[Log] Fisticuffs [Hoshino and Kiba]
Set right after Tsurdue tells Team 8 he's their new sensei.
Kiba had been good, she'd been patient, she's sat through the whole torturous thing and now that it was over, she couldn't take it anymore. The anger at Tsurude for all that he had done lately still hadn't dissipated and now... now he was their sensei? It was too much and she needed to get away before she did something unforgivable, like try and deck the Hokage in the face and then get arrested AND her ass kicked.
By the time she finally settled down in a part of the forest, her chest was aching and her breath steamed in front of her as she panted. Here was quiet, a place one would normally come to think.... but she didn't want to think. There was too much anger and pissed off-ness and wanting to just... she didn't know. This wasn't wrong, it was wrong and she flat out hated it. Which she let be known by slamming a fist into a tree, before sliding down to sit on the cold ground, shoulders tense.
Akako just nudged her from behind, whining softly and wondering why it had to be like this.
The clock had been ticking like a time bomb in her room. The longer Hoshino had stared at it, fingers tense in Konchuu's fur and eyes flashing in the dark without the cover of sunglasses, the faster it had appeared to move. Too much time was passing. After something like this, something that dug so deeply under their skin, there was supposed to be a system. Hoshino vanished off to her room to pull everything together in her mind while Kiba walked Hinaji home and made sure the boy was in a good place. Then Kiba showed up and flopped next to Team 8's other girl on the futon, for clinging and yelling and whatever else needed to get out some place safe.
She probably should have expected that it wouldn't work that way this time.
Preliminary searching of the Village revealed no visible Kiba at the Inuzuka or Hyuuga compounds, spirited away into an Uchiha or Uzumaki apartment, or pounding through frustrations at a training field. A moment focusing on the faint vibrations in the air, the slight humming that most people (civilian and shinobi alike) ignored, finally brought her in the direction of the forest, silent apart from the annoyed buzzing of the kikaichuu remaining in her body.
Tracking the Inuzuka girl down once among the trees wasn't particularly hard; it was the sort of thing they'd been trained for, really. Before long the signs were becoming more and more obvious (Kiba had to be upset to be this sloppy; Sachiko might have been right about the 'burned out' assessment), and quite suddenly there was the girl herself, leaned against a tree and giant nin-dog, as tense and angry on the outside as Hoshino felt on the inside. Or would have felt, if she could have been bothered to experience the emotions Kureno had once taught her to comprehend.
"..." As usual, there was nothing to say. Tilting her head to the left, Hoshino slipped quietly down from the tree she'd landed in to stand behind her once and future teammate, hands deep in her pockets and glasses flashing accusingly in the filtered light.
The familiar scent was in the air long before the girl dropped down to stare at her so accusingly. Normally having her show up would have brought some comfort of some kind, but right now it only made her stomach twist sickly and that alone made Kiba feel even worse. When they had been younger, this is the bridge that had been between them; they had been two very different people from two very different clans. Only then they had yet to be friends so the anger had never actually hurt and it only hurt when Kureno had gotten so frustrated with them that he'd shove extra training on them till the point where they all collapsed. Only that was then and this was now and everything they'd worked for was gone and their sensei was gone and Kiba couldn't help but feel that she should have tried harder.
"What?"
She asked, voice soft but still belligerent as she looked slightly back at Hoshino, who was still staring at her. This gap was too big for her to bridge; normally she knew the right words, the right gestures, to somehow make this all right. Only she was pretty sure a hug wouldn't work here. They'd worked so hard to get Hoshino used to things like that and now it just didn't seem possible.
Why did all of this have to hurt so bad?
"You're behaving childishly."
It came much more easily than many words did, sparked by the anger she didn't want to admit was tearing away at her inside. With her usual definitive way of moving, Hoshino reached up with her right hand to straighten her glasses before crossing her arms decidedly across her chest. It was a closed presentation of self, impenetrable and impersonal as the obvious message that she was only hear because she felt it was somehow her responsibility to be.
"Kureno isn't dead. Tsurude-sama is going to be a more than adequate replacement. Stop pretending this is never going to be a perfectly acceptable situation. You're a smarter person than this."
It should have been so simple. Things were moving forward again. They had to be at the point of getting their feet back underneath them. What good was all their training if they let their emotions overwhelm them into neglecting it? What was the point of the intense dagger to their hearts if not to teach them to grow stronger? Why did it have to be so difficult to explain this to one of the four people in the world who were supposed to actually understand her? It was as frustrating as the long hard period of adjusting to one another in the first place, figuring out which buttons could be pushed and which got you punched in the face.
