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Kiba smirked at his opponent as she stumbled out of the crowd, eyes nervous and downcast. He formed the Sign of Confrontation, and almost scoffed. The timid civilian girl? This would be too easy.
In fact, he half expected her to protest. Whine at Iruka-sensei about it not being an even match up, or claim she was sick, or something. He was used to it- civilians tended to take issue with fighting him. They were always concerned with how dirty he fought, how he had issues holding back, and he just didn't see the problem.
But the closest thing she did to protest was look at Iruka-sensei to make sure she didn't mishear the man. As soon as she got a nod from him she shakily steeled her expression and formed the seal, and he almost laughed at her. She didn't stand a chance.
Then Iruka-sensei raised his hand and, in the split second before he initiated the match, Kiba watched something shift in the girl. She seemed- different, was all he had time to observe. At peace, maybe. More cold calculating, certainly.
He didn't exactly get to think it over- in one blink her expression shuddered, and in the next Iruka-sensei yelled out "Start!" And Kiba threw himself forward on instinct.
The fight was, to his horror, all but an even match. She was smaller then him, and apparently faster, and a whole lot smarter. She seemed one step ahead of him for at least half of the fight, both literally and figuratively.
His biggest advantages were his strength, his experience, and his infamously dirty tactics. For all her speed and brains, her form was boring, and even he could predict it occasionally- it was all textbook. No originality, no flare. And she still had the same reservations as most civilians, sticking to clean and fair, if occasionally tricky, maneuvers. He, on the other hand, did not heasitate to pull hair and scratch and pinch and-
Bite.
She gets him pinned to the floor and she's smirking at him. The fight had been going on for several minutes, and she was about to win and he was pissed and she couldn't stop herself from drooping closer to him. He thrashes and catches his teeth on her shoulder and pulls down-
For an instant, he feels nothing but vindication, as he flips the pin around and is now confidently holding her down, releasing her shoulder from his mouth and pulling back.
Then he gets the feeling that something isn't right and his battered body starts to tingle, and has no time to examine that either as he's picked up off of the pinkette by the scruff of his collar. He blinks, and realizes that his mouth tastes funny, and spits out blood. He looks down at his classmate, and his stomach drops in sick regret as he sees the bleeding tooth-marks he apparently left behind.
For all his arrogance and posturing, he never wanted to hurt one of his classmates like that- especially not in a stupid spar. He forgot how thin civilian clothing was, how easy it was to tear through.
Iruka-sensei stepped between him and Sakura- Sakura his classmate, the one who gave everyone a flower for valentines day because she didn't want anyone to be left out, not some discardable nameless civilian- like he was expecting Kiba to try to attack her again, and he almost wanted to cry. Iruka-sensei was lecturing him about, like, getting a month's detention or something, and he didn't hear a word of it.
He had lost track of Iruka-sensei entirely, somewhere between the realization that he bit her and the realization that the weird tingling was fading, and he didn't feel a single bit of pain from the fight that left him battered moments before.
The world got kind of fuzzy around him, as he tried to process and make sense of what had happened. Iruka-sensei took them to the school nurse and dropped them off. Iruka-sensei left. At some point, it was just the two of them left, and Kiba looked up at her.
"What the hell did you do?" Inner snapped at the same time as Kiba once they were alone, and Sakura internally winced. Kiba blinked in surprise when he noticed that they had both spoken at the same time, and Sakura carefully edged the controls away from Inner and frowned.
"What do you mean what did I do?" She demanded, and bristled when she realized they had spoken at the same time again. "Wait- Ok. Shut up. Me first. Please." She waved as calmly as she could, and he growled.
"Why should I listen to you?" He challenged, and she grit her teeth. She generally tried to at least maintain the appearance of the perfectly civil little girl she was raised to be, but these were extenuating circumstances.
"You Bit me, asshole!" the girl seethed, and, if nothing else, he was stunned into silence at her assertiveness. "I get to talk first. How did you, like, make me so tired just by biting me?" She scowled, trying not to slur her words. She was exhausted, and it wasn't from the fight.
"I- I dunno! What the hell are you on about? Maybe if you didn't heal me you wouldn't be so tired- what the hell was up with that, huh?" He returned with a shiver. It was downright unsettling, being healed so easily after a fight. After years of having to do goad and bribe and beg Hana before she even thought about healing him, it felt like he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. What was the catch?
"I didn't heal you, what do you- I don't have enough Chakra!" She fumbled, running a hand through her hair.
"What do you mean-"
"I don't have enough Chakra." She insisted, starting to shake in horror, and Kiba bit his lip with a frown.
"Hey, wait- are you ok?" He asked carefully, and she shook her head.
"No! No, I can't- you don't get it. You can't tell anyone. you can't." She said frantically, staring at him with eyes that were blown wide, and Kiba almost stumbled in shock at her 180 degree turn from pissed to terrified. He held up his hands, as nonthreatening as he could be, and walked closer.
"Um. Ok. Can you back up a bit? I can't tell anyone what, exactly?" He whispered anxiously, tugging on his ears.
"That I healed you, Duh! I'm- I don't have enough Chakra, if anyone found out they'd kill me!" She insisted, tugging on her hair.
"Kill you?!" Kiba whisper yelled, alarmed, and looked around the room again. "Who would kill you for healing people?" He asked aghast, and she started biting her knuckles. Was she even listening anymore? Could she hear him? He wanted to scream.
