I can't sleep. Again. And you know what that means: it's STORY TIME!! I don't have a plot for this. And I also have no idea where this might lead to. I'm still not very sure about the pairing, also not so sure of the rating. Oh well, good luck to me. LOL

NARUTO © Masashi Kishimoto

Puppy Love

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KibaSaku

Chapter 1 – Arms Open

"What?!" A huffing Sakura nearly kicked her front door open. "What the hell do you want?!"

Standing with his mouth agape at the scene before him, Kiba clutched his sling bag's strap tighter, as if his life depended on it. Now he knew that knocking on Sakura's door at 5am was not a very smart move.

"W-well… Good morning, Sakura-chan!" he tried to dissipate the fuming girl's anger by greeting her. "How are you doing?"

Sakura almost tore her front door off its hinges.

"Look, mutt," she spat the nickname. "I don't have time for this. You know I've been working almost 40 hours straight at the hospital and I—hey," she stopped. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

She looked down and saw her pajama top wasn't buttoned up. She immediately crossed her arms across her chest and glared at the dog-nin.

"N-no, Sakura! I wasn't…!"

"You…you pervert!" and she slammed the door shut to his face. Making sure that her top was done, she stomped her way back to her bedroom. Not so long after, she could hear faint knocks at her door again.

This time she really kicked the door open and got herself ready to pummel him to the ground, but was harshly interrupted when a piece of paper was shoved right into her face. Furious emerald eyes scanned the material quickly, and, without further ado, shifted her murderous gaze on the dog-nin.

"What's the meaning of this?!" She barked at him. "How…how could she?!"

"S-Sakura...I'm really sorry! But, you see, I have a mission at seven so…I was wondering if I could lea—"

"No!" The pink-haired medic-nin growled. "I have no time for this! You know too well that I have work at the hospital later at nine!"

"But…" Kiba pulled his jacket collar nervously as he chose his words carefully. "You see…Hokage-sama has—"

"Bullshit." Sakura muttered. "Don't you have your own clan to take care of that?!" She pointed accusingly at the small white ball behind the dog-nin's back.

"Well, there's something behind this but…" Kiba removed his trembling hands from his collar down to his pocket. "I don't know what this is for, actually." He looked at her nervously.

"You have less than five minutes to explain everything to me, Inuzuka."

Kiba swallowed the lump in his throat. He hadn't expected to encounter her like this. Well, it was his fault, after all. He was told to bring the puppy to her the day before, but because of Choji, the errand had slipped from his mind. It was the first time he got nervous in a while.

"Look," Sakura interrupted his thoughts. "If you think I'm going to take this stupid joke seriously, you're wrong. I worked overtime yesterday and just got home three hours ago. Now if you're just going to stand there and gape like a dead fish, please excuse me—"

"Wait! This isn't a joke, I swear!" He waved his sweaty hands in the air defensively. "I…got this order from the clan and the Hokage."

"…and? And what?" she sneered.

"Well…"

"You know I'm a medic, don't you?" She asked. "You know what medics are for, right? You know how they work, and how often they are needed at hospitals, right?"

"I do," Kiba replied. "But—"

"Well, don't just stand there!" Sakura yelled. "Now you have less than two minutes to explain everything to me! I'm so goddamned tired, and I still need to replenish my chakra for later!"

Kiba sighed as he collected himself and told her everything. He just got back from a short mission somewhere on the outskirts of Konoha when he was pulled out of his team for an emergency clan meeting. He came already late, so he hadn't heard everything they've discussed. He was then sent to the Hokage for a briefing, but because the Hokage was busy with her…uhh, paperwork, he was only asked to deliver a small white puppy to Haruno Sakura. When he asked her what it was for, he was told that it really didn't matter. So he set his foot out of the Hokage tower to Sakura's home, but was invited over by Choji for a quick snack…

…which ended up in a drinking session with Shikamaru, Naruto, Lee, and the rest of the Rookie Nine. He thought he'd see Sakura around, but she was busy working at the hospital that time. He got too engrossed with the get-together that he forgot about the errand.

It was 4:30 when he came back to his senses. He had slept on his seat at Ichiraku, and was greeted by his teammates who were still out in the cold. Good thing he didn't drink too much; he wasn't a heavy drinker, anyway. When he saw the sleeping puppy on his right, everything came back in a blur. He grabbed the puppy and immediately ran off to Sakura's home.

