Ch. 9: What should I do?
I looked at the creature on my hand as I walked towards the training grounds. Instead of being the size of my thumb, he was now the size of my very own hand.
"You sure grow fast, Kofura." I said to the dragon, causing him to look up at me.
~What do you mean, Shinju-sama?~
"Before you were the size of my thumb, now you are the size of my hand. How can you grow so fast?"
~That's how we dragons are. We grow fast and live long too! You can call it jackpot!!~ He tried to smile, but the only result he got was showing his teeth.
For every answer I got, more questions came, but right now I didn't felt like talking, so I just walked on with Neji and Guy-sensei in silence.
~~~
I was panting heavily. Neji sure was a tough opponent, he keeps one on the toes all the time.
"Shinju?" he said and straightened up from his pose.
"Yes?" I breath out.
"Why is it that your own sensei can't train you?"
"I have been," Inhale. "Assigned to the Chunin," Exhale and inhale. "Exam this year and," Small exhale. "Daiki Sensei is training one of," Small inhale. "My other team-mates."
"The Chunin Exam?" He quickened an eyebrow. "I see." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, deep in thoughts.
We stood there for a while when I heard a voice on my left.
"Shinju."
I looked in the direction and saw Shino with the rest of his team.
"Shino? Weren't you on a mission?" I asked and straightened my stand.
"It was only D-rank missions." Shino answered and tilted his head to the left to tell he was okay. A silent communication he and I had developed when we were younger. Not that he could have get seriously injured during D-rank mission, but it was always good to know he was okay, physically and mentally.
"Yeah, it was no biggie. We have handled tougher missions than them." said Kiba and placed his hands behind his head.
"We brought lunch." said Hinata while showing a basket she held in her hands.
"Let's take a break." said Neji and walked toward the center of the field.
"Right." I said as the rest of us followed Neji's example.
Guy-sensei ran past me. He said that while Neji and I were training, he will run 500 laps around the village. I stopped counting at 236.
"What time is it?" I asked Neji.
"It's half past noon. Why?"
"Just curious." It's already this late? Times fly by.
I sat down on the ground, still panting. Shino and the others went to my side and sat on the ground as well. Akamaru licked me on the face like he always did. I patted him and toke a bite on the apple I received.
"You seem to have trained hard, Shinju." Shino commented while accepting a package from Hinata.
"Yes, Neji-san keeps one on the toes." I took another bite. Kofura appeared out of nowhere and start eating my apple. I shoved him away and he looked at me like nothing has happened.
"Eat your own apple." I said to him.
~Shinju-sama, I'm hungry!~
"Like I said, eat your own apple."
~Fine.~ He disappeared in the woods again.
Guy-sensei ran past us again, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Neji and I wasn't training and that Shino's team had arrived. He quickly (and I mean real quickly) went to our side and looked at us like we were mad or something.
"Why aren't you training?! I thought we had a deal! A man never leaves his promise, even if it's kills him!!"
"Sorry, Guy-sensei, but Shinju needed some rest and these guys here came with lunch for us, so we just couldn't ignore there offer." said Neji.
"They brought you lunch?" he asked in disbelief. "Well, that's what I call youthful!"
Is he always like that? I deadpanned, but only Shino noticed, I guess.
"Guy-sensei." said Neji and stood up. "We got a mission to handle, remember?" He eyed the energetic jonin with an inpatient stare, as if he wanted to finish the matter of hand as quickly as possible.
"Right! Let's go!!" And with that, he ran off. Neji raised his arm and was about to say something, but instead he sighed and turned his attention to me.
"Shinju, you have to train with some others while we are gone. We probably first back tomorrow evening or so."
"Got it. Good luck." I nodded as a sign of approval.
He just humphed and ran off to catch up with Guy-sensei. Shino rise and turned his attention to me.
"Shinju, Hinata and I are going for a mission. I will first be back home late at night." I could hear he was worried about me.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." I said, trying to calm him down. He sure was one of a brother, don't even think I can handle myself in one day. Not that it bothered me that much, I was really touched by it, but I'm no little girl anymore. He has to grow up.
"If you need someone to train with you, you can ask Kiba. Bye." he said and walked off.
"I'd better go too. Bye, Shinju-chan." said Hinata and catch up to Shino.
Hinata's POV
I walked up to Shino-kun. I looked back at Shinju-chan and Kiba-kun and back again.
"Shino-kun, why did you lied about the mission? We are not going out on any mission."
"I know." Shino responded, never waving from his composure.
"Then why did you lied?" I asked confused. Shino-kun never lied unless-
"Shinju got an interest in Kiba. And it seems Kiba got an interest in her too."
-he meant it was an important matter like this.
"I knew that Kiba-kun had an interest in Shinju-chan, but how did you know that Shinju-chan got an interest in Kiba-kun?" I questioned further. Whenever I looked at Shinju-chan, I didn't saw any sign, only a small blush she might have received from training so hard.
"She is blushing every-time he smiles."
So she was blushing because of that? "Really? I didn't noticed. Well, since we're not going on any missions, what are you saying to get some ramen?" I blushed by the thought of maybe meeting Naruto-kun.
