Author's Note: This is the last chapter (it's much longer than the others). I have finally finished a story. Wow. This is a landmark for me. I have never actually finished a story all the way through before. Bonzai!

The title of this story actually comes from a song by Kelly Clarkson. (No, I am not an AI junkie. It's pretty much just this one song for me.) But it has lyrics that go deeply for me.I think they fit the tone of this story pretty well when sung to a nice, slow tune.

Oh and I don't know/I don't know what he's after/But he's so beautiful/He's such a beautiful disaster.

But thanks to all of you who read this story to the end, as well as those of you who may find and read it in the future. As I've said before, I love you all.

There probably won't be a sequel to this, by the way. There may be, if I feel like throwing one together, but there's a good chance I won't. So yes, this is it. The end. Finally, I can type those two words. It feels wonderful. The last chapter.

Enjoy it for all it's worth.

-MN

Twenty-Two. Life Goes On

Kankuro

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked Kiba again.

He nodded, squeezing my hand tighter. "Of course I do. It's the only way we can truly ever be clean, right? No sneaking around?"

"I never considered this sneaking," I muttered. "I just thought of it as just not mentioning anything. I mean—I don't mind if we just wait a bit longer. She doesn't need to know that we've gotten back together when we never told her we were together from the start, does she?"

"Kankuro," he warned.

"Fine. Truth be told, she scares me more than Gaara does."

"At least you don't have to live with her."

"She's your mother. It's not like she can hate you! She has to love you. Me, on the other hand? Nope. She has every right to want my hide. And that is not happening, my friend. Not anytime soon."

"Boyfriend," he hissed, squeezing my hand tighter.

"Huh?"

"I'm not your friend, I'm your boyfriend. And don't you forget it!"

I sighed. It'd been two weeks since our whole escapade, and he wouldn't let me live one second without reminding me that he was my boyfriend. And here we were, standing on the stone steps to the Inuzuka household, ready to finally confess our love to the one person I was most afraid of: Tsume.

Truthfully, I wasn't afraid of her refusing to allow me to date Kiba. I was just nervous she'd take my head off. Much as I'd run into pain in my adventures as a shinobi, I still was not fond of it. And I was sure Tsume knew pain.

Kiba opened the door and I nobly went in after him, still holding his hand tightly as I could. He squeezed it to comfort me. I was the frightened one now, not him.

Tsume was in the kitchen, cooking what appeared to be supper. "Kiba," she said, not looking up from the stove. "I'm glad you're home on time. Supper will be ready soon."

"Mom, I'm not staying for supper."

"Why not?" Tsume continued to stir the vegetables in her pan, perhaps a bit more forcefully then she had been. She hid her anger well.

"I'm spending the night at a friend's house."

I made a sound of annoyance at that. And he lectured me for using that word.

"Friend? Shino?"

"No, that's misleading," Kiba confessed. "He's not my friend…he's my boyfriend."

"I though Shino was dating Yamnaka's daughter," she said, waving her stirring spoon around. "Have they broken up that soon?"

Kiba sighed. "Mom, this has nothing to do with Shino. It's a different shinobi. Actually, you've met him before. He saved my life once."

Her eyes narrowed. "There's only one shinobi who ever saved you life. Granted, there've been a few who saved you from small dangers but…life. Is that the truth, or are you misleading me with that statement, too?"

"It's truth," Kiba said, pulling me into the doorway. "Mom, this is Kankuro."

Tsume's eyes widened, and Kuromaru growled from the floor. "A sand shinobi," she whispered.

I cocked my head. "That's not the normal reaction I get."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry—it's just…didn't the Kazekage already leave the village?"

"Yes. I'll be leaving soon, too, but I had some business to take care of first." I put an arm around Kiba's shoulders, bringing him close to me. "You don't mind, do you?"

She sighed. "I can't really say if I approve or not but still…you're old enough to make your own judgments by now, Kiba. I suppose whatever you think is best…"

"Hana told you, didn't she?"

"Long ago. I wanted to see how long it would take you to tell me. And when you started dating Ino…my, it had me wondering what was going on. You've got a bit of explaining to do for your old mom, here."

"Later?" he said.

She smiled and agreed. "Later it is."

We held hands all the way back to my apartment where I was staying, ignoring the stares of those who had yet to know about our relationship. I had actually been surprised at Gaara's calmness about all of this. When I had asked for an extended stay in Konaha, he'd simply said, "Whatever you feel is necessary."

I was beginning to wonder if maybe he didn't need me so much anymore. Maybe he was growing, too. In fact, once I'd gotten back from chasing Kiba through the woods, I'd walked into our apartment to find Nara giving Gaara The Talk. I assumed Temari was too chicken. Still, for him to get it from Nara…I wasn't sure if I was scared for Gaara or just plain mortified.

Kiba opened the door to my apartment and led me inside, shutting the door with his foot. "So," he whispered, pressing me to the wall and laying his head on my shoulder. "Our last night together. For a while, anyway."

"For a while," I agreed.

I stared him down for a moment until he pulled at my shirt, tugging it off over my head. Then he pulled off my head garment and began to kiss me, tracing every single one of my marking with his tongue. When he finally pulled back, his lips were stained purple.

