Author’s Note: Well, here it is, onee-sama. The final chapter of your present, where everything heats up. Ehehe, please review when you get back from Paris (when’s that supposed to be?).

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own the Star Wars books. Significance of statement two will be explained in the ending note of this chapter.

Wake Up – Chapter 4

by Katako-Chan

Kaoru sighed. The north didn’t really seem like the best direction to be heading in. Earth Country was northwest of Fire and north of Grass, making the direction she was traveling in the most hazardous. I’ve got to be really careful about not crossing Earth’s borders. The Tsuchikage and Tsunade-sama aren’t in any sort of alliance, and they’d probably hold me hostage or something.

Not long after she finished that thought, she noticed a tree with three long, deep gashes in its side. When she came closer to inspect it, the acrid smell of urine filled her nose and she drew back, crinkling her nose. Claw marks and urine? she thought. Akamaru! That means Kiba-kun must be close by!

Quickening her pace, Kaoru sped off towards the sparse, barren horizon. Very soon after her acceleration, she heard the sounds of battle: weapons clanging, muffled battle cries.

She veered off her previous path and came upon Kiba and Akamaru fighting two large, hulking men glaring down with their weapons raised.

“Kiba-kun!” Recklessly, Kaoru dashed into the clearing and took up a defensive stance on Akamaru’s left, a kunai held in front of her.

“Kaoru? What are you doin-. Augh!” Kiba was thrown back by one of the men with a great shove of his sinewy arms. Akamaru barked indignantly and snarled a threat only understood by Kiba to the enemy.

“Heh, guess this little twerp needed to be saved...by a girl,” the first man, who was wearing an eye-patch, taunted.

“Why, you-!” Kaoru muttered angrily, leaping into the air and aiming a roundhouse kick at Eye-Patch-Man’s head, who leaned out of the way and sent her crashing back to the ground.

“Hmm, this little girl is pretty feisty. This twerp your boyfriend, girlie?” this time it was the second man, who’s chin sported a nasty-looking growth of scar tissue in the shape of an X.

Kaoru, a bit winded from her fall, blinked slowly to clear her vision, which was suddenly filled with glinting metal. She braced herself for a deep cut, but only heard a sharp cry and was once again laying on the ground, this time buried under something.

She twisted her head for a strained view of whatever was upon her and saw Kiba’s, his eyes shut tightly and mouth twisted into a grimace, one hand gingerly covering the wound on his back.

“Kiba-kun, are you okay?”

“M’fine. How about y-?”

Kiba was once again interrupted as Kaoru hurriedly pushed him off of her and knelt in front of him, her arms held up in front of her face to block the oncoming blow. She winced and recoiled as the blade sliced neatly into her arm while the Scar Man laughed and boasted to his companion about having made ‘the first slice.’

“Alright,” Kaoru winced again as she turned to face Kiba and Akamaru, who had rejoined his master. “We’re both injured, you worse than me. Sakura’s on my team though, so we should be okay. But first, we defeat these two dimwits, right?”

“Right!” Kiba saluted while Akamaru barked in affirmative. “Let’s go, Akamaru, Kaoru!”

The two ninja and one nin-dog stood to face the enemy, their feet set and weapons within reach. The two men, who seemed to be nothing more than bandits with quite a bit of stuff in the brute strength department, but nothing in the intelligence department, simply snickered and snorted.

“Hey, you kiddos. What d’ya think you can do to us?”

Darting forward, Kaoru reached into her shurikan pouch and threw two shurikan to distract her opponents while she formed the handseals for her jutsu. She brought her right hand up to her mouth, the index finger and thumb forming an “o” and cried, “Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!”

The burning fire partially engulfed the two men, who panicked and slapped each other in a desperate attempt to put out the fire. To keep them distracted for a while longer, Kiba threw a medley of weapons from various directions; none of them aimed particularly accurately, a small smile on his face making it appear as if this was some mastermind plan of his. Wow, fighting with Kaoru is different...I only remember ever sparring against her. It’s almost like we know what the other’s going to do...Damn, I’m starting to sound sappy!