"Sure." replied Shino-kun.
Kiba's POV
I looked at Shino and trying to remember when he and Hinata had gotten a mission. Since I couldn't remember, I just shrugged it off and ate some more fruits. After Shinju and I finished the basket, I rise and placed my hands on my hips with a smirk playing at my lips.
"So, should we start training?" I asked Shinju. She only nodded in response and got up from the ground. I took the basket and placed it on a stumb. I went back to where Shinju stood and readied myself for battle.
Shinju's POV
Kiba stood in fighting position and waited for me to make a move. I looked up in the sky and wondered what I should do. One of my beetles had overheard Shino and Hinata's conversation and just the thought of Kiba liked me made me nervous. What should I do?
~~~
Kiba charged against me, but I just dodged him and pulled out a kunai. He turned around quickly and took a kunai too. We fought with the kunai's for some time when Akamaru was about to attack me. I bowed my knees which caused Akamaru to jump over me.
Kiba was now on all four legs, looking like a wild animal. I could feel his chakra had increased. His fingernails had grown to claw-like length and his pupils had become more slits-like.
He charged against me again and I couldn't dodge in time, he was moving too fast. I looked down on my right arm were he had scratched me and saw four scars with a little blood trail from them. It wasn't too serious, just a little scratch, nothing I could die of.
Kiba attacked me again. I wasn't capable of dodging or make a counter attack, he was moving too fast for my reaction to kick in.
I screamed as Kiba attacked me again and fell to the ground. It hurt on my butt where I landed.
"Kiba?" I asked and he stopped in his trials.
"Yeah, what is it?" he answered and straightened up.
"Can't we quit for now? I had a long day and all." I pleaded in a monotone voice. Yeah, not much pleading when you sound monotone, but you get the idea.
"Sure!" he smiled. He knelled down by my side and started wrapping my arms and legs in bandages from his weapon pouch there contested of a small aid-bag inside, mind you. The cuts may not be that deep, but there could come infections. After finishing that, Kiba rise up and gestured his hand to me. I accepted his hand and got pulled up. For being the ballerina I am, (Note: Sarcasm...) I tripped, and how I did that, I don't know. But since Kiba still had his hand in mine, I dragged him down with me. I blushed madly by the position we were in. He landed on top of me, with one hand by the side of my head, his face only a mére inch from mine. He had a leg in between mine and his other hand was still in mine. I had my free hand on his hip, to make sure he didn't crushed down on me too hard. I could feel his hot breath on my face.
"You can get off now, Kiba." I whispered after some time in silence. I was afraid of loosen my voice if I spoke any louder.
"I don't want to." said Kiba, which only caused me to blush deeper.
He got really beautiful eyes... Argh, what am I thinking? I got to do something about this!
My thoughts were stopped by Kiba lips on mine. My whole brain got shut down just by that contact. Soon I melted into the kiss and moved my hand from his hip up to his hair. He had his headband on, so I tossed it off and continued kissing.
"Alright, that's enough, love birds." said a voice on my right. We both stopped what we were doing and looked up to see a brown haired woman with red marks on her cheeks, the same marks Kiba has.
"Hana, what are you doing here?!" said Kiba and quickly got off me. I sat up, looking at the woman in curiosity. Along with her were three dogs with gray fur with white underneath.
"Mom told me to pick you up. She needs your help at home." the woman told Kiba with a tilt of her head to show what she meant was the direction of their home.
"Argh, fine." growled Kiba and followed the woman as she walked away.
"Let's go, Akamaru." Akamaru first said goodbye to me by licking me and then he followed his owner.
Me? I was left alone in the dirt and Kiba didn't even waved or looked back.
Maybe he doesn't like me after all. Why should he? I'm creepy and annoying. He probably hate me. But why did he kissed you then? Oh, shut up, positive me, right now isn't the time. But just think about it. He could have got off you when he landed on you, but he didn't. I said, shut up!
Kiba appeared in view again and ran to were his headband lay and picked it up.
"I forgot my headband." he smiled and kissed me on the cheek before running off again. "Bye!" He waved and disappeared in the woods again.
Maybe he does like me after all... See, I told you! Didn't I told you to shut up?
I sat there for a while, fighting with my thoughts. After what seemed like forever, I stood up, dusted the dirt off me and headed home. On the way, I saw Wakana and her team, Haru and Yoshi, also known as my old friends.
"Shinju!" yelled Wakana as she saw me and ran to my side. Haru and Yoshi walked slowly behind her small trail of dust.
"Shinju, what happened to you?" she said as she saw the bandages on my arms and legs.
"I've been training." I responded.
"Sure you got tough training then, since you already wearing bandages." says Haru, as he and Yoshi had caught up to us. "I don't think I wanna know what you'll look like in next week, if this keeps up."
"It's only small cuts. I'm just wearing bandages to make sure I'm not getting any infections." I explained.
"Who want something to eat?" asked Wakana out of the blue.
"I will!" answered Yoshi with a big smile.
We all walked back to town to find a place to eat.