from the cooking".
He sighed theatrically at these words and leaned against the Uzumaki, apparently searching.
"Since when are you so sorry Kiba?"
Laughing, the blonde pushed him out of the alley at these words.
Surprised, the brown-haired stumbled a few steps forward before he caught himself and gave Naruto a pretended, insulted look."I've been in the forest since sunrise, setting traps and replenishing our water supplies."
Blue eyes, widening in surprise, met cheeky, sparkling brown ones.
"For a whole day's march, there is no more water to be found in this area, really now! Not even the temple in the mountains has water after the attack by the soldiers. How did you ...?"
Curiosity was written on the fox cub's face as he tried to keep up with the Inuzuka.

He ran ahead quickly, as so often in the last few days he felt he was being watched and looked around furtively.
He took the quickest and at the same time shadiest way to his sparse hut, while the blonde followed him, puffing and cursing. The Uzumaki felt like a quarter-hour run.
"Now wait. Have a look".
Panting and sweaty, Naruto turned the last bend shortly after the wolf boy and came to a standstill, exhausted.
He took a deep breath, took a few moments to catch his breath and wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand.
"Why are you running like that? You'd think you're on the run".
"You are just too slow".
With a mocking grin, the Inuzuka eyed the blonde and opened the door of his hut.
"What does that mean?"
Angry, the fox cub followed his friend into his dwelling and there, exhausted, let himself fall onto one of the rickety chairs.
As a result, the brown-haired laughed out loud, in the meantime fished two wooden drinking cups from his small cupboard and placed them on the table.
After they were filled, he put the drinking tube aside, pushed one mug over to the blonde, and took the other himself.
Thirsty, Naruto rushed down the cool water, meanwhile the wolf boy sat down and poured the blue-eyed one more.
"So where did you get the water from?"
Challenging and curious, the Uzumaki never let the other person out of his sight, eager to finally get an answer.
The wolf boy avoided the blond's gaze, his eyes wandering aimlessly across the room.
His attention fell on the barren brown walls and its sparse furnishings.
On the right wall of the room was a small cupboard, in the left corner was the fireplace and in a small niche a little further back was his bed.
The bathroom was separated from the rest of the room by a curtain.
In the middle of the room was the table they were sitting at, with the front door behind it.
"From the source in the Norowareta yama".
As soon as he had uttered these words, the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed.
The fox cub leaned over the table and looked at him carefully.
"You're not serious".
With a questioning undertone in his voice, the blonde threw the sentence into the room, waiting to see how the Inuzuka would react.
"But".
The short answer came from the brown-haired man before he lifted his mug to his mouth to quench his sudden thirst.
Minutes passed in which Naruto stared at his friend in disbelief, until he finally shook his head.
"Tsunade won't like that".
Grinning mischievously, the Uzumaki began to wiggle his chair at these words, without taking his eyes off the Inuzuka.
"I don't care. This source could alleviate the suffering of the Konoha people, that's all that matters."
The wolf boy turned his cup in his hands, staring into it as if the solutions to all of their problems lay at the bottom of it.
"Maybe there are a few volunteers among the resistance fighters who accompany me. What do you think?"Grinning crookedly, the brown-haired man looked up from his mug at the blonde, who laughed and shook his head.
"That should be difficult. The people fight the soldiers, but I doubt that they can overcome their fear of the demons."
Sighing, the Inuzuka leaned back in his chair and ran his hand through his hair.
When the going got tough he would get the water for Konoha alone, he couldn't blame the people for their fear.
"For that matter, you can count on me".
With a bang, the Uzumaki let his chair fall forward again at these words and raised his mug slightly.
Kiba nodded benevolently to his friend and pushed his mug against that of the fox cub with such force that they rattled.
"Thanks"
That was the short but honest answer from the brown-haired man.
"It's a matter of honor, we halflings have to stick together. Otherwise we will go down singing and soundless".
The blonde grinned mischievously at his friend, ignoring the gloomy look he was giving him.
The Uzumaki knew that the wolf cub avoided speaking this fact out loud.
The blonde couldn't help but give a roguish grin as he quickly followed up with a half-hearted "sorry".
The Inuzuka huffed audibly and grunted incomprehensibly, which made Naruto laugh.
"Now finally stop looking at the topic so seriously. That was a joke. Besides, there is nothing bad about it, we are what we are, that can't be changed. Don't always make it so difficult for yourself ..."
"Let it be!"
The fox cub was rudely interrupted by his counterpart, who hit the table with his clenched fist as he spoke.
The other clutched his mug so tightly that his knuckles were white.
He hated this topic, in the last few months the blonde had brought it up again and again, of course purely by chance.
Their conversations about it were always the same. As soon as the Uzumaki brought up this sensitive topic, any conversation was immediately nipped in the bud by Kiba.
"You know that I don't hear about it ..."
In the middle of a sentence the brown-haired man paused, looked around his hut carefully and breathed in noisily.
He got up slowly, almost creeping across the room, sniffing like a dog that had picked up a track.
"Do you smell that?"
The Inuzuka's gaze flickered to the blond, who just looked at him confused, while he also inhaled carefully.
But before the fox cub could reply, his friend hurried to the door.
"Damn it, it's on fire!"
Without hesitation, the wolf boy had thrown open the door at these words, his head snapped to the left and seconds later he fell away.
"Hey now wait a minute! Kiba!"
Naruto stared after his friend for a moment, perplexed, before jumping up hastily. His chair rumbled loudly to the floor, the blonde ignored it and stormed after the Inuzuka.
Why the brown-haired man had to run like a madman through this sweltering heat all the time today was a mystery to the Uzumaki.
As fast as his tired legs could carry him, he ran after the wolf boy.
Naruto cursed himself softly for the fact that he was so used to the smell that humans caused.
Panting from the exertion, he had to watch as the distance between him and the brown-haired man grew larger and larger.
When he got to the market square, he put his hands on his aching sides and could just see how Kiba disappeared between the people.____________________________________________

So my dear co-conspirators!
Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter and made you a little curious ^^
After I broke one off to upload something at all (I just didn't get baked) it still worked ^^
Until the next fairy tale hour, best regards your Vex.