...
Of all the things that she had been expecting, that accusation was not one of them. It stunned her at first, made her jaw drop open and her eyes widen slightly. And then it hurt like hell.
It had been a long time since Hoshino had ever outright insulted her without teasing behind her. Her words here were cutting and painful and for a moment, Kiba had absolutely no idea what to do. For this whole thing, from beginning to end, she'd been the most mature she had been in years; she'd been patient, she'd been polite, she'd gone to the Hokage and not lashed out at anyone and and... and now she was being called childish? It hurt, it really hurt, but she was too scared now to show that; she'd been pushing down all that hurt for so long that now the only way she knew how to handle it was to fuel it into anger.
It was too scary to contemplate that, maybe, Hoshino said it on purpose.
"It's not perfectly acceptable," she finally managed to spit out, scrambling to her feet, cheeks blotchy with anger. "And I am not being childish." Or maybe she was because the next words out of her mouth should probably have been left buried safely inside; they weren't going to do anything but hurt, after all. "I'm not the one's who's pulling back and pulling away. At least I tried."
These sort of things weren't supposed to sting anymore. That was half the point of not caring about people; they didn't come back to hurt you, intentionally or otherwise. So it didn't make any sense that the last sentiment bit into her, tearing at something which was still very human and very vulnerable and very able to feel the raw emotional pain that was snarling back and forth between them like an unbridged void.
It was obvious from the controlled way she took in the next breath how frustrated this made her, but Hoshino was far from caring. Voice a shade colder than its usual blank tone, she arched a brow slightly before replying over the agitated hum of her own kikaichuu, "...you're not even going to consider that it might be better this way, are you..."
Honestly, even if the other girl's words hurt like anything, there was no way it was good to flinch at the sound of her own words. Not a visible flinch, just a slight shudder that passed up her spine like something cold and unpleasant walking into the room uninvited. Licking purposefully at her lower lip, Hoshino glanced away, staring into the trees as if the conversation were already over.
"It's NOT better this way!" Kiba snapped, hands curling into fists. "This isn't how it's supposed to be and you know that!"
They'd been teammates for years now. She saw that slight shudder and she knew what it meant. But she was too busy being hurt by the cold tone being directed her way, how it sounded like Hoshino thought she was an idiot, a stupid child for not bending. And maybe she was, since it was only going to break her in the end if it already hadn't but Hoshino wasn't supposed to be saying it like that. She was supposed to be patient and gently bop her on the head and help her work through it just like the Inuzuka girl tried to help her in return.
Why was it like this?
"At least I tried." The words came out snapped, barely hiding the hurt that lay underneath. "I didn't give up and just accept it."
"Would you stop saying that?" Hoshino wasn't the sort to yell lightly. Her voice was as controlled and level as ever, even if her shoulders were tense and her eyes flashing with something like anger behind their dark frames. "We all tried, Kiba, and some of us succeeded." Not as a team, obviously, but as individuals. Thinking about Kureno didn't hurt anymore, only left her feeling a little tired and like a strong, well-trained kunoichi. The tiny part of her which had initially been all for her teammate's plan to rage against the machine was gone, as far as she could tell, pushed so deep that it no longer existed.
It didn't explain why seeing Kiba this way was so distressing. She'd work on that explanation later.
"You can't be the victim forever."
There was an ugly flush to Kiba's face and a wounded look that she simply couldn't hide. The statement about trying hit hard and painfully and it left the Inuzuka practically immobilized for a few seconds. Her throat closed up tight and her stomach twisted painfully and there were simply no words to hurl back at the other; Hoshino had always won their verbal spars, after all. That burning had started up behind her eyes and she forced her face to twist into something that was decidedly blank as she looked away from the Aburame. Everything hurt, like she had some disease that was taking everything out of her, leaving her drained and empty and hollow. And now there was no one to pick her up and force her to get better again. This was all her fault.
"Whatever Hoshino."
It was all she could muster up as she started to walk away, head bowed and hands in her coat. She had to move past Hoshino, of course; they were close enough that just a slight adjustment would brush her up against the other. But like everything else, it was just too large of a distance.