And here he was, facing the very pissed-off medic-nin he had so inconsiderately woken up before the sun could even rise. When she bellowed at him for being such an ass, he thought he saw his life flash before his eyes. The thought that kunoichi, a medic-nin at this scenario, could be so scary like this never crossed his mind. He woke her up at five, she got furious. How much more if he did something worse?

He thought he'd die. He seriously did. This was one of the many times he regretted not having brought Akamaru over for company.

'It's too late, now.' He miserably sighed.

Sakura stared at him for the longest time. "You mean, your clan is asking me to take care of this dog for the meantime? What the fuck?! If only you hadn't arrived late we would've known the details!"

"I'm terribly sorry!" Kiba cowered. He hated this. How could such a very feminine kunoichi like her scare him so much? "My father, the clan alpha, and the Hokage told me that it has to be you."

Sakura's eyebrows relaxed and her expression softened, but still irritated. "Fine. Just…just give him to me. I'll see what I can do."

Kiba handed her the puppy, which Sakura took carefully.

"How long will I have to take care of him?"

"Until he becomes like Akamaru," Kiba replied, like it was the obvious thing in the world.

"What?!" She shrieked."Are you for real?! Why me?"

"Please, just take care of him in the meantime. He's a ninja dog, if you don't mind knowing. He's…a relative of Akamaru's." He replied. "I don't know why they chose you, though. It's the first time I was ever called to do something like this. Usually, when Akamaru or his siblings have their pups, our cousins take care of them. I really don't know what they've talked about yesterday, but they seemed to be in a hurry."

Sakura raised one pink brow. "In a hurry?"

"Yeah," Kiba scratched the back of his head. "And they're serious about this. I mean, they never did anything like this before, not until now."

"Alright, then." Sakura huffed. "I guess I should take this seriously, too. But don't ever think that I'm willing to play this mutt-sit shit for you and your clan. I cannot believe the Hokage agreed to something as ridiculous as this." She stared at the puppy.

'But…now that I think about it, he's pretty cute. And I guess he won't bite eith—'

As soon as she said that, the puppy already started nibbling on her finger. She yelped and accidentally slipped the puppy from her hands. "Wh…what?!"

Kiba immediately shot an arm forward to catch the puppy, and the other to wrap around Sakura's wrist.

"Sorry about that," the dog-nin muttered. He looked at her fingers, and then to her face. "Are you alright?"

"…"

"I'm so sorry!" The dog-nin bowed his head, unintentionally tightening his grip on Sakura's hand, which made the girl wince. He released her from his grip and continued bowing down.

"It's…It's alright! I-I'm okay…sheesh…" Sakura stammered. "I'm a medic…s-so this is no big deal…" She was inwardly thankful that it was still dark. If not for that, the dog-nin would've seen the blush creeping up her face. She was still about to say something when the puppy struggled from her grasp and went to face Kiba.

"Eh?"

The puppy fixed his eyes on Kiba's face, as if memorizing it. He locked his gaze on Kiba's eyes, and did the unexpected—he barked so loud that the dog-nin had to cover his ears.

"What…what the hell?!" Kiba yelled. Moments later, after the barking had ended, his body suddenly tensed, and went numb. His legs weakened and gave up, and his vision became blurry. He collapsed to the ground with his eyes wide open.

"Ki…Kiba!" Sakura immediately rushed to him. She checked his pulse and breathing. She sighed in relief as she concluded that he was drunk, since she caught a faint smell of alcohol in his breath. She was about to pick him up when he stood by himself all of a sudden. He dusted his clothes off and smiled at her.

"I'm okay. Thank you, Sakura-san." And he vanished into thin air.

The pink-haired medic was left alone at her doorstep, still kneeling to the ground while staring at the spot where Kiba had collapsed to. Her eyes were still wide at what happened.

"What…what the hell was that all about?"

She stood up from her kneeling position and went to see the puppy. What she saw had surprised her as well—the puppy was lying unconscious to the ground. She picked the poor puppy up and checked its vitals. When she was sure that everything was perfectly fine with it, she went back inside her house with a puzzled look.

Okay…I've shortened my limit. From the usual 7 pages, it's now 4 pages per chapter. Ahh...reviews are much appreciated, people!