"That's the first time you've used my name..." a deep voice said, making Hotaru look up, "And the first time I've seen you cry. I think it's a record."

~~~

Hotaru's eyes widened, and she leapt to her feet. "You're back!"

Kiba grinned, "Yup. Miss me?"

Hotaru snorted, "In your dreams."

But Kiba couldn't help but notice how her eyes were firmly glued to the floor as she said it.

After a short moment of awkwardness, she looked up at him again, a frown on her face. "How could you be such an idiot?! Getting yourself hypnotised, and kissing that thing?!"

"It wasn't my fault-" Kiba cut off, his eyes narrowing. The frown fell away from Hotaru's face, and she leaned away as he leaned forward, scrutinising her. The brunette then leaned back again, smug amazement spreading over his features, "No way! Are you jealous?!"

"W-what?!" Hotaru spluttered, flustered, flushing such a bright red that she was certain Kiba could see it, even in the dark. "Jealous of her?! No way!!"

Kibe just folded his arms, still smug. "Course not."

"I'm not!!" she fumed, and Kiba grinned, enjoying the rare moments of Hotaru's embarassment while they lasted. "I-You- Ugh!! Just get me out of these damn chains, they're killing my arms!"

After a few minutes, Hotaru was free from imprisonment. She stood by Kiba outside the jail cell, casting a curious glance to the cell on the opposite side of the room then cringing and looking away.

"Do you know where Kakashi and Akamaru are?" Hotaru asked, switching to a new subject. Kiba frowned, then nodded.

"Sort of. And anyway, if we get lost, I can sniff them out, or, worst case scenario, you can use your Hikarigan." the redhead nodded, and followed Kiba in silence as they set off to find their comrades. Kiba sniffed the air. "Akamaru's closest..."

Hotaru frowned at him. "Why'd you say it like that?"

Kiba looked down, and the two started to move at a fast pace. He then looked up at Hotaru, worry in his eyes. "I was horrible to him. What if he doesn't want to speak to me?"

Hotaru stared at him a second, then shook her head. "This is Akamaru we're talking about. He knew from the start that you weren't yourself... that's what he was trying to tell me before." she thought back to the time on the beach, when she hadn't understood his words. "And anyway, he cares about you a great deal. If you apologise, he'll forgive you. It's how it goes when you care deeply about someone."

Kiba just stared at Hotaru for a long time, and Hotaru frowned. "What?"

The brunette gave a wry smile, "When did you get so mature?"

Hotaru rose an eyebrow, but smiled a little. "I always was. My childish side just usually overrides it."

Kiba grinned in humour, then sniffed the air again. A look of urgency flashed on his features. "He's in here."

Hotaru nodded, and stood back as Kiba barged into the door with his shoulder. He was thrown back by an invisible barrier.

Hotaru pushed him aside, rolling her eyes, then edged her hand toward the barrier. She flinched as her hand was thrown back, with such force that she almost lost her balance and fell (and would have if Kiba hadn't caught her, but of course you don't need to know that). Hotaru quickly stepped away from the brunette shinobi, and brushed off the blush before it could rise.

"Damn, that princess can make a barrier." Kiba commented, and Hotaru rolled her eyes.

"If you do decide to form a barrier," Hotaru muttered, analysing it the grinning smugly, "at least make it worth my time, Princess."

And with that, she tilted her hand at an odd angle and squeezed it through the barrier, opening the door. As soon as the door hit the inside of the barrier, it deactivated. "Looks like it was a one sided barrier."

"Akamaru!" Kiba called as he ran in, and Hotaru heard a bark. She entered to see Kiba kneeling in front of the large dog, saying something. Akamaru then cut Kiba off by licking his face, and Hotaru smiled. The relationship between a boy and his dog... how sweet.

"As touching as this is, we haven't got much time, and we still have to get Kakashi." the kunoichi pointed out drily, leaning against the doorframe. Both boy and dog sprang into action immediately, searching out their senior comrade.

"Someone's coming!" the words caught Hotaru by surprise, and she was suddenly being pulled into a tiny closet. She flushed slightly once more; small closet, freakishly large dog, tall, well built boy, and then an average height and weight girl. Do the math.

Hotaru just grit her teeth and tried to focus on something else. It would only be for a short while, then she could get out and back into her personal bubble of space.