It had been a long time since the pair had even sparred together, much less had a physical fight. Violent interactions had been definitional of their early relationship, scuffles which had started with dirty knees and bruised prides and evolved through a very dangerous period involving senbon before morphing into a strange and then finally comfortable friendship. It didn't mean the old instincts had ever gone away; even snuggles had always been laced with something strangely passionate, nails digging into skin and arms too tight in a painfully loving way.
That made it easier to understand the sudden twitch of Hoshino's jaw and the angry echo in the stillness as she landed a backhanded slap across her teammate's face in passing.
She didn't need to say 'don't you dare walk away from this.' She didn't need to point out that if this friendship was so easily torn back apart, it wasn't worth fighting for. She didn't need to let Kiba know that this was a sign she'd won, broken whatever had been left of Kiba's resolve on the issue, proven that they really would be better off apart.
After all, it had always been a physical relationship.
At first, Kiba hadn't known what had happened. The pain was sudden and stinging and her head snapped with the blow, making her stagger, eyes wide in surprise. For a second or two, she looked around wildly, wondering where that had come from, before she processed what had happened.
Hoshino had hit.
Hoshino had physically hit her!.
There were a few seconds more where she could only stare at her teammate in shock, a hand pressed to the stinging cheek. And then the anger overtook the shock and it quickly dissolved into a mess from there, a frightening tangle of emotions, fear and hurt and pain all driving her to act before she could think. A strangled noise rose from her throat and she slammed into the other girl, driving her back towards the ground, hands already curling into fists. She was not just going to take it.
She didn't want to be hurt anymore.
Some small part of Hoshino was entirely glad for the look that flashed across Kiba's face, although it was infinitely happier at the sudden (but anticipated) attack in response. At least this didn't make the universe sting painfully like a fresh superficial wound. It was real and solid and grounding and made her ribs hurt more than anything else. This was how they connected on the most basic level, after all, struggling together as generations of genin and chuunin and jounin had done before them.
Her kikaichuu went to work with only the slightest thought, swarming against the most familiar enemy they'd ever been asked to encounter. It was a familiar attack pattern, the sort meant to be used to keep an opponent from getting any ideas about using chakra in the fight. The kikaichuu already stationed on Kiba's body (she had never called them home, even with the tension) shifted pitch in alarm, vibrating the webs of chakra around them in confusion. For the moment, Hoshino had to ignore them, focusing on hitting the ground without hurting anything and pulling herself out of the other's grip as quickly as possible.
It had been a very long time since Kiba had felt the destruction bugs sting on her skin. Hoshino had done it a lot when they were younger and when Kiba hadn't been adverse to hitting in an attempt to get them off her skin. But even now, with the two of them tussling, and the drain probably starting, she couldn't bring herself to bring up a hand and hit them to make it stop. There was still far too much respect for her teammate (because thats what she was) and far too much respect for her relationship with the kikai. As it was, the distraction from the bugs made her rear back in surprise, a small yelp escaping her lips.
A hand remained fisted in Hoshino's jacket though, desperate almost, afraid to let go. It was the last tie she had to her, the last thread and she had no idea what she was going to do if she lost it.
The conflict was primordial and, unlike the rest of the world, felt good. Right, at least, as if it fit into place. The ground was rough under her back and Kiba's grip on her coat was urgent. The air was positively humming with what it meant to live this sort of life. Somehow, it would have been more enjoyable if she could have been sure it would end well. Take what you can get.
Body tensing into the coil of muscles it was meant to be, Hoshino took the split-second of distraction to shift through plans and settle on the idea of getting herself on top. A sharp push of her upper body up from the ground led into a close-range punch, plain and simple taijutsu aimed for the other girl's gut. Getting Kiba pushed back more would make her easier to topple.
The punch was a surprise- it always was with Hoshino, because usually it was Kiba who was so physical. The end result was that Kiba did go back, only she refused to release Hoshino's coat still, nails probably ripping fabric as she tried to hang on. Logically, she should have let go and swung her own punch or attacked back or something, but her mind and her body weren't quite working in sync right now. The end result was her toppling backwards, bugs still swarming her skin.
... she hoped she hadn't hurt any of them in the fall.
It wasn't helping that her vision was getting blurry, eyes filling with tears. This was all so fundamentally wrong and she didn't know what to do. All she could do was anchor that hand in Hoshino's coat more, and raise one hand to try and stop any blow that came next.
Instinct had her rolling forward, shifting with the blow until she was over Kiba, one hand grabbing the arm the Inuzuka was using to hold them together. Her other arm snapped back, fingers wide as another group of kikaichuu swarmed angrily up toward her palm, ready for the fist and the next phase of the attack.
