HIGH SCORE

Chapter Three

You wake up to hot breath coming from two different angles on your face, making your nose crinkle in disgust. Your eyes slowly open, your eyelids twitching as you come to your senses - your vision clears to reveal Kiba and Akamaru hovering above you like flies.

"Eh?" You blink a few times, lifting a hand up to rub your eyes. Kiba gives you a big smile and places a hand on your shoulder, though he looks different than usual...

"(Y/N)! It took you long enough to wake up." He laughs, Akamaru nuzzles his snout against your face happily. You narrow your eyes at your best friend, something was wrong.

"What happened?" You ask, taking note of the fact you're currently in a hospital room. There's an IV in your arm and you're hooked up to several different machines.

"You were in a coma, (N/N)." He pokes your cheek, calling you by your nickname rather sarcastically. He leans forward until his nose is pressed against yours.

He smells like beef jerky and soap - it's not a great combination.

"For how long?" You ask.

Kiba pulls his face away from you and places his hands on either of your shoulders, his lip quivers dramatically: "Five years."

"Five years?" You repeat, pushing yourself up on your elbows. You stare at your best friend with furrowed brows, a look of disbelief painted on your face.

"I'm lying." Kiba admits after a few seconds through a fit of laughter, pushing the hair out of your face to flick your forehead, "It's only been a little over a day. You should have seen the look on your face though, (Y/N)!"

"I don't like you." You say sarcastically, punching him in the arm. You move your hand away from Kiba to pet Akamaru, who reciprocates the affection by licking your cheek.

"Sure." Kiba snickers, crossing his arms, "Naruto said you threw up all over yourself and that you were sobbing like a damn baby."

"Ew..." You groan, looking down at your heavily bandaged leg. You're wearing a hospital gown and nearly your entire left leg is covered in bandages.

"I wish I could see that," Kiba jokes, pulling a chair up next to your bed to sit besides you. He uses your good leg as an arm rest, his head facing towards you as he continues to speak, "I bet it was so funny, ignoring the 'ah! my best human friend got stabbed!' part."

You roll your eyes at Kiba, leaning forward to flick his nose, "I don't think it was funny! It was so not funny that I'm pretty sure I forgot most of it."

"I'm allowed to make fun of you in moments of weakness, (Y/N)." Kiba huffs, grabbing your hand for a moment.

"Were you worried about me?" You ask Kiba, giving his hand a light squeeze, "You're being super touchy."

"No!" Kiba exclaims and lets go of your hand, shaking his head, "I swear, because that's weird."

"Right." You click your tongue, giving him a scrutinizing look - trying to get the boy to break.

He covers Akamaru's ears after a few seconds of awkward silence and slowly nods, "I guess I was, a little bit."

"I knew it." You grin.

"It's weird, though!" Kiba shakes his head with a sigh, "I don't like that you're a girl sometimes."

"Why?"

"We can't do anything without together without someone assuming one or both of us has a crush on the other." He grumbles, his expression souring.

The brown-haired genin obviously wasn't a huge fan of societal norms.