Title: Impermanence

Rated: K+

Song: I Need You by Leann Rimes

Warnings: Rated for language. Contains NaruHina, ShinoHana, ShikaIno (sorta... i't snot really visible, but it's there nonetheless). And, of course, KibaSaku!

Enjoy!

Her husband was dead.

The news had come from Naruto himself, so there really was no doubt. The Hokage did not lie, especially not to his advisors. Sakura had ignored the pitying looks from Shikamaru, the conerned side glances from Ino, the silent offers to join Hinata in tears or to visit with Shino over a cup of tea. She didn't have time to mourn, not truly.

Kiba was dead, and that left Inuzuka Sakura as Alpha, head of the clan. She had a lot of work to do; without Tsume and Hana at her back it would have been impossible. There was a funeral to arrange and attend, despite the fact that they didn't have the body, and she needed to stand strong for the clan that had become her family. So she was strong, and she lead them. She only cried at night, and for some reason that was only ever without tears. Tsume cried while she was making dinner, but ony if it was one of Kiba's favorites. Hinata cried in her husband's office when she saw that Sakura still wore her wedding ring, and while walking past Shino she saw him reach under his glasses to press fingertips to his own eyes when Sakura refused to stop painting the red triangles on her face every morning as tradition dictated. Hana didn't seem to cry at all, much to Shino's silent concern.

Months passed quickly, weeks were drawn out, and days were interminably long. Sakura wasn't sure how that worked, exactly, but it was what it was and she had long since accepted it as truth. As head of the Inuzuka Clan, there were a number of things Sakura had to accept at face-value. Going to bed alone was by far the worst, but she did it every night without complaint.

She was kneeling with her back to Kakashi, imprinting her fingertips with her husband's named where it was carved into the memorial stone when she felt the impossible. As she rose, stepping back to allow her former mentor-turned-friend his turn at honoring those lost, but never forgotten, she caught sight of a large blur of white. She was attacked, knocked to the ground, and was pulling a kunai free of the holster on her thigh before she stopped rolling across the clearing. She spun the blade in her grip when the large white thing pounced on her. There was incredible weight pressed firmly into her shoulders, and hot damp breath puffing against her face. She knew Kakashi was moving to defend her, and when she saw strong arms covered in the material of his jonin shirt wrap around her attacker's throat and pull it up and away from her, she was relieved. Then she noted that the hands were free of gloves, and as the white beast of unknown origin was pulled off her she rolled to a crouch, blade at the ready lest it attack again.

Until she recognized the creature struggling to return to her side as Akamaru. With a cry, she dropped the blade an rushed the familiar dog, burying her face against his neck and ignoring the hands now pinned between her shoulders and the dog's neck. She inhaled deeply, the familiar scent of wild and dirt and the doggie shampoo Kiba had always washed his partner with easing some of the pain in her heart. She—and everyone else—had assumed that Kiba's death meant Akamaru was gone, too.

"How did you find him?" she asked the jonin who had brought her husband's partner to her—from the damp fur pressing agains ther face, only after he had been given a bath back home—eager for information. "Where did you find him?"

Confusion laced the voice that answered her from the other side of the great dog. "Find him? He was never missing, Sakura." She froze, but the man continued. "And, hey, what're you doing here anyway? I looked for you at home..."

She knew that voice. She knew that voice. Her hands moved to latch onto the arms holding Akamaru, who was grumbling happily and nuzzling against her. She dug her makeshift claws in, holding tight enough that the man couldn't move away without pain.

"Ow, shit, Sakura, what the hell—?"

"Kiba?" Shifting back slightly, she dragged the man forward until his head was visible over Akamaru's shoulder. Wild brown hair hung around a tanned face with broad, cold red marks on the cheekbones. Sharp, beast-like eyes were scrunched up in confusion, his lips turned down in perturbed frown. "Kiba?" Releasing him, she shoved herself away from the ninken and the man who was half-laying on its back. She staggered away, eyes huge. He straightened, rolling his shoulders and pressing one hand over where she had embedded her nails into his arm.