For a moment, she was fairly certain she was going to go through with it.
The moment passed quite suddenly, and Hoshino was dropping her arm, kikaichuu scattering everywhere to regroup and swarm harmlessly back toward their host. The alarms from Kiba's 'bugs' stopped going off, settling back down to the all too familiar pitch which only indicated something unhappy and disconcerting, not physical danger. It was over almost as quickly as it had begun.
"...what's wrong... with you, Kiba...?"
"I'm sorry."
It came out broken and croaked and she couldn't stop the tears anymore. This wasn't right in any sense of the word and team 8 wasn't supposed to fracture like this, no matter what the pressures pressed upon them. And somehow, she felt like it was all her fault.
"I'm trying," she finally said again, voice still broken and rough. "I tried to fix it, I did, but I can't put all the pieces back together and I don't know how, I can't. I'm sorry, I am, please... you're going away, don't go away too. Please."
She couldn't lose someone else from her team. Her family.
"...would you stop that?"
She didn't realize what she was doing until she was sitting up again, dragging the other girl with her. It was awkward, half sitting on each other, smeared with dirt and twigs and Kiba's sudden warm tears, but it felt even better than fighting had. Pulling Kiba into a tight hug was the right thing to do, the most soothing, the least congruous and most sensible. Really, it would server her right if Kiba had whipped out a kunai and pinned her to the ground again. Which, figuratively, was what she had done.
The time apart had almost made Hoshino forget how entirely depressing it was when Kiba cried.
Maybe her grip was too tight, fingernails digging into flesh and face pressed too hard against the slightly smaller girl's hair. It was still amazingly comfortable. The words weren't there yet, the 'I'm sorry's and the 'we still have to work this shit out's, but the void was crumbling, a gap slowly filling with rubble. Soon they might be able to walk across it and meet each other half-way again.
Hands were too tight and Hoshino's scent was all that she could smell and tears still left tracks on her face. But she just hugged Hoshino tightly in return, head resting against her chest as she struggled to gain some semblance of control and calm down, if only a little bit. This wasn't all the way better, probably wouldn't be for awhile. But it was a step towards putting Team 8 back together again.
Kiba had been good, she'd been patient, she's sat through the whole torturous thing and now that it was over, she couldn't take it anymore. The anger at Tsurude for all that he had done lately still hadn't dissipated and now... now he was their sensei? It was too much and she needed to get away before she did something unforgivable, like try and deck the Hokage in the face and then get arrested AND her ass kicked.
By the time she finally settled down in a part of the forest, her chest was aching and her breath steamed in front of her as she panted. Here was quiet, a place one would normally come to think.... but she didn't want to think. There was too much anger and pissed off-ness and wanting to just... she didn't know. This wasn't wrong, it was wrong and she flat out hated it. Which she let be known by slamming a fist into a tree, before sliding down to sit on the cold ground, shoulders tense.
Akako just nudged her from behind, whining softly and wondering why it had to be like this.
The clock had been ticking like a time bomb in her room. The longer Hoshino had stared at it, fingers tense in Konchuu's fur and eyes flashing in the dark without the cover of sunglasses, the faster it had appeared to move. Too much time was passing. After something like this, something that dug so deeply under their skin, there was supposed to be a system. Hoshino vanished off to her room to pull everything together in her mind while Kiba walked Hinaji home and made sure the boy was in a good place. Then Kiba showed up and flopped next to Team 8's other girl on the futon, for clinging and yelling and whatever else needed to get out some place safe.
She probably should have expected that it wouldn't work that way this time.
Preliminary searching of the Village revealed no visible Kiba at the Inuzuka or Hyuuga compounds, spirited away into an Uchiha or Uzumaki apartment, or pounding through frustrations at a training field. A moment focusing on the faint vibrations in the air, the slight humming that most people (civilian and shinobi alike) ignored, finally brought her in the direction of the forest, silent apart from the annoyed buzzing of the kikaichuu remaining in her body.
Tracking the Inuzuka girl down once among the trees wasn't particularly hard; it was the sort of thing they'd been trained for, really. Before long the signs were becoming more and more obvious (Kiba had to be upset to be this sloppy; Sachiko might have been right about the 'burned out' assessment), and quite suddenly there was the girl herself, leaned against a tree and giant nin-dog, as tense and angry on the outside as Hoshino felt on the inside. Or would have felt, if she could have been bothered to experience the emotions Kureno had once taught her to comprehend.
