Ino chewed on the end of her pencil as she mentally worked through her trigonometry formulated paper. It had been an assignment she was supposed to do at home, but since her English professor had decided not to attend class she hadn't seen the harm in busying herself. The rest of the class, minus Hinata, had been throwing pencils at each other and cursing loudly about previous shenanigans. Said shenanigans had taken place in the alumni cafeteria around twelve thirty and had ended at approximately twelve forty five. It had seemed as though their upperclassmen, Lee and Inuzuka, had quite the disagreement and things had quickly gotten out of hand.

She hadn't known either of them personally and had refused to make any kind of statement to insinuate that she was at all interested in the recollections of the violent conflict. There were other ways to solve issues ... physical violence should have been a last resort.

Before she knew it she was floating off into space and far, far away from the actual task at hand. She groaned inwardly and shifted in her seat.

The classroom door swung open and Jiraya-sensei stepped in with the usual grin on his face. Ino would have wagered he had been peaking into the girls locker room again.

"Alright! Everybody shut up!" The large man jumped and held his hands out dramatically. "I got caught up in some... important business and we wont be able to have class today! Sorry, not sorry."

Ino heard a few groans, along with some excited tones around her. She personally hadn't cared one way or the other. "So get outta here!"

As everyone had begun to exit the room Jiraya gently took her by the arm with one of his large hands, "Ino, can I ask you a favor?"

Reluctantly, she nodded and stilled herself before him.

"I'm sure you heard about the tussle in the cafeteria yesterday and as you know this isn't my only class, I teach upperclassmen as well. I cant afford risking Inuzuka getting behind so I've scheduled after school and weekend tutoring sessions for him. I was wondering if you would be interested?"

Ino paused for a moment, "Me?"

"Yeah, you're ahead of this class as it is and you really should be promoted to a superior grade. You're right up there with that Nara kid. There is extra credit up for grabs for it and I'm sure it's what you need to graduate with high honors next year and possibly even be our valedictorian."

Ino hadn't particularly been fond of tutoring others but Jiraya-sensei had a point, the points would be just what she needed. Ino then inwardly sighed before nodding, "Okay I'll do it."

"Alright, come with Kurenai-sensei and me after school today and we'll give you the run down on the situation and set you up."

She smiled and nodded to him before dismissing herself.

Ino would be lying if she said having her teachers buy her dinner hadn't made her feel slightly uncomfortable, but Kurenai and Jiraya had insisted. Especially Kurenai, who raved about how Ino was eating improperly and hadn't been matching her required weight for her height and blah blah blah, food pyramid, blah blah blah...

Don't be mistaken though, Kurenai was actually Ino's favorite teacher aside from Asuma-sensei. Ironically, the two were married. Kurenai taught Health and Sexual Education while Asuma taught History.

"We just want to prepare you and make sure we provide you with all the materials necessary for Inuzuka to pass his upcoming exams."

"I understand." Ino nodded in agreement.

Kurenai just smiled and sipped her soda, "I would also like to add that Mr. Inuzuka is a young man and as we all know too well, young men can be rather pushy so if you feel threatened or sexually discriminated against, feel free to act on your own accord to ensure your own well being. I'm not saying Kiba is that type of young man but I just want to take out all the stops here."

"Right."

The food had finally arrived and they had begun to eat and continued their conversation about the materials she needed.

"Aside from all of that, I want to make sure you know about the trouble he is facing at this point with the school system and disciplinary system. A fight occurred between Kiba and Rock Lee yesterday in the cafeteria and blood was drawn so Kiba's expulsion was extended until a week before graduation."

Ino had paused before sipping on her drink, "One week before his graduation? That's the entire school year..."

"It was a tough one to break up.."

She nodded in understanding and took notes on all of the materials she'd needed to gather.

"How are you and Sakura?" Kurenai asked with a sneaky smile on her face.

"We haven't spoken since that day."

"Really? You two are so silly. I mean you're both mature young women and juniors in high school, don't you think it's time to forget just a little bit?" Ino seemed somewhat ashamed and looked down at the floor.

"It's hard to believe I used to be so mean, Kurenai-sensei."

"We all have to grow up sometime. And you're doing wonderfully! You have the chance to be valedictorian of your class! That's an amazing opportunity and I know your father would be proud at how much you've grown and how well you've exceeded everyone's expectations."

Ino smiled at the mention of her father and bowed her head slightly, "Thank you, Kurenai-sensei."

That evening Ino had yet again drove home to an empty house. There was a note on the counter from her mother stating that she had left early for a business meeting and wouldn't be back all week. She grumbled lightly and had begun doing her chores before even thinking about doing her homework. Though the thought of tutoring an upperclassman had weighed heavy on her mind..She hadn't been quite sure if it was nervousness for lack of experience and knowledge or just nervousness for the fact that he was a violent, short tempered, hormone crazed male.

Either scenario had the potential to drive any respectable girl off as soon as she arrived.

Sure, she loved a challenge and needed the extra points but was she biting off more than she could chew this time? As long as she kept her grades up as well, she decided giving it a try wouldn't be so bad.

There she went again, day dreaming and over analyzing things when she should be focused on her trigonometry homework. Her small hands laid the calculator and pencil down before her large blue eyes edged their way up the side of the wall until they fell upon a golden picture frame with her fathers smiling face in it. He had been holding her and her first academic challenge trophy when her mother had taken the picture. She really didn't have to see the picture to remember his smile from that day, he'd told her he'd never been so proud of her and that was enough to drive her determination straight up a wall. No more fighting, drama, boyfriends.. no more life. Ino dropped it all and had grown up very quickly after his passing.