He pressed his tongue against his teeth and tried to calm down- he was obviously just freaking her out.
"I- Um-" He tried to comfort, not even noticing how much he ear was starting to hurt from all the pulling. "I won't tell anyone?" He tries, because that seemed to be what was freaking her out the most. Her breath shuddered and he gained confidence, moving closer. She didn't move. "I won't tell anyone. Not even my Mom- though if she finds out I'm keeping secrets, I'm sending her after your tail." He swore, meeting her eyes hesitantly, and she was frozen.
He started to panic and looked away- did he say something wrong? Do something wrong? Did he make it worse-
"Thank you." The pinkette whispered, voice nearly inaudible, knuckle still between her teeth. "I- Maybe I can explain later?" She offered carefully, and he nodded. He'd take what he could get.
She nodded, almost to herself, and pressed the bottoms of her palms into her eyes, breathing slowly evening out. He took the chance to stick his tongue out and wiggle it, hand dropped from his ear as he calmed himself down more effectively.
"Are you ok?" He hedged eventually, after he had calmed down and was strumming his fingers on the ground. She wasn't shaking anymore, and her hair was a mess from how much she had pulled and pushed at it, but she seemed calmer now, at least.
Sakura gave him a long, considering look, and tilted her head. "You- You won't tell anyone. Anyone at all, right?" She asked softly, fight seemingly drained from her, and he nodded and made a decision he had been thinking over. He'd feel guilty about it, he knew, but-
"No one. Not even Akamaru." He swore. She blinked, maybe taken aback? But she smiled a little and nodded, and he couldn't help but smile back.
Akamaru would understand.
"Great. Thanks. I totally owe you one, man." She sighed, and he rolled his eyes, slowly reaching over so she could pull away if she wanted to and ruffling her hair. She batted his hand away with vengeance.
"Hey! I spent hours on that!" She growled, and he laughed.
"Sure doesn't look like it. Looks more like Akamaru rolled around in it." He mocked, and she looked ready to argue the point before apparently realizing that it was, in fact, her doing, and going beat red. He felt kinda bad, now, and offered- "Want me to do your hair?"
"What? Hell no! What do you know about hair?" She scowled, and he was sure she would have screeched if they weren't both still being quiet. He wasn't even sure why now, but he didn't mind.
"Maybe more then you'd think." He challenged, and she glared at him, but ended up nodding, and he grinned. His idle and anxious fingers needed something to do.
He sat behind her and expertly ran his fingers through all of the knots in her hair. His sister made him do her hair all the time, but was more likely to feed Kuromaru chocolate then to actually have a brush on hand, so he learned to improvise.
Sakura's hair was so soft, he was tempted to rub his face in it. It was almost as soft as Akamaru, and Kiba did literally everything he could to keep Akumaru soft, so it was saying something. He hummed happily at the silky feeling of it between his fingers as he expertly braided it, and the careful tugs seemed to ground Sakura as well, as she started to sing quietly to herself.
After the discord and panic of the last few- minutes, probably? Maybe half an hour? He was terrible with time-, the serene and light tone of the room was startling, but Kiba wasn't complaining. It was nice, in a way only hanging out with Shino usually was. He felt like he could actually relax.
"Want some gum?" Sakura offered, pulling a pack out of nowhere and eating three pieces, and he hummed a denial as his tongue stuck out to help him concentrate. She shrugged, and the Gum disappeared again.
"Hey, Sakura?" he spoke up a few minutes later- She had so much hair- and she clicked her tongue in acknowledgement so as not to interrupt whatever she was singing to herself. "Who- you said you were afraid of getting killed. Are you in danger?" He asked, and she tensed up again. "You- don't have to tell me who? I guess? If you don't want to. But I don't want you to, like, walk into your death or something anyway, ya know?"
"It isn't your buisn-" She started with a snarl, but cut off mid word with a deep breath. She blew a bubble with her gum and popped it before starting again. "...No. I'm safe as long as no one finds out- and I can't think of anyone else besides you that would just bite me." She teased, and he let loose a releived breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"Good." He nodded. "If that changes, you can- you can tell me, ok? I'll try to help you. Whatever this is, you don't have to face it alone." He offered, and she sucked in a breath.
"Yeah?" She challenged, something hard and distrusting but still desperate in her tone. And he stuck his tongue out in thought.
He didn't know her that well, and he never really wanted to, but- but this was nice. It was nice talking to her, and he wouldn't mind doing it again. She tapped her fingers and hummed and popped her gum and was confortable with him in a way that no civilian had ever been, and she didn't seem to mind or even notice his own ticks and fidgets. There was something hard and angry about her that he'd never noticed in the timid civilian girl, and he couldn't unsee it now.
He didn't know her that well, but he would like to. Besides, no one should feel alone- especially not in something like this.
"Yeah." He confirmed, finishing her braid with reluctance- her hair was so soft. "Yeah, totally. Just say the word, bookworm." He teased, and she crossed her arms.
"Oh, whatever. At least I can pass a test without sending a puppy around to cheat." She huffed, and he sputtered.
"I do not-" He started to deny, and she waved a hand.
"Spare me, dog breath. I'm the one he's usually cheating off of- you're welcome, by the way."
He didn't have anything to say to that, really, so instead he laughed, and then she snorted and he laughed even harder, forehead falling onto her shoulder. She smacked his head amiciblly, and he gave a grin to the side that was all teeth.
Yeah. He wouldn't mind getting to know her.