Rainy Night

sooty99- well glad you like it and this is the second to last chapter.

KingCobra- thanks for the review.

Assassins Kiss- I'm like you're trying it and the dog scene was particularly fun to write.

Lynzee- I'm still not sure if I'm going to go in that direction, but I'll keep in mind.

Sneakyfox-Naruto strikes me as someone who will always be innocent to some extent.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Naruto didn’t see Kiba the next day. It was kind of weird since they had been spending so much time together lately, but he only really thought about it once he was getting ready for bed. The following day he kept an eye out for him but, again, didn’t see him. On the third day, he went in for a mission and ran into Kurenai heading the other way limping. Briefly, he debated asking her if she knew where Kiba was, but she looked tired and he didn’t want to bother her.

Before he could resolve his internal debate she turned and smiled tiredly at him. “Is there something I can help you with Naruto?”

“Um, have you...” he stopped himself and thought he should ask about her first “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s just a minor sprain, but thank you for asking.”

“Oh, well that’s good. Is everyone okay?”

She leaned against the wall for support and smiled again. “It was a solo mission.”

He nodded feeling hurt. He had been sort of assuming that Kiba had a mission and that was why he hadn’t seen him around. If Kiba was simply just avoiding him-

“Are you all right?” Kurenai said interrupting his thoughts.

“Yeah, it’s just I haven’t seen any of them around in a while. I thought they had a mission.

“Oh, they do. I just learned about it myself. Apparently some school was having a camping trip when two of their kids wandered off. We received a mission request to help find them and they were the ideal team to send out.”

“That’s good.” Realizing how that sounded he quickly added, “That they’re helping out. Do you know when they’ll be back?”

Kurenai shrugged, “Sometime today or maybe tomorrow. It really depends on how the mission goes.”

Naruto could feel a smile spreading across his face. The knowledge that Kiba wasn’t deliberately avoiding him was a relief. He hadn’t even realized how much that thought had been bothering him up until now. “Thanks, Kurenai sensei.”

“For what?” She questioned.

He winced mentally as his brain tried to cover his mistake. The two of them didn’t exactly spend much time around each other before that mission. As much as he found he enjoyed being around Kiba, he didn’t exactly want to tell everyone about it. Fortunately, something came to him and it wasn’t even technically a complete lie. “He owes me lunch. I haven’t seen him around so I thought he was trying to squirm out of it.”

The Jonin shook her head like adults did. “Why do boys bet with each other?” The question didn’t seem directed at him because she added, “Well you have a good day Naruto.”

“Yeah, you too,” Naruto said over his shoulder as they parted ways. He suddenly had the feeling this was going to be a very good day.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Six hours later, Naruto had decided of all of the D-rank missions he had ever had this was by far the worst. He had gone in hoping for a C-ranked mission, but he really just wanted something to fill Gama-Chan a little more. After being told he couldn’t do a C-ranked mission by himself again, he had asked for the highest paying D-rank without asking what it involved.

As a result of this lack of foresight he had spent most of the day cleaning gutters. It wasn’t just one building’s gutters either. The defensive wall that surrounded the Leaf Village had small lookout towers every thirty feet and each one had gutters to prevent the rain from obstructing the guards view. He had to clean every single one of those gutters and now was working on the Hokage Residence with just a pair of gloves and a bucket.

Well, Naruto thought to himself as he grabbed another clump of what he hoped was just a pile of leaves, at least he was almost done. Then, suddenly he felt a sting of pain as he heard something clatter against the roof tiles. Looking between his legs he saw a small stone. Then he felt another one hit him and glared down at the ground. He was about to shout down at the person when he saw that it was a grinning Kiba.

Suddenly, he found himself grinning back down at the boy. Boyfriend or not he couldn’t just let Kiba get away with that. Grabbing a handful of the decaying stuff, he threw it at the other boy who just managed to dodge it at the last second.

“All right, truce.” Kiba called up raising his hands.

Naruto was reluctant to agree to a truce since he hadn’t hit him yet, but he dropped the gunk back in the pocket. “Truce.”

“I’m coming up,” the other boy shouted.

Naruto didn’t respond and went back to work as Kiba ran up the side of the building. Jumping over the lip of the building, he rolled onto the roof.

“You found the kids?” Naruto ventured.

“You heard about the mission?” Kiba let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t exactly call them kids. They were fifteen and sixteen years old. Their parents are rich and this was some school assignment. The two that got lost left their group so they could make out for a little and couldn’t find their way back. Of course, since they’re both idiots, instead of just staying put they started wandering around. Even after being lost for a few days they weren’t happy when they were found by a bunch of kids who were telling them what to do.”

Naruto grunted in sympathy. He had run into the same thing.

“So did you miss me?” Kiba asked.

He glanced over at the other boy who was cloud gazing with Akamaru resting against his chest. He was tempted to say yes, but he didn’t want to seem weak either. “Sort of.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Naruto went back to work and for once he didn’t feel the need to fill the silence that followed.

“You almost done?”

“Just have to go to the corner,” Naruto said pointing a few feet in front of him. “You want to catch a movie or something?”

“I’d like to, but my mom’s got this thing. You see whenever my sister or I come back from a mission, she kind of likes to have a family night.” Kiba said the last two words like he was embarrassed by them and quickly added, “So I was thinking we could do our usual.”

Our usual, Naruto thought before realizing what he meant. It would just be a quick suck and nothing more. He didn’t like the idea, which was weird because that was pretty much all they had done. Well, except for the last time. Naruto thought back to the theater, in the feeling of their fingers interlaced with each other. He had liked that, now that he thought about it, when they had done stuff later that night it felt different, more complete somehow.

