Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

As a ninja, Kiba knew the importance of practice. And so, after deciding to help Hinata with her problem, he decided that practice was the perfect solution.

Spying the problem heading home after training one evening, Kiba called out to him, "Hey, Naruto! Can you come over here for a second?"

Hinata, who had been walking home with Kiba and whom Kiba had neglected to inform of his plan, was unprepared for this. As Naruto approached them, she greeted him very quietly. "H-hello, N-Naruto-kun."

Naruto, with a cheery grin on his face, jogged up to them. "Hey there, you two! What'cha want me for, Kiba?"

Kiba considered his words carefully. "Well Naruto, Hinata has this problem, and I think you can help her with it. See, there's a boy that she wants ask out, but she's too nervous to do it. So, we were wondering if she could practice on you?"

Naruto peered at Kiba quizzically. "Can't she just practice on you?"

Kiba, not having anticipated this question, was caught off guard, but he recovered quickly. "W-well, I'm on her team. She knows me really well, so it would probably be too easy to be good practice, right? She knows the guy about as well as she knows you."

Hinata's face reddened slightly at this, but Naruto remained clueless. He chuckled a little, "So you want me to help you with boy troubles, eh, Hinata?" His grin re-intensified, "Can you tell me who it is?" Hinata's blush deepened and she began to push her index fingers together. "Aw, not gonna tell me?" He waited a second, before deciding that this was indeed the case. "Well, it's none of my business, I guess! So, you're going to ask me out?"

Hinata's face was now exceptionally red, and Kiba decided to intervene before the conversation could embarrass her any further. "Yeah, Hinata. It's just practice and Naruto is a nice guy, so there's nothing to be nervous about."

Hinata took a second to muster up her courage. "Um, N-Naruto-kun, w-would you like t-to," she hesitated, "w-would you like to--" She blushed heavily, and stared at the ground.

"That's okay, Hinata," Kiba encouraged her, "just try asking him again."

"Yeah, Hinata!" Naruto gave her a thumbs-up, "just keep in mind that it's me you're asking out, and you can work your way up to pretending it's the guy." Unfortunately, Naruto did not realize that this piece of advice would have the exact opposite effect of what he had intended.

Hinata tried several more times to ask Naruto out, but she was ultimately unable to work herself past a very hesitant and embarrassed "Would you like to".

Kiba interrupted. "I think that's enough for today, Hinata. Maybe we should've started with me after all."

"Wow, Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, "This guy must really be special to you if you can't even ask me."

Hinata looked embarrassed, but smiled softly. "Y-yes. He really is."

Sensing that Naruto was about to excuse himself, Kiba quickly spoke up, "Hey Naruto, since we put you through so much trouble, how about we get some ramen? My treat."

If Hinata had been grateful towards Kiba for helping her practice, and if she had been very grateful towards Kiba for taking her to dinner with Naruto, then she had almost certainly been exceedingly grateful towards Kiba when he suddenly excused himself from dinner after recalling a made-up sparring session with Shino that he had reportedly forgotten.