Kiba Inuzuka

**Kiba Inuzuka** (犬塚キバ, *Inuzuka Kiba*) is a member of Konohagakure's Inuzuka clan and a member of Team Mirai. Despite his headstrong, and at times egotistic attitude, Kiba is loyal to his comrades and will do anything to protect them with his trusted canine companion, Akamaru, by his side.

## Background

At a very young age, Akamaru was given to Kiba by his mother, Tsume, and the two became very close soon afterwards. Before entering the Academy, Kiba and Akamaru played together a great deal, resulting in Tsume getting angry because they weren't training enough. During Kiba's time at the Academy, he often cut class with Akamaru, stating that he wasn't suited to sit still at a desk, or otherwise getting into trouble, along with Chōji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki. Together, these four would skip class and go to the practice hall (not to practice). They thought that it was fun to also test the patience of Iruka Umino, their Academy instructor. One day, Kiba fell asleep during class and, upon waking, saw Naruto attempting to use the Transformation Technique to turn into the Third Hokage for the first time, and failing twice. This caused Kiba to find Naruto incompetent, and he became among those who ridiculed him.

At some time in the past, Kiba knew his father; but because of his mother's attitude, Tsume scared him away, leaving him just with her. Despite this, Kiba stays in a close relationship with his mother, although he seems to agree that Tsume is rather frightening.

## Personality

Kiba is often short-tempered and impulsive (in stark contrast to his teammates Shino and Hinata), and can be prone to making mistakes when he becomes agitated in battle. He also enjoys combat even when facing particularly strong opponents. He cares deeply for Akamaru, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect him. And, despite his rather gruff attitude, many of Kiba's actions reveal that he is very close to his older sister, Hana, and remains fiercely loyal to his clan and has great pride in it.

Back at his academy days, Shino always considered Kiba a "problem child", and wanted to be assigned to a team with anyone but him because of how different their personalities were to each other. Even after becoming a team, Kiba often argues with Shino over what course of action the group should take, particularly when Shino advises caution. Kiba often sees himself as the group leader, and becomes offended at any of Shino's actions that he perceives as challenging his leadership. It seems that there was a contest for leadership of Team 8 during the Chūnin Exams, as Kiba said Hinata voted for him. Despite his disagreements with Shino, he is very close to him, and respects his fighting capabilities. Shino on the other hand came to consider Kiba his best friend, and a partner whom he could trust more than anyone else by his side. Despite Shino's own stoic personality, he has shown a rather humorous side of his around Kiba, especially when he occasionally teases Kiba whenever he's boasting about how he's a suitable candidate for Hokage.

Kiba has became extremely close to his other teammate, Hinata, and acts rather brotherly toward her, but tends to worry about her, urging her to be strong before the second phase of the exam, and to forfeit rather than face a dangerous opponent. Kiba also seems to be quite protective of her, although he insists that Hinata is not someone who can't take care of herself. Kiba is also one of the first few people to get to know about Hinata's crush on Naruto Uzumaki, and has been quite supportive of that. Kiba likes to playfully tease Hinata about her affections for Naruto. This usually includes telling her that Naruto is nearby, or just mentioning her reactions to him to other people, much to her embarrassment. Despite this, they have a very strong friendship. Kiba also seemed to be quite excited over Hinata and Naruto's wedding, and wanted to be the one, along with Shino and Akamaru, to bring them the best present out of all the people attending their wedding, so they could make Hinata happy. Kiba dubbed it as the Team 8's last mission, something that only members of their team would be involved in, who had been through all the happiness and sorrow with each other.

Kiba is also quite close to his sensei and her daughter. Although he gets a little annoyed by Mirai's habit of mixing up his and Akamaru's names, calling him and Akamaru "Akakiba" and "Kibamaru" respectively, which is rather weird considering Kiba and Akamaru frequently came to play with Mirai during their walks. Kurenai also seems to act rather playful with Kiba, teasing him about his newly grown goatee and pinching his cheeks.

In the anime, mostly in the filler arcs, Kiba is shown to also get along well with Naruto, despite their arguments. This seems to be proven when it was shown that Kiba, Akamaru, Naruto, Chōji, and Shikamaru skipped classes together and play in the park. Those three seem to be some of the first true friends he made in the village. Although Kiba was rather rude to Naruto during their fight in Chūnin exams, Kiba grew to respect him after being defeated, cheering him on during his battle against Neji and even stating that Naruto is not someone to be underestimated, showing more confidence in him than Hinata, who looked rather worried. They also have somewhat of a rivalry that stems from childhood. He was shown to have become frustrated with Naruto's growth and is determined to surpass him. He even showed admiration towards Naruto, stating that he wanted to become like him.

Kiba also dreams of becoming the Hokage someday and expressed this desire both during his fight with Naruto during the Chūnin Exams as well as during the Fourth Shinobi World War, where he deduced that if he fought and gained a name for himself during the war, it would be a step in the direction of becoming the Hokage, an ideal he mentions again later on. In his Infinite Tsukuyomi, Kiba dreamed he was Hokage and also desired to have a national holiday for all dogs.

Despite all of Kiba's wildness and impulsiveness, when Kiba sees Tamaki, he is usually left in a love-struck stupor where he freezes and is left at a loss for words. This is then immediately followed by Kiba politely boasting and controlling his wild personality while making connections between the two that usually make no real sense. His love-struck demeanour is enough to make Akamaru and Ninneko disgusted and Shino speechless (who sees a "dog-boy" and a "cat-girl" romantically involved).

## New era / Glad you Came

Kiba is now the head of the Inuzuka Clan. He is married to Harume Inuzuka with whom he had two sons Masaru and Yasha