F A M I L I A R

Border Patrol Confessions

The sun was just setting over the horizon as I made my way down the streets of Konoha. I was headed to the gates where I meet Kiba every Friday and Saturday night for border patrol. Since we were only chunin level tracker shinobi, we were not to engage any suspicious activity, but to report it to the Hokage straight away if we spotted anything. It made for a pretty boring two hours of my life. Regardless, I still smiled to myself at the thought of seeing Kiba again so soon.

Even though I had mixed emotions when it came him, there was no denying the way he made my heart flip around in my chest. As I walked, I spotted the silhouettes of Kiba and his ninja hound approaching from the other direction. I pulled on the strings of my hood, absentmindedly trying to calm my heartbeat.

"Hey Asuna," Kiba greeted, waving to me with Akamaru by his side.

As soon as I spotted his wide grin with his canines protruding out, I smiled and completely forgot my nerves.

"What took you so long?" I asked, petting Akamaru on the head as he came up to greet me. Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Very funny, I didn't realize you were going to be so excited to see me," he wiggled his eyebrows at me and I shook me head at his attempt to be funny. "I would have been here sooner if I didn't have to take the long way. I had to shake that annoying girl Ayme, she would not stop following me." He shrugged as he finished his sentence.

"Oh, well glad that's all cleared up."

The thoughts of Kiba with that girl came rushing to my mind. It put an awful taste in my mouth and made my throat dry. I ignored Kiba's confused expression and leapt into the treeline.

"Let's start our rounds."

After we took off, we patrolled the outside border in silence. Kiba and Akamaru stayed on the ground and I traveled in through the tree line. Every now and then I would stop and place my palm on the wood and look for any trace of a ripple in the nature energy around me. We had been at it for the first hour already and so far everything seemed clear. I continued to concentrate on the nature around me, noticing any leaf out of place or any ripple in chakra.

"Are we friends?" Kiba asked from below me, shaking my from my concentration. I gave him a puzzled look and then jumped down to the ground in front of him.

"Of course we're friends. Why do you ask?" I smiled.

"Because sometimes you act different around me." He stated matter-of-factly, my smile immediately dropped. "You've been like that ever since you got to Konoha."

My eyes widened and I bit my lip nervously as he continued. Akamaru turned his head and pretended to be distracted by something.

"When I was bringing you here, I, I don't know, I really enjoyed your company." He said nervously, not meeting my eyes. "You always had something sarcastic to say. And it seems like you can hold a conversation just fine with Hinata and Neji. So why is it so hard for you to talk to me now?"

I paused. "It's just that..." I couldn't tell him the truth. I just couldn't. I mean, there really is not a nice way to say, 'I'm trying to keep myself from liking you even more than I do now because of your track record with girls.'

"I don't know Kiba," I said looking away. "I have a knack for pushing people away that matter the most to me."

I held my breath. What I said was the hard truth. All of sudden, memories began flooding back to me from my childhood. Memories of friends that I once had but pushed away for fear of rejection. Memories of family who no longer saw me as a child, but as a weapon. Memories of people who once took advantage of the love I showed.

"Hey," Kiba came up to me as he felt the mood change. He could tell that I wasn't only talking about him. He pulled me into a hug. "Its going to take a lot more than that to get me to stay away from you."

My face turned red as he pulled away and looked at me. He searched my face for something with his eyes before closing them and sighing.

"Idk what it is about you," he said taking a step back, "you send so many mixed signals that I'm not sure if you even know what you're thinking." He reopened his eyes and smiled at my confused look. "But you make me curious."

Akamaru barked, commanding both of our attentions. I could have sworn I saw him roll his eyes at Kiba before starting to walk forward.

Kiba laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, "Akamaru is right, we should keep going."

I nodded and smiled, taking a step forward. Before Kiba could follow Akamaru down the path, I pulled him into a hug taking him off guard.

"Thank you," I said, my voice muffled in his chest. "I know I'm weird and I'm not used to having friends, but I'm trying to figure it out."

We parted and he placed his hand on my head.

"I never realized how short you are." Kiba said randomly, winking at me. He was trying taking my mind off of what made me uncomfortable, and if I wasn't so shy I would have kissed him for it. I blushed and jumped up into the trees again.

"Am not!" I shouted as I jumped, starting my chakra scan of the area again.

Kiba smiled to himself as he jogged to catch up with his teammate.

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Hey guys! I don't do many author notes because I think they kind of take away from the story, but I do appreciate any feedback. I write this story in my spare time for fun, so the story might come to life slowly. I have some great plans for later chapters, so please hang in there.

Thanks again for reading! I don't own Naruto or any of the characters, I only own Asuna Yuna.