"..." As usual, there was nothing to say. Tilting her head to the left, Hoshino slipped quietly down from the tree she'd landed in to stand behind her once and future teammate, hands deep in her pockets and glasses flashing accusingly in the filtered light.
The familiar scent was in the air long before the girl dropped down to stare at her so accusingly. Normally having her show up would have brought some comfort of some kind, but right now it only made her stomach twist sickly and that alone made Kiba feel even worse. When they had been younger, this is the bridge that had been between them; they had been two very different people from two very different clans. Only then they had yet to be friends so the anger had never actually hurt and it only hurt when Kureno had gotten so frustrated with them that he'd shove extra training on them till the point where they all collapsed. Only that was then and this was now and everything they'd worked for was gone and their sensei was gone and Kiba couldn't help but feel that she should have tried harder.
"What?"
She asked, voice soft but still belligerent as she looked slightly back at Hoshino, who was still staring at her. This gap was too big for her to bridge; normally she knew the right words, the right gestures, to somehow make this all right. Only she was pretty sure a hug wouldn't work here. They'd worked so hard to get Hoshino used to things like that and now it just didn't seem possible.
Why did all of this have to hurt so bad?
"You're behaving childishly."
It came much more easily than many words did, sparked by the anger she didn't want to admit was tearing away at her inside. With her usual definitive way of moving, Hoshino reached up with her right hand to straighten her glasses before crossing her arms decidedly across her chest. It was a closed presentation of self, impenetrable and impersonal as the obvious message that she was only hear because she felt it was somehow her responsibility to be.
"Kureno isn't dead. Tsurude-sama is going to be a more than adequate replacement. Stop pretending this is never going to be a perfectly acceptable situation. You're a smarter person than this."
It should have been so simple. Things were moving forward again. They had to be at the point of getting their feet back underneath them. What good was all their training if they let their emotions overwhelm them into neglecting it? What was the point of the intense dagger to their hearts if not to teach them to grow stronger? Why did it have to be so difficult to explain this to one of the four people in the world who were supposed to actually understand her? It was as frustrating as the long hard period of adjusting to one another in the first place, figuring out which buttons could be pushed and which got you punched in the face.
...
Of all the things that she had been expecting, that accusation was not one of them. It stunned her at first, made her jaw drop open and her eyes widen slightly. And then it hurt like hell.
It had been a long time since Hoshino had ever outright insulted her without teasing behind her. Her words here were cutting and painful and for a moment, Kiba had absolutely no idea what to do. For this whole thing, from beginning to end, she'd been the most mature she had been in years; she'd been patient, she'd been polite, she'd gone to the Hokage and not lashed out at anyone and and... and now she was being called childish? It hurt, it really hurt, but she was too scared now to show that; she'd been pushing down all that hurt for so long that now the only way she knew how to handle it was to fuel it into anger.
It was too scary to contemplate that, maybe, Hoshino said it on purpose.
"It's not perfectly acceptable," she finally managed to spit out, scrambling to her feet, cheeks blotchy with anger. "And I am not being childish." Or maybe she was because the next words out of her mouth should probably have been left buried safely inside; they weren't going to do anything but hurt, after all. "I'm not the one's who's pulling back and pulling away. At least I tried."
These sort of things weren't supposed to sting anymore. That was half the point of not caring about people; they didn't come back to hurt you, intentionally or otherwise. So it didn't make any sense that the last sentiment bit into her, tearing at something which was still very human and very vulnerable and very able to feel the raw emotional pain that was snarling back and forth between them like an unbridged void.
It was obvious from the controlled way she took in the next breath how frustrated this made her, but Hoshino was far from caring. Voice a shade colder than its usual blank tone, she arched a brow slightly before replying over the agitated hum of her own kikaichuu, "...you're not even going to consider that it might be better this way, are you..."
Honestly, even if the other girl's words hurt like anything, there was no way it was good to flinch at the sound of her own words. Not a visible flinch, just a slight shudder that passed up her spine like something cold and unpleasant walking into the room uninvited. Licking purposefully at her lower lip, Hoshino glanced away, staring into the trees as if the conversation were already over.
"It's NOT better this way!" Kiba snapped, hands curling into fists. "This isn't how it's supposed to be and you know that!"