But alas, there had been two people coming from either direction, and they decided to stop and have a chat outside the closet. So there Hotaru was, crammed closer to Kiba than she ever thought possible, with the difficulty of trying to look anywhere but at him when all she could see was him. Her only satisfaction was in that he seemed just as uncomfortable as she was; it was obvious by the blush on his face.

Hotaru was close to boiling point by the time the people moved along; the heat radiating from Kiba was exponential, it was like he was a radiator or something.

"Okay." she breathed out heavily, trying to calm her thudding heart. "We only have a few minutes before they realise we're gone. We have to hurry."

Kiba just nodded, and the two followed after Akamaru as he led them back down the hall. It wasn't long before they had no choice but to stop.

"Kakashi-sensei's in that room." Hotaru sighed, seeing the two guards, metal headguards with the Mori symbol on them.

"Forest shinobi." she muttered, irritated, and ran a hand back through her hair. "Get back."

For once, the brunette did not argue, stepping back as Hotaru's eyes started to glow faintly. She rose her hands slightly, and a few senbon rose from one of the enemy shinobi's pouches. They shimmered slightly as they floated in the air, and angled towards the Mori ninja's necks.

Then, just like that, Hotaru brought her hands over each other, in a cross shape in front of her body. The senbon were flung into their marks by an invisible force, and the shinobi collapsed to the floor, as the white glow faded from Hotaru's irises. Her concentrated frown lifted, and she turned to the gobsmacked Kiba.

"Come on." she started cautiously towards the door, then spared a glance back to Kiba and grinned, "And close your mouth. You'll catch flies, Inu-baka."

Kiba quickly closed his his mouth, and glared at her, but she was already at the door, pulling one of the senbon from one guy's neck and picking the lock. Kiba eyed them disgustedly. "Are they dead?"

Hotaru spared him a glance, and shook her head. "Just a temporary death state." then she grinned, "Why? Little doggy scared of death?"

Kiba growled at her, "No. I was just wondering."

Hotaru went to respond, but was cut off by a click noise. She looked down at the door, and pushed it open.

"Oh yeah!" she whisper-shouted triumphantly, disappearing through the door. Kakashi stood as she entered, and the slight smug smirk on his face was obvious.

"And those guys thought you couldn't do it. Good job, you three." he said, and Kiba and Hotaru grinned while Akamaru barked. Kakashi then walked over to them, easily breaking the chains that were around his wrists.

Hotaru eyed him incredulously, "All this time, you could've just done that?"

Kakashi shook his head, "The chains' strength was caused by a jutsu of one of the guards." he explained as the four of them started to run down the hall. When they finally got outside, they were confronted by Haruhi and a bunch of Forest ninja.

"Let us go, and I won't have to harm that pretty little head of yours." Hotaru warned, then smiled sweetly, "Though I assure you, I would enjoy doing so very much."

Haruhi's once cute, petite face scrunched up into a menacing glare, and she rose one arm in a signal. "How did you break my jutsu?"

Hotaru shrugged, and studied her nails boredly, "I had sex with him."

This caused everyone to froze, and Kiba flushed a bright red, Kakashi stared in shock, and Haruhi's eyes widened. "Really?!"

Hotaru scoffed, lowering her hand and meeting the girl's eyes head on. "No, not really! Man you are gullible! How'd you think I broke it?! I got through to him. If Inuzuka's good at one thing, it's being extremely hard-headed."

Haruhi scowled, and spoke to her men without breaking eye contact with Hotaru. "Take out the men and dog. This bitch is mine."

Hotaru rose an eyebrow, purposefully riling up Haruhi more. "Ooh, getting a little overambitious are we?"

She grinned to herself as Haruhi screamed indignantly and charged, meeting in a head on clash. They exchanged blows like a well timed dance, blocking each other's kicks and punches.

"So," Hotaru began as she ducked out of the way of a chakra infused punch, "what did Sasori take from you, exactly?"

Haruhi smirked, kicking Hotaru in the stomach. The redhead just smiled, and spat blood in the blonde's face. Haruhi grimaced in disgust, and Hotaru took the opportunity to punch her in the face.

Haruhi was thrown back, onto the floor, and Hotaru stood over her. "Well?"

"He took..." Haruhi paused dramatically, then grinned, "my virginity!"

Hotaru froze, blinked, then grimaced. "Ewwww..."

Haruhi ignored her, standing up and continuing. "Sure, he was good, but then he took off-"

She was cut off by being punched again.

