Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee-click. Kiba removed his hand from the alarm clock, sat up, and stretched. He frowned as he looked around his dorm room. Something was missing. His arms fell back down to the bed and Kiba instantly realized what was missing, Shino. Throwing the covers off Kiba stood up and went to his wardrobe. Akamaru yawned as he stood and stretched himself. "Where's Shino?" Kiba asked the pup sized dog.
'Ruaff,' Akamaru answered scratching his ear.
"Huh? Why did he leave already?" Kiba wondered out loud.
'Ruff, rrruaff!' Akamaru complained.
Kiba rolled his eyes and pulled out a dark blue track suit. "I wasn't expecting you to know why," Kiba said pulling the sweatpants on. "Do you know what time he left?" Kiba asked zipping up the hoodie.
'Whine,' Akamaru responded.
"I see," Kiba said closing the wardrobe doors and leaning against them. He looked back at the alarm clock frowning again. 'Why would Shino leave the room at 4 AM?' Kiba thought silently. 'He has never gotten up before me until now. I hope everything is alright.' Kiba sighed and pushed off the wardrobe and went to the door. "Let's go Akamaru, time to practice."
'Ruff!' the pup exclaimed following Kiba out of the dorm room.
The pair walked across the campus until they came to the practice pit and was shocked to find so many people present. Kiba blinked several times as he watched Shino spar with Kankuro. This was definitely not normal. No one but him and Naruto were normally up at this hour, sometimes Gaara or Sasuke would come to watch and maybe Shino.
"Kiba!" Naruto's voice drifted to him from behind. Kiba turned to see the blonde running up to him Gamakichi perched on his shoulder as always. "Hey what's going on?" Naruto asked. "Why aren't you warming up?"
"Well I was going to, but," Kiba looked back down into the pit.
"But what?" Naruto asked getting closer. His blue eyes widened as he took in the sight. "Oh I see," Naruto said. Naruto suddenly smiled and clamped Kiba on the back. "Don't worry about it! As we mentioned yesterday during dinner Tournaments coming up, we all have to be at our bests if we plan to take the gold again this year!"
"Yeah, about that," Kiba said frowning again. "What in the name of the Powers is this Magi Tournament?"
Naruto blinked several times before laughing loudly. Kiba could do nothing but stand there watching as the blonde teen gripped his sides in a fit of hysterical laughter. After about a minute and a half Naruto finally calmed down and looked at Kiba. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were serious yesterday at dinner when you asked," Naruto explained. "I mean how can a Magi not know about the Magi Tournaments? It's just hilarious!"
"I gathered that," Kiba said crossing his arms in front of his chest. "But you fail to realize that I went to a public mixed school until recently. Things work differently there."
Naruto sighed, "True. Sorry, sorry let's have Kakashi-sensei explain the situation. I have to go warm up." Naruto led Kiba to the silver haired teacher who was lying on a bleacher reading an orange book. "Honestly," Naruto grumbled. "Why do you have that at school?"
Kakashi looked away from the text on the page and looked at the two third years standing before him. "I need something to do while you all are warming up," Kakashi remarked. Kakashi sat up and smiled at them. "I see you decided to join us, that's great!"
"Um not really, I haven't made a decision yet one way or the other," Kiba said rubbing the back of his head.
"Huh?" Kakashi sighed. "Why not? Kankuro said he was going to put you on the offensive team."
