Author's Note: This is my first ever attempt at writing Hinata and Kiba, but who better to explain friendship and belonging to a frosty Hyuuga than an Inuzuka? Set in the early days of Team 8, because I truly believe that Hinata was always strong and that Kiba was always kind.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

Like Family

-#-

It is wet and cold, and tethering on the brink of winter. But Hinata, who will never get completely acclimated to the silent disappointed in Father's eyes, finds that she much prefers the shivers running up and down her spine over the unremitting hush that looms over the Hyuuga Compound.

Nevertheless, it is a bit strange how Kiba-kun is drawing on her face with mud.

(And she briefly wonders what Father would have to say about this: an Inuzuka and a Hyuuga waiting for their Aburame teammate, the Inuzuka doodling on the Hyuuga to pass the time.)

"There," declares Kiba-kun at last, grinning proudly. "I'm done."

Her hands immediately move in direction of her cheeks, but Kiba-kun's are bigger and faster. "Don't!" he growls, easily swatting her fingers away. "You'll smear it!"

She takes a good look at him, then lets her arms hang freely by her side. Kiba-kun may be a bit rough around the edges, but so is Neji-niisan in his own way (though, unlike her own flesh and blood, Kiba-kun also has a pronounced kindness about him).

"B-But…" Hinata tilts her head to one side curiously. "It's mud."

Kiba deflates, and Akamaru whines sympathetically. "So you don't like it," he concludes, a bit annoyed, because at this rate he won't even get a chance to show her.

"N-No, that's not it!" is Hinata quick to object, scrambling to make amends. "I-I mean, it's just that—well, I haven't seen it yet," she explains anxiously.

"Oh yeah!" Kiba scratches the back of his head embarrassedly, unties his forehead protector and holds it out towards her to use as a makeshift mirror. "Here. Take a look."

Hinata does what she is told, and her reflection shocks her to the core.

"You see that?" Kiba grins and points to his own cheek. "We're the same, now. Sort of."

Then he waits, because he doesn't expect her to respond straight away. After all, Hinata is a quiet girl, even on the best of days, and almost excruciatingly shy always. "It's nothing bad," he assures her, just in case the mud on her face offends her. Not saying that she is, but Hyuuga in general are notoriously prissy people. "Means you're a member of the pack, you know?"

"…the pack?" she asks at length.

"Yeah. You, me, Kurenai-sensei, this guy—" He pets Akamaru fondly on the head, "—and bug boy, too. Team 8. The pack. Our pack."

Hinata's big pale eyes are suddenly transfixed on him, and Kiba must admit to himself that being stared at by a Hyuuga (even when that Hyuuga is his super-timid teammate) is sort of really unnerving. But he does his best to ignore it, because the dead-serious, Nara-caught-in-the-headlights look on her face confirms his suspicions that even with all her equally milky-eyed relatives around, Hinata really doesn't have the faintest idea of what it means to belong.

(And that offends him on so many levels.)

"But the pack isn't just the team, either." He pauses, struggling to translate something so basic into words that might make sense to her. "I mean, anyone can be part of a team. The pack is… The pack is closer, you know? Like family."

Hinata's lower lip promptly starts to tremble, and Kiba quietly panics at the prospect of having to comfort a crying girl. But Hinata pulls herself together, and instead she smiles.

She gently touches her cheek and asks, in such a typically Hinata-ish kinda way that it nearly makes him smile back, "Shino-kun, too?"

"Nah—" Kiba shakes his head furiously, shuddering at the mere thought of the insane level of vengeance that was bound to follow if he ever tried, "—he'd kill me."