"Dude!!" Hotaru cried, shaking her head vigourously in disgust, "TMI!! That's my brother, I don't wanna hear that!! My innocence!!"

Haruhi just sniggered as Hotaru continued freaking out. "So immature."

Hotaru froze, and a sound similar to glass cracking echoed through the area. The other shinobi stopped in their fighting, and Kiba grinned as he noticed the vein bulging on Hotaru's temple. He looked to Haruhi.

"You reeaally shouldn't have said that." he said, snickering, "She's gonna pummel you."

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST FUCKING SAY?!" Hotaru roared at Haruhi, and the blonde stared in horror. Hotaru advanced on the blonde, and...

-CENSORED FOR EXTREME VIOLENCE-

Kakashi left the girl in the care of the Mori medical core. Turned out that she was the youngest princess, and had a habit of inventing harebrained schemes to cause trouble and get revenge on those she felt had done her wrong, which in this case was Sasori. He felt kind of sorry for her. She was going to be in a lot of pain for a long time.

"Man, you went crazy!" Kiba commented to Hotaru a while later, as they sat cramped up on the small boat once more. Hotaru just folded her arms and closed her eyes in a stubborn frown.

"Yeah, well, she shouldn't have talked down to me." she opened one eye to glare at the brunette shinobi, "Go back and stay with her if you're worried, mutt."

Kiba put his hands up defensively, "Hey, I'm not complaining! She deserved it, she was being a brat."

Hotaru nodded, and let her eye fall shut again, and faced her head to the floor. To Kakashi, Kiba, and Akamaru, she would appear to be sleeping, though her arms remained folded and the unhappy frown stayed on her face.

"The affection you hold for me... it's pathetic."

Those words kept replaying in her mind, along with the image of Inuzuka kissing Haruhi.

Could it be true? Did she really hold any kind of affection for that baka?

Hotaru's eyebrow twitched, and she suddenly felt like slapping herself. What the hell, like she would ever like the Mutt. Not in a million years.

---

"I'm finally home!" Hotaru cried, running through the gates at top speed. Izumo and Kotetsu stared after her confusedly, but the redhead just kept running.

"Sasoriiiiiiiiii!!!" she yelled as she flung open the door of their home, then ran and attacked the frozen man in a hug. "Ohmygod I'm so glad I'm finally back!!"

Sasori recovered composure, and frowned, hugging her tightly. "Bad mission?"

"The worst!!" this confused Sasori, for she said it with a huge grin.

"Uh, okay..." he said, and Hotaru's brows lowered in a dangerous look. "What?"

"Did you, by any chance... 'get together' with the princess from Mori no Kuni, Haruhi?" the kunoichi asked slowly, and Sasori blinked, confused.

"Get together...? Oh!" he blushed slightly, then nodded, immediately on edge. Why was his little sister asking about his sex life?! "Yeah, why?"

Suddenly, a fist came round and hit him in the face. "How dare you sleep with some chick then piss off, you asshole!!"

"Hey!" Sasori yelled indignantly, "I only left 'cause I realised what a psychopath she was!! If I so much as looked at another girl, she threatened to fucking castrate me!!"

Hotaru blinked, then started laughing. "Ahaha, you crack me up, nii-chan!"

She then grasped him in a hug, while he continued to scowl/pout, his arms folded.

"Glad one of us finds it funny." he muttered, but Hotaru just grinned and kissed his cheek, hugging him tighter.

"Aww, I'm sorry for hitting you, nii-chan." Hotaru said, still smiling. Sasori pouted some more.

"This is child abuse, I swear." Sasori said, and Hotaru giggled.

"Sasori, you are in no way a child. But I am sorry for abusing you." She looked up at him, innocently, "I think the Muppets is on TV around about now..."

Sasori blinked, then slung the kunoichi over his shoulder. She squawked, but he ignored her, and raced to the lounge, to watch his beloved Kermit with his baby sister.

---

B'aww, such a cute ending :'3

Well, here's the eleventh chapter! And, if you are getting impatient for the romance, then don't worry! It's on it's way!!

ANYWAYS!! You like this chappy? It was supposed to be serious, but even the fight scene really isn't. But oh well. I'm happy with how it turned out <3

If you like, Fan, Vote, and COMMENT!!! Attention ho needs, well, ATTENTION!! Lol xD

Sayonara!! xox