I laughed and kissed him back, slowly removing his pieces of clothing one by one, until finally I had him down to nothing but his boxers. My lips moved slowly, kissing his neck, his collarbones, his stomach. He whimpered. I could feel his breath growing heavier against my lips.

I bumped into the walls of the hallway, trying to feel for the doorknob to the room I was still occupying. Finally cold metal connected with my hand, and I grabbed it. The door exploded as Kiba slammed me into it, his hands traveling up and down my spine. He nipped my neck. I shivered. This was finally it.

I turned him around and pushed him onto my mattress on the floor. He allowed me to remove his boxers, and then I removed mine. I stopped for a moment, admiring him in the dim light that came from the hallway. I had never truly seen him naked before; it was a quite a sight to behold.

It wasn't that he was overly beautiful or perfect. He had scars, parts of his skin were uneven in color, and even his muscles weren't as defined as they could have been. Still to see him to know him, to look at that body and realize it quivered, waiting for me—that was the true source of my fascination.

Kiba raised his eyebrows. "Are you going to stand there all night?"

I smirked. "Hell, no."

And then I dragged him down underneath me, making sure to let my fingers slip over all of his skin I could reach. I wetted my fingers and began to slide them in until I couldn't fit anymore.

Kiba groaned like he was in pain. I stopped. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Just take me," he muttered into the pillow.

So I did.

Kiba lay in my arms, panting like there was no tomorrow. "God," he yelped. "God. I thought I was going to die, for a minute there."

"Pleasure never comes pain-free. There's always one person that has to be in pain for another to have pleasure." I paused, thinking about the phrase. "Isn't that strange, though? It seems so…cruel. Lovers express their ultimate love, and it causes them pain before they can ever experience the pleasure of it. I wonder why that is."

"It's probably because they have to willing to go that far," Kiba murmured. "I mean, they have to be willing to put aside their pain for the other, to allow the other to have their own pleasure. That's what love is—putting one person above yourself. It's like when Ino took my body and told you to never speak to me again—you obeyed, putting your own pain aside, putting yourself second. You paid attention to my request first. I think that's why, Kankuro—because before lovers can ever truly be together like that, they have to learn concern and discipline—to put each other first. I think sometimes we're so selfish we don't even realize that until we're too late."

I leaned my head back against the wall, pulling him closer to me. I kissed the nape of his neck. "That's a pretty good answer, for someone so young. I think love gives us the wisdom to see far beyond the blindness it instills in us. We just need to be willing to see past the cloud that shadows our judgment."

His hands crossed my stomach. "We didn't know that. Look at our relationship—it's been nothing but a disaster from the beginning."

"But it turned out beautiful in the end, didn't it? Pride cometh before the fall. We just had to take our blinders off so we could see we really hadn't fallen as far as we thought we had. And the ending result…it's wonderful, no? A beautiful disaster. It sounds like a conflict of words, doesn't it?"

"That still…it doesn't change anything, though. I don't want to see you leave. I want you to stay…to stay here with me." He buried his head in my chest. "Really, I know it's selfish, and I'm acting like such a genin. But…I want you to stay."

I sighed. "That's where our roads divide, I guess. I'll still come to visit. I'll write you now and then, even. But we still come from two different worlds. Konaha and Suna are so…different. We each have our own alliances. And if there's ever a war, we'll be forced to take a stand with our own sides. I guess then it will be time to decide where love and loyalties lie."

"But we don't know that will happen. We could stay at peace for another thousand years, for all we know."

I could hear the fear in his voice. The prospect of being forced to choose Konaha over me—it was forcing him to choose me over all his friends, his teammates, his family…if it ever did happen…could he choose? I knew that however uneasy the choice would be for me, I would have to choose Suna. Gaara and Temari were all I'd ever really known. Even if I did hate them at times, there was no way that I could ever consider turning my back on Suna. It was my land.

But it wasn't my home. Of all the things it was to me, it had never been home. Home was where love was—there was no love for me in Suna.

"To choose between home and family…would be hard. I mean, where does one even start?"

Kiba sighed deeply. "I forget. Home and family are two different things for you, aren't they?"

I nodded. "Home is love. Family is merely relation. Home…I'm happy that I finally can say I know where that is for me."

"Where?"

"Here," I whispered. "Right here, with you in my arms. From now on, you are my home."

Kiba pulled me back onto the mattress and traced my markings with his tongue. "Promise?"

"Promise," I murmured, kissing him one last time before I fell into sleep. "You are my home."

"And you're mine," he whispered back, just softly enough so I could hear it in the darkness. "Now and forever, regardless of war and loyalty and family. I'll put you first, above all of that. Because I love you. I'll be your home. You're always welcome in my arms."

He kissed my cheek. "Goodnight, Kiba," I whispered, wrapping my arms around him and holding him to me. "I love you, too."

"It's good to be home," he laughed.

"Yes," I agreed. "It is."

And then we both feel asleep, tangled in each other's arms. When morning came, I would have to leave for Suna once again. We would go our separate ways. But we would see each other again. I promised myself that. Nothing could keep us apart—not war, not distance, not family or pain or loyalty to something bigger than ourselves. Love was a bond that defied all things, though time and space and life and death. It build bridges and tore down walls. Love was something that meant you could always find home, whenever and wherever you need it. Love was life.

And love, just like life, always continued on.

End.