto, but my control is phenomenal, and my stamina is above average. Combine that with my amazing memorization capabilities and you have the makings of a strong ninja—and a well-rounded jounin. That is what theoretically (and in all probability did) save me from death.

Nobody in Grass is able to tell if someone has matured; their powers are all plant- and earth-based, with some water in the mixture. They lack the keen sense of smell Shino and other have that allows them to detect a change in scent, and while they are very much in tune with the chakra system of a plant (how else would they control the plant and make it grow so quickly from nothing?), they are not as cognizant of the human chakra system. I think that’s why Rafu decided to go after them first—unclaimed, mature kunoichi with no threat from other potential mates. Even better, it increased the difficulty in determining his motive; they originally thought they were under attack by an enemy of Grass. But then Rafu must have come to the same conclusion—that their kunoichi weren’t strong enough to handle his chakra It was then that he came up with his plan lure someone who could withstand the process—that is to say, someone like me. Rafu, because he also lacks a highly sensitive nose, is unable to determine if he is compatible with that person; unlike Shino, Kiba, Naruto, and Kakashi, he can’t smell the pheromones and realize that he is or isn’t attracted to (or compatible with) them. As Hinata told me, the scent determines the compatibility: if they are attracted to the scent, then they are compatible, otherwise, they are not. So, by trial and error, Rafu eventually found me.

Silence fell after we shared information and digested the conclusions we had come to. The Grass-nins appeared to be deep in thought, their faces blank, their eyes turned inward. Then Manjushage stood up, and facing a tree, began to sway slowly from side to side, his arms held slightly away from his sides. I could hear him hissing, a gentle sibilant “s” that was the product of the tiniest amount of air escaping between his teeth. The hissing slowly changed to a shushing sound, and I felt a breeze slowly intensify, circling around us, whipping Manjushage’s hip-length hair around his body. The leaves on the trees rustled, and under the cover of the soft crackling his “Shhhh” sound traveled up and down in tone, as though he were speaking or singing, but only using one phoneme. His whispering faded away and the breeze stopped circling, and, gathering itself, departed as leisurely as it came. Manjushage then sat, serenely facing us.

“The trees will bear our news to the Shokubutsukage, and he will decide what must be done.”

“Ah,” Kakashi replied. Right, I thought mentally smacking my head, of course. I use trees all the time to communicate. The nonplussed expressions on Kiba and Hinata’s faces, which I’m sure mirrored my own, made me feel better about my confused surprise.

I was impressed—I didn’t know they could actually communicate with plants. Most of us had heard a rumor to that effect, but there were also rumors that some of the more Shark-like Mist-nins ate children, and that Kakashi was homosexual. Well, the former might be true, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Kisame show up gnawing on a human bone. I refused to consider the second.

It’s a pity they come from such a structured and formal culture—I’d love to ask them invasive questions about plant communication—like whether it is used by all Grass-nin or a select few, and if so, was it a bloodline limit or similar to one. I’m sure that more than a handful of the population was related to one another, and consequently bloodline limits may very well be a common gene.

“If you would permit us to do so, we would consider it a privilege to take the first and third watches,” Majushage stood and bowed. First and third? A smart—and diplomatic choice. Although our countries were allies on paper, ninja weren’t inclined to instantaneous trust. By choosing staggered watches, it prevented them from attempting something nefarious while we were sleeping—if anyone actually would be sleeping (since we're suspicious, and all). There were more of us in the Leaf team, so we would have at least two of us with consecutive watches—this showed that they were willing to trust us, thus making it our responsibility to keep the peace.

Kakashi paused, thinking it over, and nodded. I didn’t even see them twitch, but vines and branches grew out of the ground and from the trunks of the surrounding trees, and began twisting at an alarming rate. To my credit, I only flinched a little bit in surprise. Within minutes, there were seven hammock-bed-type concoctions in a circle around the campfire. Spiffy. This was almost as good as going on missions with Yamato and sleeping in a house.

Now there are usually four two-hour watches, but a brief dialogue broke it up into five watches, one for each man, while Hinata and I were ordered to get some rest and restore our chakra. That happened to be one of my hot buttons, unfortunately.

“I’m sorry, are you implying that I am unable to be a fully-functioning member of this team?” My eyebrow twitched and it was only through an iron grip on my self-control that my voice remained level.

“You and Hinata have been using your chakra more than the rest of us, and you know it,” Kakashi said in a disgustingly reasonable tone of voice. “Our job is to ensure that the medic-nins remain healthy enough to heal any and all injuries.”

