ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Anything But Orange

Chapter Forty-Three

Anything But Orange

May 5, 2010

Naruto stepped outside and started down the hall leading to the stairwell. Up ahead he saw the tail end of a large dog.

"Yo, Kiba!" he called out, "Akamaru!"

He jogged up to man and dog, a wide smile on his face. While Akamaru barked a greeting, his two legged friend merely watched his approach with a enigmatic expression Naruto had never seen on the other man's face before. He was still behaving strangely.

This Tamaki situation had to be pretty serious...

Kiba moped and pouted when they were on the outs, but this seemed deeper than mere aggravation or mild sadness. Whatever had happened between those two was really eating at the Inuzuka.

"Hey Naruto," the feral man finally greeted.

"You guys headed out for a walk in the forest again?"

It was one of their most frequent pastimes, and had been since Akamaru was puppy, but strangely, the question brought his dark brown crashing together, and a dull pink coated his cheeks. Confused, the blonde raised a curious brow.

What was with that reaction?

"No."

That was it, no follow up, no elaboration at all. Just no. It was so unlike him that Naruto was at a lost for words. Kiba was as talkative as him, and they often exchanged more than a few words about their plans for the day.

He blinked.

Okay...what the hell was going on?

"Soooo, a mission then?"

"No," he repeated, irritation coating his voice.

Kiba was in a really bad mood. Nowhere near his normal, 'I'm not in the mood' energy. There were some seriously strong waves radiating from his friend.

"Kiba, what the hell is going on with you?" Naruto asked, "you've been acting funny since you found out Sasuke was back in town. He's gone and you're still acting funny, 'ttebayo. Shikamaru said something happened with you and Tamaki, and if that's the case then you could've just come out and said that. Everybody's been busy lately, but it's not like we're completely outta reach. If you need a guy's day to get some shit off your chest then let's do it. Whatever happened, we can grab some beers and talk about it like we always do. Its obviously buggin' the fuck outta you."

"Maybe I don't wanna talk about it."

"That's fine too. You don't talk about it, but we can still hang out and talk about other shit. That'll at least take your mind off of it for a little while."

That's what they'd done in the past. He and the guys didn't share everything but they did support each other when something was bothering them, whether it was their love life, mission troubles or otherwise. Kiba especially took advantage of those mini get togethers, drinking, clowning and getting on everybody's nerves.

It was fun.

Relaxing and unburdening for all parties involved even if no one shared what was on their heart.

The shaggy haired man in front him was usually the one to initiate a 'man day', but that hadn't happened in a while. Come to think of it, Kiba hadn't come sniffing around for food in forever either. The jonin had chalked it up as confirmation that Tamaki's cooking lessons were panning out, but maybe something else was going on. Maybe they were on the verge of a break up or something. They weren't all that prone to serious arguments, small spats here and there but hell, anything was possible.