A thick silence hangs in the air and Kiba swallows nervously, Shino's intense gaze doing nothing to quell his shivering nerves.

"Your answer…?" Shino says finally, in a low, almost ominous tone.

He takes a deep breath and exhales stiffly, bracing himself for the worst.

"⅓x³-6x+C"

"Correct."

"Hell yeah! Suck it Naruto! I told you I could do it!" Kiba yells triumphantly, holding out a hand to his left, where Naruto was seated across from Sasuke.

Naruto scoffs and holds out a twenty dollar bill reluctantly, which is snapped up quickly by Kiba. "Yeah, but it took you all of lunch period."

Civilized conversation between them is abandoned at that point in lieu for grade school level bickering: shoving, name calling, and making faces included. Sasuke rolls his eyes and Shino takes this as a sign that he can continue reading in relative peace. Shikamaru groans, head slipping down onto the table and falling asleep, Chouji chuckles good-naturedly and watches, Lee looks to be cheering them on, and Gaara just looks ominous, as per usual.

Just about the time the two are winding up to deck each other in the face, Sasuke stands suddenly, slamming his hands down on the creaky wood picnic table.

"Look." He says venomously. "I get why Inuzuka—" adding no small amount of distain to the name, "is sitting here. Hell, I can even get dumbass being here." adding even more emphasis on his not-quite-affectionate nick name for Naruto, "But why the hell is the peanut gallery sitting here too?" waving his arm in the general direction of the others.

"They're amusing." "Friends must stick together!" "…" "ZZZZZ"

"Who the hell are you calling dumbass, bastard?"

"If you're dumb enough to need to ask, you've earned it, loser."

Seeing as his bickering partner is now otherwise occupied, Kiba rolls his eyes at the familiarly squabbling pair and turns back to Shino excitedly.

"Hey man, thanks a ton, you're a real life saver!"

Shino hums uncommunicatively, not even looking up from his book.

"Not only did I get twenty bucks out of it, but I'll probably ace that quiz coming up too!"

Another short hum.

"Of course, for me even a B would be a miracle…"

Silence.

"Er… Any way I could repay you?" Kiba ventures, not entirely unsuggestively.

"No need."

"Oh… if you say so…" He trails off, scratching at his cheek awkwardly.

Silence.

Kiba gets the vague sense of trying to talk to a black hole and frowns tightly.

"Dude, I'm trying to talk to you, would you stop reading?" He says slightly irritated.

Dude, I'm trying to read, would stop talking to me? is on the tip of Shino's tongue, but restrains himself, instead looking up blankly. Kiba's expression brightens for reasons he can't even begin to fathom.

"Can I help you?"

"Sure, talk to me." He says amusedly, as though it were all terribly obvious.

"About what?" Shino sighs in resignation.

Kiba looks bewildered, as though the thought had never occurred to him before in his life.

"Well…" He starts awkwardly, scratching his tattoo again. "…I dunno, what do you usually talk about?"

"I don't." He replies flatly.

Kiba pouts childishly. "Oh come on, surely you talk about something!"

"Not unless strictly necessary."

"Why?"

"I have nothing to say." Shino states simply, deriving some vague sense of amusement from Kiba's exasperation.

The bell rings conveniently and Naruto shoots off, challenging Kiba to a race to their next class over his shoulder, with the twenty dollars as the prize. Kiba yells indignantly and takes off after him with a competitive gleam in his eye, and the rest follow along leisurely.

As Shino gathers his books, he notices Sasuke pause to look back at him with a faintly analytical gaze.

"Yes?" He says blankly, worn out from dealing with Kiba.

Sasuke startles a bit and shakes his head.

"Nothing…Thanks."

Shino hums dismissively and walks off.


Math class goes more or less as usual, save Inuzuka insisting on reviewing with him before class starts, and then the enthused grin and thumbs up he gives him as Mr. Ibiki begins passing out the quizzes.

Shino finishes fairly early as always, noticing Inuzuka chewing on his pencil again as he returns to his seat after turning in his paper. He makes a mental note to inform him of how ridiculously unsanitary the habit is, as well as to never lend writing utensils to him.