“And we already informed you that we’ve completed healed all of the villagers and unless you plan on getting injured, we shouldn’t have a reason to use any more chakra, and therefore we don’t need the rest to replenish our stores. No, you think your job is to protect us because of some misguided notion of male sexism. Split it up into six—“

“Seven,” Hinata broke in, looking the most irritated I’ve ever seen her, her arms folded and a mutinous expression on her face.

“Seven,” I corrected myself, “watches.”

Kakashi looked as though he was about to disagree again, so I cut him off.

“If you still feel so strongly about it, give us the first and last watches like you did last night. Then at least we will get an uninterrupted sleep. But don’t coddle us because we’re female. You wouldn’t do that for a male medic-nin.”

He sighed, looking at Hinata and I, identically posed and united under the banner of feminism. I knew that sigh, and I knew victory was at hand, so I remained silent.

“Fine, fine.” Calculations were redone. “Wake Kiba in 70 minutes.”

Everyone retired to their tree-beds, Kiba giving his a suspicious look. I wonder if he expected the vines to strangle him in his sleep. Now that I think about it, they did look a little sinister—particularly if you recalled our harrowing plant-experiences of the last couple of days. Nonetheless, a concealment illusion and a jump later, I was comfortably ensconced in a tree, blending in with my surroundings.

I had a lot of reflecting to do—it was one of my personal reasons for asking for guard duty. Originally I thought I would wash my hands of this whole “maturity” issue and just ignore everyone who came my way, but Rafu and the episode with Kiba proved that I wasn’t able to do that. And my hormones were also saying otherwise. Honestly, when I said I didn’t want to get involved with anyone, I really meant that I didn’t want to get into any emotional entanglements. I just wasn’t ready to look for a long-term relationship. On the other hand, I really didn’t want to go sleeping around with a bunch of guys either. My virginity wasn’t terribly important to me, but I didn’t want to go handing it off to the first guy available.

I’m not tremendously experienced in terms of dating, but I have dated a few guys—one civilian, and a couple of jounin outside my circle of friends to be specific. None had lasted for more than a few months, and I’d never gone past some below-the-belt fondling. I just didn’t have any sort of emotional connection to them, and the lack of one influenced my decision to end the relationship—which was great, because it completely contradicted to my desire to avoid them. The imprint of Sasuke was present here. After he left to join Orochimaru, I never gave up hope that we would find him and drag him back to our side—I wasn’t completely naïve, I realized that it wouldn’t be voluntary on his part. But I was convinced that he would realize that “our love” was too good to be thrown away, and that Konoha was the place to be.

I was wrong. He fought Naruto with the intent to kill, and even turned it on me when I tried to interfere—he knocked me into a wall so hard that I could have broken my back had I not used chakra to cushion myself, and sent a high-level fire jutsu at me along with a few dozen shuriken. I blocked it all with a wall of earth, then inadvertently got sucked into a battle with Kabuto. Meanwhile, Naruto doubled his efforts against Sasuke, realizing that treating him as a friend would no longer work.

We brought Sasuke back to Konoha in chains, sutras, and seals galore. I originally helped work with Shizune, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto, and Kakashi to undo Orochimaru’s damage, but the invective that dripped from Sasuke’s mouth—the hate, the cruelty…I eventually said that I was too personally invested in him and returned to work at the hospital. When all of Orochimaru’s work had been undone, they released Sasuke, but he was under ANBU guard at all times and wasn’t allowed to leave the village. The first thing Sasuke did when he left the room he’d been kept in was to come to me.

That day, I had been outside of my apartment building, returning home after a long day at the hospital. Without any warning, Sasuke threw me against a wall, and told me in the coldest voice imaginable exactly how he felt about me. I was lower than the dirt beneath his shoe, and my love was false, because I had interfered with his plans. He told me I was no better than a whore, panting after the strongest and most attractive man in the village, and that I looked like one in my chuunin outfit. He asked if Naruto had enjoyed my affections. I was trembling and fighting back tears by the time he had finished, and I realized that, although he may not have been this way originally, the path he had chosen had transformed him into the cruel person before me, and I didn’t see a way for him to change his personality anytime soon. I wept for the person he had been, who he could have been, if he hadn’t been such an idiot. Sasuke sneered at me, and said I hadn’t changed, that I was the crybaby he still remembered, and wondered if I was still burdening Kakashi and Naruto with my incompetence.