The two Konoha ninja and one Konoha nin-dog retreated behind some wild-looking bushes and shrubs that served as enough coverage for two humans and a large dog. The enemy was now attempting to avoid all the haphazardly thrown weapons on Kiba’s part and the expression on their faces was one of utter confusion.

Kiba laughed silently at their expressions. “Man, they look like two giant-sized versions of Naruto when he’s pissed off Sakura accidentally.”

“Yeah, they do,” Kaoru murmured.

“Ugh!” Kiba’s continued mirth had jostled his wound, and he gently placed a hand on his back while Akamaru whined sympathetically.

“Kiba-kun, don’t move too much, you’ll hurt yourself more,” Kaoru scolded, now rummaging through her backpack in search of the bandages she was sure she’d pack at the start of the mission. She moved closer to inspect his wound. “Oh, kami-sama, that’s deep!”

Kiba edged away slightly at their close proximity. “It’s fine, Kaoru. Besides, like you said, Sakura’s somewhere ‘round here.” Idiot! It’s now or never, so hurry up and ask her! If you don’t you’re going to spend another five years building up the courage to! Hurry up and ask her, you idiot!

“Hey, Kaoru?” Kiba asked suddenly, blushing, before turning his face toward Akamaru in embarrassment. “Um, when we get out of this mess, will you, er...um, will you marry me?”

“What?! Inuzuka Kiba, we are in the middle of being attacked by two crazy bandit people and you pick now, of all times, to propose?” Kaoru looked more mortified at the situation of his proposal than the actual statement of it. “Couldn’t you at least of done it properly, with a ring or something?”

“Oh, um...well, heat of the moment?”

“Oh, is that why you proposed? Just because you felt like it? I suppose that means you’ll leave me, too, if it was the ‘heat of the moment,’” Kaoru turned away from him, her arm crossed and expression indignant.

“Wait, uh, is that...is that a ‘no?’” Kiba murmured, lowering his gaze toward the red-brown earth.

“Hold on...what do you mean by ‘when we get out of here?’” Kaoru asked, turning back around to face him. “Don’t you mean ‘if we get out of here?’”

“No, I mean...I mean, I meant ‘when.’ There’s no way we’re not getting out of here.”

“Oh...okay,” Kaoru’s voice went quiet, and she noticed she was digging at the ground furiously with her nails. “Well...well, yes, Inuzuka Kiba, when we get out of here, I’ll marry you.”

And, to entirely ruin the sweet, oddly romantic mood that had begun to settle over the area, at that moment, the two men finished ridding themselves of the fire and weapons that had served to distract them.

“Come on out, you stupid kiddos. We ain’t finished with ya yet!”

They rushed out of the undergrowth, their shy smiles wiped away by the ‘I-Am-In-A-Very-Bad-Mood-Now’ expression worn by both men. Angry at their somewhat defeat minutes earlier, Scar Face and Eye Patch lunged toward Kiba, Kaoru, and Akamaru with their weapons poised for attack.

“YAH! You twerp and girlie ain’t getting away with some shitty trick like before!” Eye Patch roared, swiping at their feet with his weapon, which greatly resembled a cleaver.

Continually being backed up by their enemies attacks in quick succession, the three suddenly found themselves in a river, due to Kiba’s rather unromantic and badly timed proposal. Akamaru was holding a tree branch from one of the few trees in the area between his teeth with Kiba holding onto a very irritated Akamaru’s tail with one arm and the other arm securely around Kaoru’s waist. The tree branch in the nin-dog's mouth, which was slowly cracking where it connected to its rather dry and whithered tree trunk, muffled Akamaru’s warning barks, but Kiba understood.

This branch isn’t going to last for much longer...and if we let go we’ll be swept all the way down to wherever this river ends in Earth country. Dammit, Kiba, think! Use your dead brain and think! What can we do? Kiba eyes were shut in concentration as his mind thought back rapidly to farther up the river. Yes! There’s a weird part of the river just a bit ahead of here that I saw on the way to Grass. The water throws itself onto a small island sitting in the middle of the river, and stuff can get thrown up there too!

