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Chapter 113 Midnight, Mending, and Mayhem
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Kiba groaned, his eyes blinking open to a starry sky above and the scent of earth and grass thick in his nose. He winced as he sat up and immediately looked over his shoulder at his own rear.
"Relax," came Naruto's voice, calm and flat. "I didn't impale you."
Kiba whipped his head around and glared at him. "What the hell is wrong with you, man?! Who even says stuff like that?!"
"You think that was bad?" Naruto said, voice quiet and dry. "You wouldn't last five seconds in Lordran. I saw the Black Knight spear a guy clean through, lift him like meat on a spit. Didn't even blink."
Kiba blinked. "What the hell are you even talking about?"
Naruto just waved a hand. "Doesn't matter. You're better off not knowing."
Kiba groaned and clutched his ribs, trying to get his bearings. He noticed something soft beneath him—a blanket? When had that gotten there?
Akamaru barked cheerfully in the background, bouncing around as Oscar scuttled in zigzags through the grass, crystalline body catching the moonlight. The two animals darted around each other with weirdly playful energy.
"How're you feeling?"
"…Fine, I guess," Kiba muttered, confused. His voice was hoarse. His head should have been pounding after that hit, but it wasn't. He touched his cheek, expecting bruises, fractures—nothing.
"Estus," Naruto said simply, not looking at him.
Kiba stared at him, dumbfounded. "You… why?" His voice cracked. "Why would you heal me after that?"
Naruto shrugged. "Weird thing to ask, don't you think? How about some gratitude, dattebayo?"
"That's not what I mean," Kiba said quickly, eyes narrowing. "I mean… shouldn't this be, I dunno, some kind of honor thing between us now?"
Naruto finally turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow. "Honor… thing?"
"Yeah," Kiba said, sitting up straighter, getting into it now. "You know. You beat me in a fight, in front of my partner, made me look weak. I'm supposed to challenge you again and reclaim my pride. That's how it works in a pack. If the top dog gets taken down, he's gotta fight to climb back up or the rest of the pack loses respect."
Naruto blinked. Then blinked again.
"…Wait. You thought you were the top dog between us?"
Kiba flinched, just a little.
Naruto tried to hold it in—he really did. But a loud snort burst out of him before he dissolved into full-blown laughter. "Oh man, you thought you were the alpha?" He wiped a tear from his eye. "Bro, we're shinobi. Not wolves."
"It's a principle!" Kiba shouted defensively.
"If it helps you sleep better, sure. Call it whatever you want. But you seriously gotta stop living like life's a kennel. We're not fighting for a food bowl."
Kiba scowled, but Akamaru barked again and nudged his side. The puppy's tail wagged as Oscar nudged him back, almost in solidarity.
Kiba looked at them. Then at Naruto. "…Still think your lizard's a weirdo."
"And I still think you've got a complex," Naruto said. "Try therapy next time instead of kidnapping pets."
"Yeah, yeah… I guess I had that one coming."
Kiba let out a sigh and looked away. "Alright, fine. I'm sorry. For the Oscar thing. That was low, even for me."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It was."
There was a long pause between them. The rustling of leaves filled the silence, along with the distant sound of Akamaru barking at Oscar, who responded with a series of low chirps that sounded vaguely like laughter.
"…I don't know what I was thinking," Kiba admitted. "I guess I just… I don't know, man. I got caught up in all this stupid pride crap."
Naruto took a breath, then sat back down beside him.
"I was actually gonna talk to you," Naruto said. "Apologize."
"For graduation day," Naruto said. "I shouldn't have gone that far. I was… angry. At a lot of things. But especially that day."
"You mean the fight?"
Naruto nodded. "I wasn't mad at you, not really. I was grieving. Someone important to me died before graduation. He was like my teacher… mentor, maybe even more than that. The armor I wear now, the sword I carry—it was his."
Kiba stayed quiet, listening.
"You made some comments that day. You didn't mean them the way I took them, I know that now. But they hit me in the middle of a storm, and I lashed out."
Kiba swallowed, guilt creeping into his chest. "Damn. I didn't know."
"I know," Naruto said. "You weren't supposed to. To everyone, I was still the class clown, the dead-last, you know?"
"Can I ask you something?"
Kiba hesitated, chewing the inside of his cheek. "…Was the Naruto I knew—the dead-last—real?"
"I'm not trying to insult you, it's just… I never saw any of this before. The swordsmanship, the armor, the way you talk about your master... you never even mentioned him back at the academy. It's like—like that whole part of you came outta nowhere."
Naruto's expression didn't tighten or turn cold. If anything, it softened.
"Because it's… kind of new," he admitted quietly. "Back then, yeah, I really was the dead-last. Loud, clumsy, failed half my classes. I didn't know how to shut up, or how to fight, or even what I wanted from being a ninja. That was me. That was real."
He paused, voice lowering.
"But… is that all I'm supposed to be forever? Just some screw-up who makes noise and barely scrapes by?"
Kiba didn't answer. He could hear something real in Naruto's voice.