“I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Naruto’s comment brought a silence to the rooftop that was only broken when Kida stood up and walked over to him. “You have plans?”

He looked up at the taller boy, “No, it’s just I don’t want to do that anymore.”

“So you’re breaking our agreement?”

The reference to their agreement set something off in Naruto and he jumped to his feet, which given his natural height and the slant of the roof meant he was still considerably shorter than Kiba. “Yeah, I am not going to just do that anymore.”

“Find, I don’t care,” Kiba snarled.

Before Naruto could say anything the other boy had turned and jumped from the roof. He could see Kiba storm off with his hands buried in his jacket pockets. The other boy didn’t look back once and Naruto kept his eyes on his back until he was out of sight. What the hell was his problem, he thought before going back to work.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

That evening found Naruto in his apartment alone eating instant ramen. He wasn’t one for introspection, but his argument with Kiba had left him in an uncharacteristically bad mood. Konohamaru and his two friends had found that out the hard way when he had ended up yelling at them. His conscience had almost immediately made him feel bad for losing his temper and he knew he would have to find them and apologize tomorrow.

The worst thing was he didn’t even know why he was angry or even if he was angry. He just sort of felt weird. He knew it had something to do with his argument with Kiba, how exactly he didn’t know. Naruto wasn’t exactly sure what they argued about. He was drifting back into his own thoughts, letting the uneaten ramen cool. The knock that brought him out of his thoughts was loud.

“What,” he snapped before remembering that he had to get up and open the door. “I’m coming.”

Flinging the door open, he paused in momentary surprise when he found Kiba staring back at him. An awkward silence followed before Kiba looked down and away. “Can I come in?”

Shrugging, he said, “Sure.” Stepping aside to let the other boy pass, he gently swung the door shut. Kiba kicked off his sandals and made his way to the bedroom. That annoyed him, but it was not like the other boy hadn’t been there before. He followed after and leaned against the wall as Kiba sat on the bed. Another awkward silence followed, but Naruto noticed the lack of something. “Where’s Akamaru?”

“I left him at home. He was already sleeping. He's still a puppy, missions takes a lot out of him.” Kiba perked up, “He likes you, you know. He probably hasn’t forgiven you for farting in his face, but he likes you.”

“Yeah... ” Naruto felt himself start to smile.

“Yeah... ” Kiba said trailing off.

Again, there was an uncomfortable silence again and Naruto blurted out. “I thought you had some family thing.”

Kiba shifted uncomfortably. “I told my mom I had to check up on a friend. Still, she wants me back soon.” There was a second of hesitation and then he added, “Are we friends? I mean did we break up?”

Naruto shrugged not knowing what to say.

“Yeah, I don’t know either. I mean after we argued I thought about it for a while and I’m not sure we were arguing about the same thing.”

“I was kind of confused too.” Naruto didn’t like to admit he was wrong, but with Kiba admitting it, it seemed okay.

Kiba smiled, “I don’t want to break up. I like you Naruto. Do you like me?”

He actually thought for a moment. Kiba and he had played together as kids before they become Genin, but their group had just sort of formed because they had all played together in the same area. A few months ago he guessed that would’ve been enough to make them friends, but then he thought of Sasuke and Sakura. They were friends, real friends even if Sasuke was currently being an idiot.

Then again, Kiba and his relationship had changed recently, too. The memory of the theater and their hands touching came back to him. He had liked that. He wanted more of that. He realized that was what he’d been trying to say earlier. “Yeah, I like you.”

“Do you? Do you like me the way I like you?” Kiba asked.

“Hum?”

Kiba grimaced. “I know you don’t have friends.”

“I do,” Naruto objected.

“Not that you can just hang out with,” Kiba countered.

Naruto conceded the point. Sakura and he talked, but she was busy with her training. All Lee seemed to do was train and Naruto sometime joined him in that, but he doubted they could ever just hang out. The closest thing he had to that was Konohamaru and his two friends.

“So do you like me or were you just doing that stuff with me because you just wanted a friend?” Kiba’s words were not accusatory. He just wanted an answer.

Naruto was starting to suspect that when Kiba said like he wasn’t just meaning like. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

The other boy looked at him and took a deep breath. “I like you. I don’t know maybe I always did. Your … handsome or cute I guess.”

“Cute,” Naruto echoed.

“I like looking at you like I like looking at girls. I want to kiss you and do other things.”

“Is that it?” Naruto demanded.

Kiba managed a fair impression of a scolded Akamaru. “No, but if you want to do that stuff, it is the difference between us being friends and being boyfriends.”

Naruto realized he was being given a choice and the choice wasn’t obvious. On one hand was friendship, something he knew. On the other hand he could have a boyfriend, which was sort of new. There was some part of him that was tugging him in that direction.

“I had a dream where we were doing stuff once.”

“Really!” Kiba said surprised.

“Yeah, but I really liked going to the movies with you. It was different than from when I went alone.”

“Okay,” Kiba said cautiously.

“Could we date, but not do that stuff for a while?”

Naruto wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but Kiba just nodded and said, “So were still dating?”

“Yeah.”

Kiba stood and crossed the room. “Can we kiss?”

Naruto answered by leaning forward until their lips met.

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So there's one more chapter and given my current health situation I don't know when it will be coming out. Until then I highly suggest anyone with even the most minor tolerance of science fiction should check out In the cold of space you find the heat of suns by Mannah Pierce. It's listed under my favorites and although it starts off a little slow I think it's well worth the read. Her one shot Silver Leaf Tales: Tying the knot can give you a bit of a taste of what the stories like when she's in full swing. I highly recommend reading it!