They'd been teammates for years now. She saw that slight shudder and she knew what it meant. But she was too busy being hurt by the cold tone being directed her way, how it sounded like Hoshino thought she was an idiot, a stupid child for not bending. And maybe she was, since it was only going to break her in the end if it already hadn't but Hoshino wasn't supposed to be saying it like that. She was supposed to be patient and gently bop her on the head and help her work through it just like the Inuzuka girl tried to help her in return.
Why was it like this?
"At least I tried." The words came out snapped, barely hiding the hurt that lay underneath. "I didn't give up and just accept it."
"Would you stop saying that?" Hoshino wasn't the sort to yell lightly. Her voice was as controlled and level as ever, even if her shoulders were tense and her eyes flashing with something like anger behind their dark frames. "We all tried, Kiba, and some of us succeeded." Not as a team, obviously, but as individuals. Thinking about Kureno didn't hurt anymore, only left her feeling a little tired and like a strong, well-trained kunoichi. The tiny part of her which had initially been all for her teammate's plan to rage against the machine was gone, as far as she could tell, pushed so deep that it no longer existed.
It didn't explain why seeing Kiba this way was so distressing. She'd work on that explanation later.
"You can't be the victim forever."
There was an ugly flush to Kiba's face and a wounded look that she simply couldn't hide. The statement about trying hit hard and painfully and it left the Inuzuka practically immobilized for a few seconds. Her throat closed up tight and her stomach twisted painfully and there were simply no words to hurl back at the other; Hoshino had always won their verbal spars, after all. That burning had started up behind her eyes and she forced her face to twist into something that was decidedly blank as she looked away from the Aburame. Everything hurt, like she had some disease that was taking everything out of her, leaving her drained and empty and hollow. And now there was no one to pick her up and force her to get better again. This was all her fault.
"Whatever Hoshino."
It was all she could muster up as she started to walk away, head bowed and hands in her coat. She had to move past Hoshino, of course; they were close enough that just a slight adjustment would brush her up against the other. But like everything else, it was just too large of a distance.
It had been a long time since the pair had even sparred together, much less had a physical fight. Violent interactions had been definitional of their early relationship, scuffles which had started with dirty knees and bruised prides and evolved through a very dangerous period involving senbon before morphing into a strange and then finally comfortable friendship. It didn't mean the old instincts had ever gone away; even snuggles had always been laced with something strangely passionate, nails digging into skin and arms too tight in a painfully loving way.
That made it easier to understand the sudden twitch of Hoshino's jaw and the angry echo in the stillness as she landed a backhanded slap across her teammate's face in passing.
She didn't need to say 'don't you dare walk away from this.' She didn't need to point out that if this friendship was so easily torn back apart, it wasn't worth fighting for. She didn't need to let Kiba know that this was a sign she'd won, broken whatever had been left of Kiba's resolve on the issue, proven that they really would be better off apart.
After all, it had always been a physical relationship.
At first, Kiba hadn't known what had happened. The pain was sudden and stinging and her head snapped with the blow, making her stagger, eyes wide in surprise. For a second or two, she looked around wildly, wondering where that had come from, before she processed what had happened.
Hoshino had hit.
Hoshino had physically hit her!.
There were a few seconds more where she could only stare at her teammate in shock, a hand pressed to the stinging cheek. And then the anger overtook the shock and it quickly dissolved into a mess from there, a frightening tangle of emotions, fear and hurt and pain all driving her to act before she could think. A strangled noise rose from her throat and she slammed into the other girl, driving her back towards the ground, hands already curling into fists. She was not just going to take it.
She didn't want to be hurt anymore.
Some small part of Hoshino was entirely glad for the look that flashed across Kiba's face, although it was infinitely happier at the sudden (but anticipated) attack in response. At least this didn't make the universe sting painfully like a fresh superficial wound. It was real and solid and grounding and made her ribs hurt more than anything else. This was how they connected on the most basic level, after all, struggling together as generations of genin and chuunin and jounin had done before them.
Her kikaichuu went to work with only the slightest thought, swarming against the most familiar enemy they'd ever been asked to encounter. It was a familiar attack pattern, the sort meant to be used to keep an opponent from getting any ideas about using chakra in the fight. The kikaichuu already stationed on Kiba's body (she had never called them home, even with the tension) shifted pitch in alarm, vibrating the webs of chakra around them in confusion. For the moment, Hoshino had to ignore them, focusing on hitting the ground without hurting anything and pulling herself out of the other's grip as quickly as possible.