I snapped under the pressure of his cutting remarks, and punched him in the stomach—I didn’t hold back, either—and sent him flying across the street into a brick wall. Then I informed him that Itachi was dead, and a look of disbelief crossed his face. He whispered Naruto’s name, and I cut him off. Putting my most contemptuous look on my face, my heart breaking inside, I told him that I killed his brother, and walked away. It was true—to some extent. I was on a team with Kakashi, Naruto, and Neji, and it was four against one. If even two of those guys are on your team, you’re guaranteed a win, especially if you have been researching your target for the better part of a month. But I didn’t just sit on my ass, I helped a lot too, and I don’t mean with my healing abilities. It was technically eight against two, because a separate four-man team had been sent out to assassinate Kisame, who was always with Itachi. With Kisame neutralized, it was easier for the four of us to pick him off—although it was still one of the hardest missions I’ve ever completed. With the Gentle Fist Technique, Neji forced Itachi to focus on him, and Naruto joined in with the use of his Kage Bunshins. Kakashi came at Itachi from one side with the Chidori, and Itachi had to dodge. Utilizing the distractions, I readied a jutsu on my fingertips, and, speeding by him, I removed his eyes. One of the boys dealt the killing blow while I emptied my stomach and threw those eyes as far away from me as I could. It sounds like it was easy, but we fought against him for more than three hours.

I knew it was Sasuke’s goal to kill Itachi, his raison d’etre, but I helped take down Itachi because it was my mission objective, and because there was no way that Sasuke would be allowed out of the village in under a year—and I was right. Most of us, including myself, thought it should have been three years with his behavior, but Sasuke passed the chuunin exams and was going on missions within a year, all because he was THE Uchiha. He didn’t speak to me again after I told him the news about Itachi, and for that I am relieved. Gossip labeled him to be colder than Neji at his coldest—icy to the point of rude, with a cruel streak that was rather wide.

Sasuke was my entire reason for being for several years, and in the space of a day he destroyed it. Maybe he was right—over the two and a half years I trained with Tsunade I stopped associating everything with Sasuke, but I never forgot that he was the reason I wanted to become stronger, so I could help Naruto bring him back, so that I wouldn’t be a dead weight to the group. But over those years I became less effusive in my fangirl musings over Sasuke as he wasn’t there for me to scream over. Ino and I grew closer because there wasn’t much to say about Sasuke, except to wonder what he was doing, how he was doing. I was too strong, though, to hang onto the love of a person as brutal as Sasuke. Maybe my love had lessened over the years, or turned in the platonic direction. But it didn’t hurt any less to hear his rejection, his opinion of me.

I’m not afraid to get emotionally involved with someone because I’m afraid they’ll turn out like Sasuke—I know that he was an extreme case. I’m just not interested in falling in love and getting hurt again. And the part about “claiming me” now that I have “matured” sounds so…permanent. I don’t want anything permanent—I’ve hardly dated anyone! I’ve never even gotten to third base! Then again, maybe I could explore my options with the boys? The emotional connection was there—I knew them, and trusted them for the most part (except for Shino and his kikai, had to watch out for those, the nosy jerk). Maybe I should just go with the flow, and get to know them and spend time with them as it comes.

::Resistance is futile.::

That’s for damn sure—I’m young, attractive (if I do say so myself), with intelligent enough to see that there are three sexy, well-built, hot, dashing—you get the idea—boys after me. And it’s not like I’ve been doing a great job of saying “no” anyway. Well, honestly, I think we all know I don’t really want to refuse them—it would just be nice to be asked for my opinion. Although, if one of them politely requested: “Sakura, may I kiss you,” I’d laugh hysterically and walk away. So go with the flow it was, and if they got too fresh or too cocky, I could always punch, er, put them in their place.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

An hour or so later, my guard duty was officially over and it was time to switch places. Leisurely, I stretched, and with a chakra-induced jump, I landed quietly next to Kiba’s bed, reaching to wake him with a tap to the shoulder when I felt something nudge my hip. I nearly shrieked but re-thought that idea when I saw that it was just the large nose of Akamaru, who had apparently been sleeping on the ground next to Kiba’s tree-bed.

“Hey there, cutie,” I crooned to him in a whisper, reaching to scratch behind his ears. “We’ve been neglecting you lately, haven’t we?”