As the end of class draws nearer, Shino watches as Inuzuka grows increasingly restless, biting at his lip and running his hand through his hair incessantly. The idea the boy has already forgotten how to do it is ridiculous. He was a bit slow on the uptake, certainly, but seemed to have no problem after he finally understood.

However ultimately, He reminds himself. it's not my problem, seeing as our acquaintance is by convenience only.

Besides, why should he care when he has a perfectly good book he could be reading instead?


"Shino. A word."

The low baritone of Mr. Ibiki's voice surprises him, and the rest of the class for that matter, though in Shino's case not so much due to the man's generally terrifying aura, but in that he was addressing him in particular. The classroom emptied out notably more quickly than usual as he approached the teacher's desk, the last being Inuzuka, who hesitated at the door for a moment before leaving.

"Can I help you?" Shino says calmly. After all, there was no legitimate reason he would be in trouble, there was no need to worry.

"You seem to be fraternizing with Kiba a fair bit lately." Mr. Ibiki states uninvasively, shuffling through the quizzes and pausing at Inuzuka's, a heavy grimace set on his face.

Shino thinks for a moment, eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"I did not help him cheat."

Mr. Ibiki looks up at him sternly. "To the point as always…" He pauses to write something on the paper. "Are you sure that's not a guilty conscience talking?"

"I can merely think of no other reason you would need to speak with me. But so long as tutoring someone remains within the bounds of the honor code, I've done nothing wrong."

Mr. Ibiki lets out a sort of half-laugh-half-sigh, letting the tense expression drop. "Thankfully for the both of you. Isn't that right Kiba?"

A sort of choking sound comes from the direction of the door, and after a moment, Inuzuka walks in scratching his tattoo and laughing sheepishly. "Damn, so much for my career as a ninja…"

Mr. Ibiki shakes his head. "Well, if you can keep this up, you might want to look into mathematics." He says good-humoredly, holding out Inuzuka's paper.

He blinks for a moment, uncomprehending, before taking the paper. His jaw drops.

"You're joking."

"I'm afraid not."

"You're serious."

"Deathly."

"OH HELL YEAH!" Inuzuka yells suddenly, throwing his arms around Shino carelessly. "Shino! You're my fucking hero!"

Shino pushes him away firmly, somewhat off put by the sudden invasion of his personal space. "Inuzuka." He says flatly, gesturing towards the teacher, who is very adamantly pretending that he was too caught up in grading papers to notice the profanity.

"My bad, my bad," The other boy laughs sheepishly again, not a hint of remorse on his face, brandishing the quiz for Shino to see. "I was totally freaking out because it all seemed too easy. I swore I bombed it! Seriously, I can't even remember the last time I got a 100 on anything math related."

Indeed, the paper was spotless save for a bright red 100 circled at the top. "Congratulations, I suppose?"

Inuzuka pouts at his reaction. "Oh right, you're one of those smart types that probably gets 100s all the time."

Shino rolls his eyes and collects his things, heading for the door. "Probably."

Behind him he hears Inuzuka laugh shortly and assumedly follow him, because almost immediately after Mr. Ibiki yells after him.

"Don't bother the poor kid too much now!"

To which, much to Shino's chagrin, Inuzuka's only response is:

"Now Mr. Ibiki, you know I'd never make a promise I won't keep!"


AN: What do you know, I actually updated something in an almost acceptable timeframe. :D

Too bad it's so short. And please don't ask me why Ibiki is the Calculus teacher. I wouldn't be able to tell you.

You guys actually surprised me with how much you liked this. I had mostly only written it for the hell of it, but if people enjoy it then all the better. I'm thinking I might actually try and see this through, but as usual no guarantees~

Also I'll apologize ahead of time that this story is so all over the place. I tend to get ideas when I'm half-dead of sleep deprivation, which does not do wonders for comprehensibility and consistency. And no beta-ing as per usual.

Lastly, a huge thanks to all of those who left me reviews. You guys are too nice I swear.