It had been a very long time since Kiba had felt the destruction bugs sting on her skin. Hoshino had done it a lot when they were younger and when Kiba hadn't been adverse to hitting in an attempt to get them off her skin. But even now, with the two of them tussling, and the drain probably starting, she couldn't bring herself to bring up a hand and hit them to make it stop. There was still far too much respect for her teammate (because thats what she was) and far too much respect for her relationship with the kikai. As it was, the distraction from the bugs made her rear back in surprise, a small yelp escaping her lips.
A hand remained fisted in Hoshino's jacket though, desperate almost, afraid to let go. It was the last tie she had to her, the last thread and she had no idea what she was going to do if she lost it.
The conflict was primordial and, unlike the rest of the world, felt good. Right, at least, as if it fit into place. The ground was rough under her back and Kiba's grip on her coat was urgent. The air was positively humming with what it meant to live this sort of life. Somehow, it would have been more enjoyable if she could have been sure it would end well. Take what you can get.
Body tensing into the coil of muscles it was meant to be, Hoshino took the split-second of distraction to shift through plans and settle on the idea of getting herself on top. A sharp push of her upper body up from the ground led into a close-range punch, plain and simple taijutsu aimed for the other girl's gut. Getting Kiba pushed back more would make her easier to topple.
The punch was a surprise- it always was with Hoshino, because usually it was Kiba who was so physical. The end result was that Kiba did go back, only she refused to release Hoshino's coat still, nails probably ripping fabric as she tried to hang on. Logically, she should have let go and swung her own punch or attacked back or something, but her mind and her body weren't quite working in sync right now. The end result was her toppling backwards, bugs still swarming her skin.
... she hoped she hadn't hurt any of them in the fall.
It wasn't helping that her vision was getting blurry, eyes filling with tears. This was all so fundamentally wrong and she didn't know what to do. All she could do was anchor that hand in Hoshino's coat more, and raise one hand to try and stop any blow that came next.
Instinct had her rolling forward, shifting with the blow until she was over Kiba, one hand grabbing the arm the Inuzuka was using to hold them together. Her other arm snapped back, fingers wide as another group of kikaichuu swarmed angrily up toward her palm, ready for the fist and the next phase of the attack.
For a moment, she was fairly certain she was going to go through with it.
The moment passed quite suddenly, and Hoshino was dropping her arm, kikaichuu scattering everywhere to regroup and swarm harmlessly back toward their host. The alarms from Kiba's 'bugs' stopped going off, settling back down to the all too familiar pitch which only indicated something unhappy and disconcerting, not physical danger. It was over almost as quickly as it had begun.
"...what's wrong... with you, Kiba...?"
"I'm sorry."
It came out broken and croaked and she couldn't stop the tears anymore. This wasn't right in any sense of the word and team 8 wasn't supposed to fracture like this, no matter what the pressures pressed upon them. And somehow, she felt like it was all her fault.
"I'm trying," she finally said again, voice still broken and rough. "I tried to fix it, I did, but I can't put all the pieces back together and I don't know how, I can't. I'm sorry, I am, please... you're going away, don't go away too. Please."
She couldn't lose someone else from her team. Her family.
"...would you stop that?"
She didn't realize what she was doing until she was sitting up again, dragging the other girl with her. It was awkward, half sitting on each other, smeared with dirt and twigs and Kiba's sudden warm tears, but it felt even better than fighting had. Pulling Kiba into a tight hug was the right thing to do, the most soothing, the least congruous and most sensible. Really, it would server her right if Kiba had whipped out a kunai and pinned her to the ground again. Which, figuratively, was what she had done.
The time apart had almost made Hoshino forget how entirely depressing it was when Kiba cried.
Maybe her grip was too tight, fingernails digging into flesh and face pressed too hard against the slightly smaller girl's hair. It was still amazingly comfortable. The words weren't there yet, the 'I'm sorry's and the 'we still have to work this shit out's, but the void was crumbling, a gap slowly filling with rubble. Soon they might be able to walk across it and meet each other half-way again.
Hands were too tight and Hoshino's scent was all that she could smell and tears still left tracks on her face. But she just hugged Hoshino tightly in return, head resting against her chest as she struggled to gain some semblance of control and calm down, if only a little bit. This wasn't all the way better, probably wouldn't be for awhile. But it was a step towards putting Team 8 back together again.