A low chuckle had me looking over my shoulder. Kiba was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching us. He must have gotten hot while I was on watch, because one hand held his vest, dangling between his legs, leaving him only in a sleeveless mesh shirt and pants. And to my utmost delight, moonlight filtered through the trees and lit upon his form, highlighting the defined areas of his muscles.

“Ignore him, he’s shameless,” Kiba said in a low voice as he smoothly rose to his feet and put his vest on, but left it open as if it were an invitation. “He’ll do anything for a scratch behind the ears.” My eyes were riveted to that line of mesh-covered skin exposed by his vest. I wanted to do really, really naughty things to that stripe of skin. Absentmindedly, my fingers withdrew from Akamaru’s head; he gave my hand a lick, then turned and disappeared into the surrounding vegetation. Kiba began to follow him, his movements noiseless, but he paused next to me.

“If you’re not too tired,” he said slowly, “we should talk.” He continued moving forward and I followed him. A few minutes later we were in a different tree, sitting on a branch, with Kiba leaning against the trunk and me with my side to him, legs dangling into the air. He was silent, and I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about—I mean, I had a pretty good idea that it was about yesterday, but I wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. So I kept quiet. The tension began to build, which irritated me, so I turned my head towards him, expecting him to say something. He was just looking at me, assessing me. I wondered what conclusions he was drawing.

“If you’re going to apologize,” I finally said, “don’t. It wasn’t your fault—we should have been watching for traps and we should have brought the headsets—but the fact that you lost control wasn’t your fault. I know that you can’t help what vanilla…and my scent…does to you. I don’t blame you, so don’t worry about it.”

There. I mentally exhaled. That should get any angst-y nonsense out of the way. Besides, I wasn’t sorry it happened at all—I had fun, because I’ve embraced “going with the flow.”

::I bet we would have had more fun if Kakashi hadn’t butted in…the bastard.::

“The next time I tell you to leave, just do it,” he said gruffly. Oh good grief, was that what this was about? Well he can take his stupid orders and shove them up his—

“Otherwise,” he continued, “you may end up with a mate you don’t want. That goes for any of the others too.”

“Huh?” Confusion really isn’t conducive to eloquence.

“Do you even understand what smelling you does to me—to the others?” Kiba exasperatedly whispered.

“Um…it makes you attracted to me?” At least, that’s what I thought it did.

Kiba laughed—but it wasn’t a happy laugh, it was more bitter than anything else. “God, I could kick Hatake’s ass for not telling you—I could kick myself for that matter, but we thought he would take care of it.”

“You know, that seems to be a recurring theme I’m hearing lately,” I commented. Maybe I should have words with Kakashi. But it’s not like he ever tells me (or anyone, for that matter) anything.

“Whenever I get even the slightest whiff of your particular scent, I can identify who you are, what physical condition you’re in, what you were feeling when you passed by that location, who you were with, what you were eating—I get a lot of information from your scent, from anyone’s scent. And once I have your scent in my mind, I will always remember it and be able to identify you by it. It’s called scent marking. When a scent changes due to maturity, the same thing happens—your previous scent entry gets overridden in my mind by the new one.”

“You can really get all of that information from a scent?” I knew he memorized things by smell, and that his particular talents in that area were keen, but that was…well, frankly, I found it slightly invasive.

“Depending on how old the scent is, and how familiar I am with the person or their culture, well, yeah. I can tell you ate ramen last night because I can smell a hint of the broth we used—but all I can tell you about the Grass guys is that they eat a lot of plant food.” He wrinkled his nose at that. Somehow I wasn’t surprised by his disdain for vegetarianism.

“But what does that have to do maturity?”

“When your scent changes, it gives a lot of information—I always known when girls are on their cycle, but when you’ve matured, it registers in my mind as fertile, and the stages of your cycle are either more fertile or less fertile. Before, I would smell it and think, oh, she’s bleeding again. But now, my nose recognizes you as someone who can carry my pups.”

“You mean you can smell me, and you feel that we are a compatible match,” I said, remembering what Hinata told me. Wow, that sounded cold and technical.

“It goes far beyond that,” he chuckled darkly. “You were closer when you said it makes me attracted to you. I recognize you as a possible mother, so I want to make you my mate—my wife. It makes me want to give you pups. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Maybe I was tired, but I was feeling a bit dense. “You want a family? My scent makes you want to settle dow—ah!” That was me being startled as Kiba grabbed me and hauled me into his lap.

“Do you feel it, Sakura?” He breathed into my ear. I closed my eyes and shivered from the warm air of his mouth teasing the short hairs on my neck. Feel what? I shifted and—oh…wait…was that what I think it was?