"Oh jeez.." She wiped he face clean of tears and had then decided to shower before going any further. No need to stress herself out when she had plenty of obstacles to do so for her.

Like this Inuzuka kid; what if he was a total wash up? What if she didn't like him? What if she killed him? She couldn't afford to spend her life put away! Ino shook her head sharply and dismissed her childish thoughts. It was wrong to assume the outcome of a future situation by hear say. Besides, he could be a nice guy! Maybe he even had a reason for being the way he was and resorting to physical violence.

Or maybe not.

The following day, after school, Ino had found herself sitting in the driveway of a huge log cabin of at least 3 stories. It was secluded from town and pushed back into the woods for at least four miles. Someone could die in his driveway and rot without so much as a question mark over their head.

She had pulled a brush from her console and ran it through her hair that she had always kept up neatly on top of her head. Composure and first impressions were critical, the wrong impression and this moron could ignore every word from her and never graduate and all of her efforts would have been wasted. But at least she would still get the points..

Really needed to hide the cleavage.. Ino silently cursed herself at her carelessness and looked behind her passenger seat for an extra shirt. No way this guy was going to listen to her with her boobs hanging out. The only conservative piece of clothing had, had been a wife beater she washed the night before to take to the gym after the tutoring session. Sure it showed the arms, but what guy had ever gotten aroused from a little bit of arm fat?

Once her boobs were covered and she had officially dubbed herself appropriate looking she stepped out of her red Eclipse. After she locked the car she took note of how it was the only vehicle in the drive way and silently wondered if anyone was home. Her small hand had knocked on the door as she silently prayed she was right and she could just turn around and go home.

"Come in!"

A rough yet feminine voice had met her ears and she hesitantly opened the door.

"You must be Ino, right? Jiraya called, said he sent ya' for my youngin'!"

"Yeah, I'm here to keep him on track."

"Well honey he needs a woman like you in his life! If you can handle him that is." She gave Ino a knowing smile and walked to the door, "Well my ride is here. My name is Tsume, by the way, Kiba is up stairs asleep just wake him up when you're ready."

"You're leaving?"

"Well yeah, don't worry he won't bite." She then turned, opened the door, and yelled over her shoulder, "But if he does bite don't call me, call the police."

That being said, she closed the door behind her and left Ino to the dark house. Well this was uncomfortable..

Ino sat her bag on the table and composed herself. The house had been dark, all but the kitchen, and there wasn't an inkling of movement anywhere. How was she supposed to find this guy's room in such a big house?

She had allowed herself to sigh but nearly choked on her own saliva when she heard feet padding in the other room. Of course they weren't heavy enough to be human feet which meant these people had a dog... and dogs bite people they don't know.

Ino had then turned her gaze to the kitchen entrance and froze. This dog had been colossal. "H-hey puppy.."

Her eyes scanned the area for the best possible escape route, "W-what's your name?" The large hound trotted over to her and sniffed her leg, "Nice puppy.." She let him sniff her hands and felt a sense of relief when he had started to lick them.

The name on his collar had read 'Akamaru'. "Ohhh you're such a good boy... aka.. Akamaru."

After she'd petted him for a few minutes she decided to grab her courage and go looking for her pupil.

"Kiba?..umm..Kiba?"

Akamaru had looked at her and cocked his head to the side before running to the top of the stairs and looking back at her.

"What?- Ohhh you're such a good boy, Akamaru.."

Gracefully, she'd followed him up the stairs, down the hallway, and up another set of stairs. At this point she hadn't been sure if he was leading her to the right place or not. But she couldn't necessarily argue with a dog.

Their march had ended in an open doorway which lead to a once occupied, but now empty, room. "Umm..." She glanced down the hall to what she had assumed was the bathroom and noticed the light peaking out from underneath the door.

"I'll just..wait.. um.. here then."

After standing beside the bedroom door for ten minutes she had crossed her arms and experienced, what felt like, annoyance for the first time in two years. Had she really taken the time out of her day to tutor such an unwilling, lazy, rude kid? And his mom just left like it was totally nothing! How rude could people get?! Just as she had started to fume the bathroom door opened and pushed her back into her metaphoric closet of shyness underneath her cloak of security.

Akamaru had barked and jumped up twice before earning a scratch on the head, "Hey boy. Sorry, I shaved.. I guess you wanna go out?"

Ino couldn't really believe what she had been looking at. Who exactly was this guy and how could she not notice him with eyes like those? His eyes were glowing from the other end of the hallway, a soft and rich chocolate brown. And his physique had been so appealing to the eyes. He had stood at about six foot one, with biceps larger than her head. Who had wanted to fight this guy?

He stopped in front of her with both eyebrows up, "Yo."

"Um, sorry. I'm Ino.. you're mom told me to wake you.."

"Well I'm up, so.. what's this tutoring thing Jiraya was talking about?"

"He told me to make sure you didn't fall behind so you could graduate this year."

"Riiight.. So you go to my school? Cause I've never seen ya'."

"Yeah.. I'm actually a junior.."

"A junior teaching a fourth year alumni? well who would've thought.." He remarked sarcastically and rolled his eyes. "Sure we can try this, but it wont be easy."

"Excuse me?"

He leaned down so he was nose to nose with her, "I don't really like learning from girls."

"Must be why you're so stupid." The words had poured out of her mouth before she could stop them and she covered her mouth instinctively.

"Oooh-ho.. come in, come in." He smirked with newfound interest in her and gestured for her to enter his room.