"Damn, woman, what the hell was that for?" he frowned at her, expression shifting to petulance. She gazed at him, finding herself unable to speak. Her eyes, still wide in astonishment, began to fill with tears. They pooled along the lower part of her eyes, obscuring the face she so wished to see and the world around them. Instead Sakura focused on his voice, the familiar depth and rumble to it as he complained heartily. "That's hardly the welcome I was hoping for after being gone for so—" She flew at him, arms winding around his shoulder, one hand buried in his wonderfully mussed hair. If he weren't a ninja, he wouldn't have been able to catch her up against him, hands pressing against her shuddering back as she gasped for breath, dragging the air into her lungs with painful desperation. He was here... he was holding her... he was alive... and warm... and... and hers again. She pressed her cheek against his neck, dragging in his scent as she had his partner's. He smelled of pine and wet dog and grass, as always. He was real.

He was real.

"Kiba... Kiba... You're here, you're okay?" she pulled away and ran her hands over his arms, pausing long enough to pour chakra into the wounds she had caused. She pressed her palms to his chest, feeling through his shirt for any injuries or bandages. There were none, but she felt a small ridge of flesh on his right side, over his ribs, and she followed it to his back, gasping at what she discovered there. Grabbing his shoulders, she whirled him around, yanking off the jonin vest and pulling his shirt up practically over his head as he cursed in confusion and amusement. She gasped and cried out in shock at what she saw, ran her hands over once-smooth flesh, and started to cry. He was more than real.

He was covered in scars. Moving to his side, her hands scrabbled at his arm, dragging his sleeves up to his elbows. His arms, too, were scored with occasional ridges of hardened flesh that she had mistaken for the mesh shirt he usually wore under his clothes.

"I was captured. They interrogated me," he offered quietly, watched her survey his damaged body. "I just kept telling them that they had nothing on Ibiki, that what he did during the chunin exams was way scarier than anything they could threaten me with. They tried to prove me wrong." She heard the grin in his voice and her head snapped up, confused. "They didn't; Ibiki really is scary. I didn't tell them anything... and eventually Akamaru and I broke out. We took down the whole base, and by the time we had we realized we were months away from Konoha by foot, near the edge of the continent. I figure they must have teleported us there—it's the only answer that makes any sense. There were no messenger hawk services in the area, and I had to hole up in a little village while I healed... I'm sorry I was gone so long. You must have been worried."

She realized, then, looking into his eyes, that as soon as he got back he had gone looking for her. First at their home, where he had cleaned up, and then followed her scent trail here. He hadn't spoken to anyone else. Glancing around, she saw that Kakashi had left, probably to tell Naruto the news. She looked back at her husband and swallowed, hard. "I wasn't worried at all," she told him truthfully, and watched the frown flicker over his face as he tried to ponder that one out. Taking his hand, she led him over to the engraved tablet. Kneeling, she tugged him down beside her. "I wasn't worried," she explained him in a surprisingly steady voice as she guided his hand to his own name, "because I was told you were dead." Sakura looked over at him and saw the horror dawning on his face as he stared at the characters carved under his fingertips. He traced his name slowly, eyes wide, then turned to her.

"Sakura... Oh my god. Sakura," he pulled her into his arms, dropping himself back to sit on the ground and hold her in his lap. "I'm not dead," he said almost indignantly. "So don't just let ignorant people kill me off, okay? You know I won't just die on you like that. You have to know it." Hands clenched in the material of his shirt, his vest still over on the ground where they had stood, she nodded mutely. "Who the hell told you I was dead, anyway? I'll kill 'em!"

She smiled. "You can't."

"Oh yeah?" he challenged. "They put my wife through hell; bet your sweet ass I'll kill 'em."

"It was Naruto."

"Oh." He was silent for a moment. "Then I guess... I'll be the Hokage?" he said almost tentatively, and she thumped a fist against his chest, chuckling. He laughed too, body shaking around her, hands warm and firm on her back and leg. Akamaru padded over, flak vest in his teeth, and dropped it before them, then settled himself at Kiba's back. They leaned against the massive dog, Sakura's head cradled against Kiba's shoulder. She hadn't thought she would ever get to sit like this again, and the fact that they were, and she was, and Kiba was there brought on another round of tears.