::Well unless he’s got a scroll in his pocket, I think he’s happy to see us.::

Enlightenment! The whole light bulb-idea-epiphany metaphor? It’s true.

“I want to fuck you,” he kissed my neck, “to mark you as mine,” he nibbled my ear, “to give you children,” he unzipped my vest and cupped a breast, teasing my nipple with his thumb, “to claim you so that nobody else can have you,” he picked me up and moved me so that I was straddling him, and raised my shirt and bandeau up, “and to make it so that you don’t want anyone else ever again.” He flicked a nipple with his tongue and I heard a whimper. I’m fairly certain it came from me, but I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to my surroundings or anything except him at this point.

“Your scent,” he murmured against my breast, “is the most powerful aphrodisiac I’ve ever smelled, more than belladonna, vanilla, or lakshmana. All I can think about when I’m around you is how badly I want you. Two aphrodisiacs were too much for me. That is why I lost control yesterday.” He turned his full attention to my breasts, and I encouraged him, holding his head to my breasts, stroking his back, his arms (which were enfolded around me). He repositioned his hands to my hips and moved them, starting a gyrating motion that I picked up once I realized the benefits of doing so—considering where I was sitting, and the placement of certain parts, the benefits were very, very good.

“And now?” I gasped. I had a question, but it’s not like we needed to stop or anything for him to answer it—answers at a later time would be fine.

“Now what?” he growled at me. I had decided that, as much as I liked what he was doing, I wanted to return the favor, and was pushing off his vest. Remember that open invitation I mentioned earlier? Well now seemed like the time to take him up on it. His vest came off easily, as did the mesh shirt. I paused to admire his chiseled physique.

::I think Christmas came early.::

Yeah, no kidding. I bent down to start at his neck—when in doubt, start at the beginning, that’s what I always say. I lightly bit down on the tendon on the side of his neck, and he growled against my skin and nipped the underside of my breast. That started a chain reaction of events that led to my clothes, except for my underwear, mysteriously disappearing. Something was bothering me at the back of my mind again—oh, that stupid question.

“Did you lose control again?” I tore my mouth away from his to ask before I forgot. I’d hate to interrupt something even more fun to ask this inane question.

He gave me a sinful grin—well, I thought it was sinful, it was certainly giving me some pretty sinful ideas—before capturing my lips in another kiss as one of his hands traveled, skimming down my stomach to—oh! Do that again!

“No,” he said as he moved his lips to my new favorite place in my anatomy—my breasts.

“No?!” I cried. He was going to stop? ! That was unacceptable. After a couple seconds had passed, I became a bit confused as to why he was continuing, but far be it from me to discourage him. His hand was magical, because every time he touched me through my lace underwear I was seeing sparks.

“I haven’t lost control. I’m doing this because I want to,” he clarified, before ripping my underwear off.

“Oh,” I moaned as his index finger circled my clit, then turned the circle into a figure eight as he moved down and traced my opening. He growled into my breast, and the vibrations against my nipple made me violently writhe in his lap, so his free hand moved to cup my ass in order to steady me. My brain felt like it was going to short out as he flicked my clit and lightly stroked it.

Kiba switched breasts—I had one hand in his hair and the other on his upper back, and the sudden influx of attention to my neglected right side made my eyes roll in the back of my head and noises that I didn’t know I could make come out of my throat. One thick finger—God, I loved his hands—slowly slid inside me, and I arched my back and firmly clenched my hand in his hair. The rough texture of his pants rubbed against the inside of my thighs as I squirmed in his lap, heightening the tension I felt coiled inside me. I raked a hand down his back as his thumb flicked my clit and another finger smoothly made its way inside me, stretching and filling me. My body began to shake, and I lost control of my movements as my climax washed over me—my muscles tensing, toes curling, fingers clawing into Kiba’s body, then everything releasing and leaving a tingling in its wake. I slumped onto him and he held me with one arm, gently stroking my clit a few more times, then wrapped his other arm around me.

“Good,” I mumbled into his neck. I could practically taste his smirk. However, his, ahem, “problem” was making itself known under me. I ran a hand down his chest toward his pants—I have absolutely no problem with giving. To give is to receive, you know—and it’s not like I’ve never seen a penis before, I’m the one with medical training, after all. I’ve seen a lot of naked people. And I admit it, I’m curious about what he’s hiding under there. But Kiba placed his hand on mine, stopping me. I leaned back and looked at him—not especially embarrassed about being nude, he’s already seen nearly everything.