"I'm still that Naruto," he continued, looking at him now. "I still love eating too much, I still say dattebayo, I still wear orange, and I still act like a clown sometimes. But that's not all I am anymore. I've changed. I've seen things… learned from people who didn't have the luxury of living easy lives. And I guess…" Naruto trailed off, letting the thought sit heavy in the air. "I'm growing into someone I didn't even know I could be."
Kiba looked at him—really looked. And for the first time, he wasn't seeing the loudmouth from class. He was seeing someone who had been shaped by grief, by pain, by battle… and who'd come out the other side of that still standing.
There was a long pause.
Naruto blinked. "…Okay?"
"No, I mean it," Kiba said quickly. "For the whole Oscar thing. That was messed up, and I knew it even as I was doing it. And for back at the academy—when I ran my mouth. I didn't know anything about what you were going through. And if someone had said something like that about my mom or Akamaru…"
"You'd have gone for the throat," Naruto finished.
Naruto stood and held out his left hand. Kiba stared at it, then took it with a firm shake.
Kiba smirked, his usual confidence returning. "Nah. No feud. But I'm still gonna take you down someday. Reclaim my pride. It's tradition."
Naruto laughed. "Sure. But you're 0 and 2 right now. So I'd start training."
"Tch. Cocky bastard."
Akamaru barked again in the distance as Oscar chirped and scuttled around him. The two moved like they'd known each other for years.
"…By the way," Kiba said, eyeing the lizard, "what even is that thing?"
"Oscar's a crystal lizard," Naruto said with a proud grin. "Gonna train him to be my Ninchū."
"…Huh." Kiba scratched his head. "That even possible?"
"I'll figure it out," Naruto said.
"Well…" Kiba hesitated, then shrugged. "I could help."
"Yeah. I mean, it's not like it's a big deal or anything," Kiba said quickly. "I just figured… since your sensei's Kakashi, and his ninken are kinda famous, you'd get the training anyway. Might as well start now."
Naruto blinked. "Wait, Kakashi's ninken are famous?"
Kiba nodded. "Even in the Inuzuka clan. His bond with them's crazy deep. I heard his mom was from our clan, or at least had ties. Makes sense."
"Huh." Naruto looked thoughtful. "So why help me?"
Kiba shrugged again, avoiding his eyes. "…Consider it my way of making up for what I said. About your master. That was low. Even for me."
Naruto smiled. Not smugly. Not triumphantly. Just... softly. Like he really appreciated it.
"Thanks, Kiba. But you owe someone else an apology first."
Kiba groaned. "You serious?"
"Ugh. Fine," Kiba muttered, shoulders sagging. "I'll say sorry to the brat."
Naruto clapped him on the back, almost knocking him forward. "Good man. That's called growth."
"Keep talking like that and I'm taking it back."
They laughed, low and tired, but genuine. As the moon hung high overhead and the two animals darted across the clearing like a blur of fur and crystal, Naruto and Kiba made their way back to the house. Not as rivals. Not even just teammates. But as boys finally starting to understand each other.
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Naruto crept back into the room, Oscar cradled like a sleepy burrito in his arms.
"Alright, little guy," he whispered, setting Oscar gently on the makeshift bed built. "You stay here. Sleep tight."
He turned to his own mattress… only to hear scuttlescuttlescuttle.
Oscar was standing beside his leg.
Naruto sighed dramatically, picked him up again, and dropped him onto the makeshift bed. "Stay," he said, pointing like a disappointed dad. "I mean it."
Oscar blinked once, like sure, buddy, then curled into a crystal cinnamon roll.
Naruto dropped onto his mattress, stared at the ceiling, and whispered, "You guys awake?"
A groggy Sakura cracked open one eye. "No. We're all just telepathic ghosts now. Go to sleep."
Naruto ignored her sarcasm. "I can't sleep."
"Whomp whomp," Sakura muttered, turning over and yanking the blanket over her head.
"Sasuke, what about you?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke replied with an exaggerated, way too obvious fake snore: "Zzzzz."
Naruto frowned. "Huh. Must be sleeping."
Sasuke's snore paused… then got even louder.
"So anyway," Naruto said to no one, "I think I can't sleep because I just beat Kiba in a fight."
The fake snoring stopped. Completely.
"…And we talked things out."
Oscar, as if moved by the emotional progress, climbed up onto Naruto's chest and curled up again.
"You wanna sleep with me tonight?" Naruto whispered, rubbing the lizard's head. "Fine. But no hogging the pillow."
The room was finally settling into quiet when...
"Hold up," Sakura suddenly sat up. "We're just gonna gloss over all that?!"
"Hn," Sasuke grunted from the other side, clearly very not asleep.
"Guys, seriously, let me sleep," Naruto groaned, pulling the blanket over his head like a burrito.
A pillow nailed him right in the face.
"Seriously?!" Naruto yelled, tossing it off. "Who throws a pillow like that?!"
"Who monologues about emotional growth at 2 a.m.?!" Sakura snapped.
Naruto grabbed his own pillow. "Oh, it's on."
From the other side of the room, Sasuke stood up slowly, eyes glowing with the silent promise of vengeance.
"This… is why I sleep alone."
Three seconds later, a pillow hit him in the face. Oscar chirped once before diving under the blanket for cover.
The Great Pillow War of the Wave Country had begun.
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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 56, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.
To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!