"It's a good thing you're back," she told him after a moment, when she sensed a group of very familiar chakra signatures approaching quickly.

"'Cuz you missed me? Because the bed is cold without me?"

"There is that," she allowed, then smiled and turned her head up to his. "But mostly because I'm pregnant."

Kiba let out a strangled shout of surprise and confusion, turning his head to stare at her with his mouth working to form words he apeared not to have chosen yet. Then he gave up and slid one hand along her jaw, tipping her head up to his and kissing her deeply. Over and over, he pressed his lips to hers, tongue delving into her mouth and twining with her own. Sakura groaned and buried her hands in his hair. She had missed him so much...

That was how Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata, Shino, Kakashi, Genma, Tsume, Hana... everyone... found them. Shouts of joy and disbelief reached them before their friends did, and they were dragged to their feet as Kiba was alternately welcomed back and lectured for not sending word. Hinata hugged Kiba and Naruto clapped him on the back, Tsume growled and actually bit him as punishment, whereas Hana just tackled her brother, closing him in her embrace and sobbing the tears she hadn't let anyone see. Akamaru danced around the happy group with the other ninken before they surged to Kiba en masse, howling for his attention and bumping him with their heads.

The informal greeting party went on and on as more and more people arrived, having heard of his return. During the entire day, only once did Kiba release his hold on Sakura, letting his arm slip from around her waist, hand pressed flat to her slightly curved belly, and that was to slug Naruto in the mouth, sending him flying back across the clearing. Shaking his fist at the sting, then holding it out for Sakura to heal the two broken knuckles, he glowered at his friend. "That's what you get for telling my wife I was dead, moron. Check the facts next time," he snapped, and Naruto's retort died stillborn on his lips, a dark look settling on his features even as Hinata knelt at his side and began tenderly prodding his jaw to see that it was in one piece. "Don't you dare heal him," Kiba growled, and Hinata shot a surprised look at her former teammate. "Bastard deserves a punch for every goddamn tear shed because of his idiocy."

"That's a little severe, don't you think, Kiba-kun?" Kakashi murmured from behind them, and the couple turned to face him. Sakura beamed up at Kakashi.

"No," she said sweetly. "I would have done it if Kiba hadn't." Kakashi blinked once, slowly, then edged away from the famously short-tempered couple, leaving them to the tender care of Kiba's mother and sister, who had strayed no further than six feet away since they first arrived.

Tsume laughed at Sakura's words and clapped her daughter-in-law on the shoulder. "And you're one of the only people in the village who hit harder than my son," she mused, an evil grin spreading across her face. She was no happier with the false report than Sakura herself. Shooting Naruto, and then Kiba, a glance, she tutted. "Shame you got to him first, pup. I'd like to wallop him good myself."

"I think Hinata would protest too much abuse of her husband," Shino murmured from his place next to Hana, who grinned and leaned against his side, sharing a conspiratorial look with Sakura. There had to be something they could do to Naruto to make up for the months of pain they had gone through. It would take time and planning and lots of brainstorming, but something...

Ino's voice tore Sakura from her thoughts and she turned to accept another hug of giddy relief from her best female friend.

"Hey now, she's mine," Kiba complained heartily, tugging her back against his chest when they were through. Sakura willingly turned into the embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck and tugging his head down for a quick, thorough kiss. When they came up for air, ignoring all the catcalls—or rather, wolf whistles given present company—she grinned cheekily up at her husband.

"So, have you though of any names?" she asked, and let the chaos ensue.

I've had this written for some time, but in my defense I've also been tweaking it very often. Finally I decided it was good enough as is, and I hope you all agree! I'm very touched to see how may alerts, hits, and +favs this has gotten! It's so nice to know there are many other KibaSaku supporters out there!

Ja na!