“That was for you,” he said.

“So generous,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Consider it payment of a debt,” he said, leaning in to graze his lips against mine. “From yesterday.”

Ohhhhh, that debt—the impending orgasm that Kakashi so rudely disrupted. Well, far be it from me to complain.

“I want my clothes,” I pointed to the ground where I could see my pants.

“But you look so good this way,” he grinned at me, and ducking my swat, shifted me off of his lap and leapt down to retrieve my clothing. After I was covered—minus the underwear, which Kiba swore he couldn’t find (I didn’t believe him, but that it didn’t matter, since they were ripped anyway)—I felt a bit awkward. I wasn’t sure what to say or do or if this meant anything to him or the claiming process.

“Um…this…eeehhh…” I said. Eloquence is just not happening tonight. “You didn’t claim me, did you?” I blurted out.

“No,” he looked a little confused, which was really rather adorable. “Did you want me to?”

“Well…no…but what happens during it?” Finally, my sex questions get to be answered!

“There’s a short period of dating,” he slyly smiled. “The more old-fashioned clans call it courting, others,” his smile deepened, “call it persuading.” Gee, I wonder which he was.

“And that’s what you’re doing now.” Call me Queen of the Obvious.

“Yes.”

“To make me see that you’re the best choice for me.”

“Of course,” he winked at me. “Then there’s the claiming, followed by the marking, and if the claimed one wants it, a formal wedding ceremony.”

“So…the claiming…does it involve sex?”

“It can, but it doesn’t have to. Usually the matured person is given proof of the other person’s protection and power. Think of it as handfasting, or an engagement. I would give you a nin-dog—well, I would let a nin-dog choose you.”

“Ah.” Elucidation, at last…and it was almost anti-climatic. I thought the claiming was going to be hot, steamy sex.

::Dammit.::

Oh no, what if that means I have to become a bug-person like Shino? I refuse! No bugs, ever. Especially not under my skin—or in my hair?!

::NOT THE HAIR! Never, ever, under any circumstances! I’ll kill him first! I’ll commit seppuku on the grounds that our ancestors would disown me if we became bug-people! I’D disown you if we became bug-people.::

I felt a minor panic attack coming on, but forced myself to calm down.

“The marking?” I got out.

“It depends on the person—it’s usually a bite, at least that’s how my clan does it since we have these,” he gestured to his fangs. “Break the skin, imbue it with a little chakra so it scars—like a seal, but benign.” I had this awful image of Orochimaru marking Sasuke, and decided I didn’t even want to explore that path of thought.

“Are you sure it’s benign?” Seals are a serious business.

“It’s only a little bit of chakra—just a scratch that is scabbed over with chakra.” It sounded awfully iffy to me.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Foreign chakra entering the body that isn’t wielded by a medic or someone who knows what they’re doing tends to burn—a little if they have a friendly intent, a lot if they’re trying to kill you.

His fiendish grin returned. “You’ll be distracted by that time, you won’t notice it at all.”

“That’s what you think,” I muttered. He stepped close to me and nuzzled my neck.

“I know it,” he said, biting gently on my neck. I laughed and hit his arm lightly.

“Quit fooling around, the other will wake up,” I whispered, hoping nobody had heard my laugh. Then a thought struck me. “Do I have to be a virgin? I mean, are only matured virgins…appealing?

“Planning on losing yours?” he asked, then dodged my hand. “No, it’s not necessary, otherwise nobody would have a mate, ever,” he laughed. Well, that explains Ino—I knew she wasn’t a virgin, so I’d been surprised that she’d been claimed. Speaking of, I’ve got a bone to pick with her, running off, mission or not, is just not right when your girlfriend is in dire need of your assistance.

“Though I can’t say,” he said, his voice deepening to that growl I love so much, “that it doesn’t turn me on.” He gave me a soft kiss that had me sighing in pleasure, then released me.

“You are such a guy,” I groaned, then hopped down from the branch. “Good night, Kiba,” I called back softly.

“Good night, Sakura.”

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

So Kiba has made his move! Does Kakashi know? What does he have to say? What will the Shokubutsukage order the Grass-nins to do? Will the team return to Konoha soon? Find out in the next chapter!

End notes: Plants listed really have been regarded in the past as aphrodisiacs. Used this page as a reference: http:// www (dot) goddessherself (dot) com (/) plant (dot) htm

AN: As always, please leave a review on your way out!