“Akamaru! How much longer will it last?” Kiba shouted, while Akamaru replied with a series of muffled barks. “Good, that’s enough time. Kaoru, listen to me. Upstream, there’s this weirdo part of the river where the water throws itself onto a tiny island-thing in the middle of the river.”

“You want me to swim down there?” Kaoru asked, her expression skeptic.

“No. If you just swim down there, those guys will go after you, and they’ll get you while you’re in the water. There’s this weird thing that I got from Hinata, who got it from Sakura. It’s this powder that makes you go unconscious and then with a handseal you can set a phrase or something to wake you up. You kind of need two people to do it, though.” Kiba’s face was urgent.

“So you want me to take the powder, float down the river, and wait for you, while unconscious, on that little island?” Kaoru asked, wondering when on earth did Kiba develop a brain capable of making plans like Shikamaru could.

“Yeah, the powder’s in my backpack. Can you get it?” Kiba twisted his head back towards his pack, while Akamaru was now whining desperately. “I know, Akamaru, I know! This’ll be done in a second!”

Kaoru carefully pulled the powder’s paper packet out of Kiba’s backpack and tore of a corner, preparing to down it in one go.

“Wait, we need to set the phrase to make you up. How about, ‘Hi, Kaoru?’”

“No, too simple. How about this one,” Kaoru whispered a phrase into Kiba’s ear, whose eyes went a little wide before nodding. He then formed a handseal and whispered some quick words under his breath while Kaoru tilted back her head and threw the powder into his mouth.

“See you in a bit, Kiba-kun,” she whispered as he let go of her waist and she floated down the river with the current.

“Alright, Akamaru, we’re going to finish off these guys!” Kiba shouted, as the two dipped under the water and pushed off the bottom of the river, giving them the necessary leverage to return to the shore. “Shikyaku no Jutsu!”

“Heh, just makes you look more like your stupid dog, dog boy,” Scar Face snorted.

“Alright! We might as well use this and make sure they’re finished off. Jinjuu Konbi Henge: Soutourou!” There was a large puff of concealing smoke, and when it blew away, a white, two-headed, red-eyed wolf stood before the two awestruck men.

“What the hell is-.”

“Garouga!” With that cry, the wolf sprang into the air and spun to form a cyclone similar to that of the “Gatsuuga,” except much larger and deadlier, sending the enemy flying a long distance backwards and effectively ridding the vicinity of the few trees it actually had.

Transforming back, Kiba sighed, before turning in the direction of the river’s current. “Let’s go, Akamaru.”

Akamaru barked in victory, his face lit up with a dog-grin as the pair set upstream to find Kaoru. Wait, what if the water didn’t have enough force to throw her onto the island? What if Kaoru’s racing down that river to Earth Country? No, it won’t, and there's no way I'd let her go all the way to Earth! “C’mon, Akamaru, we’re going faster!”

--

Kiba and Akamaru reached the small island sitting staunchly in the center of the swift river’s current. On the island, thankfully, lay Kaoru, one long purple pigtail covering her face as the water washed over her feet. With a simple leap, the two crossed the river to the island, and Kiba knelt down beside Kaoru, lifting her hair out her face.

Aw, c’mon, Kiba, you’ve already asked her to marry you! You can say this. She’s not going to wake up if you don’t say it. Say it, you coward!

Akamaru, as if sensing his master’s uncertainty, barked in encouragement.

Okay, well...here goes nothing.

“Kaoru...I love you.”

This was by far the longest chapter ever written. Six pages on word...ehe, normally my chapters are only three to four pages.

Anyways, I promised I would explain, right? Well, the story idea was inspired by this one Star Wars book ((SPOILERS FOR A STAR WARS BOOK FROM THIS POINT ON. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW, YOU CAN JUST WONDER ABOUT HOW STAR WARS WAS NECESSARY IN THE DISCLAIMER))...I totally forgot which, whatever one it was that Luke proposes to Mara in. And the proposal and afterwards are very similar to this situation. The weird powder/jutsu is my ninja version of a Jedi Trance, or whatever it was that they’re called. I could have Kiba using the Force, could I?

Please review!