Four

"They decided to promote me. It was close, but I…" Kankuro stopped and looked over.

Kiba was asleep and had started to snore.

"What the hell?" Kankuro muttered. He shook his head. "No more bedtime stories for you. You Leaf have no stamina at all."

He got out of the bed and went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Rather than rummage around for a glass he turned the tap on and stuck his mouth under it. When he straightened up, he realized that Akamaru was in the kitchen with him.

"Hey mutt." He pointed at Akamaru's bowls. "You need anything topped up?"

The nin-dog shook his head. He left the kitchen and went to check on Kiba. His master was curled up in bed, sound asleep with a contented look on his face. Akamaru tugged a sheet over him with his teeth and then went into the living room. Kankuro was there, picking up his clothes and straightening furniture.

"What?" he said finally, the mutt was staring at him. "Hey, he started it." Kankuro regarded the nin-dog. "I guess he really doesn't need to have that door secured, not with you around to watch his back."

He flipped the couch upright and shifted it back into place. He picked something up off the floor. It was the scarf Kiba had used to tie his wrists; it was very soft and smelled faintly of a feminine perfume. Kankuro ran it through his hands, thinking about the story he had told.

"That story did get published, you know. Jiraiya-sama dedicated it 'to the artist with the audacious smile.' I can't believe that Naruto…he never…" Kankuro stopped and gasped.

Something like a soft breeze wafted over him, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up and his spine tingle. It caressed his stomach and flowed between his legs. There was nothing there, but it felt like he was being stroked by a pair of sure hands. Kankuro gasped, his hips twitched in reflex, pushing him against whatever it was. He was getting hard, despite the strangeness of the situation. The soft touch travelled over his ass, his lower back, and then was gone.

Kankuro looked down; Akamaru was standing beside him growling softly. His fur was all standing on end.

"So you felt it too? What the hell was that?"

Akamaru shook himself, he was not sure, but whatever it had been, it was gone. He scented the air but detected nothing out of the ordinary.

"So?"

Akamaru shook his head.

"Damn weird."

Kankuro made a mental note to have a look at the incident reports filed by the shinobi on evening patrol. He was sure that he could bully Shikamaru into getting them for him even though he was not really supposed to see them.

He looked down at the scarf in his hands and then at the bedroom door. Akamaru made a low sound of disapproval; he did not like the expression spreading across Kankuro's face.

"Hey, it's his own fault for falling asleep on me. It'll keep those damn claws off my ass." His grin got wider. "And he'll look splendid like that, mutt, just splendid. You might want to stay in here though, there's going to be some more howling. A lot of howling actually."

END

Gonna miss ya Ero-sennin, jaan.