Summary: Between gang fights, rival schools, and bloodlust, there's hardly anyone that you can trust these days, except for one person: the doctor. No one has ever seen the doctor face to face, but that doesn't stop them from trusting the doctor with their lives.

With Shikamaru and Chouji

The two walked in silence after they departed from their friends. One was still trying to process the last three days while the other was waiting for his friend to speak up like he knew that he would.

"Chouji?"

"Hm?"

"Why didn't you ever tell me about Ino? I know that you weren't suppose to tell me about the doctor or the house, but you could have told me about Ino."

Chouji didn't knw what to say to that, he really didn't. Shikamaru was usually the one who smooth-talked their way out of a sticky situation. Chouji plainly sucked at thinking on his feet, so he went with what he actually felt.

"Well... I didn't want to."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his best friend's response.

"I thought that... I thought that you'd laugh at me, or the other guys would. All of you always get a girl to latch onto your arms, y'know. I'm usually the one who gets the leftovers; the one who the girls use to get to the rest of you."

Shikamaru knew that there was some truth in Chouji's words. 'Females can be so cruel, especially to someone as nice as Chouji.'

"What makes you think that Ino isn't the same?"

"She isn't."

Chouji sounded so firm and confidant in his answer. Shikamaru wasn't sure whether or not he should be happy for Chouji or concerned at his blindness. If Kyuusaisha knew everything about everyone, then maybe Ino did too. Maybe Ino had wanted to use Chouji to get to one of them.

Females were always fickle and troublesome. He learned that at a young age.

"She really isn't like the other girls, Shikamaru. She... she cares for me. You know how Kyuusaisha-sama said that she usually only treats the really bad injuries?"

Shikamaru nodded as he waited for his friend's explanation.

"Ino was always the one who helped me. She wanted to help me. She never made fun of me or made any remarks about my weight. For four years, sometimes I'd come just to visit them, to visit Ino. It feels like I've known her for so much longer. As long as I've known you."

Shikamaru wasn't sure what to say to Chouji at this point. Chouji sounded so earnest and Shikamaru was beginning to believe in the feelings that Chouji held for Ino, and what he knew that Ino held for him.

"She's really into flowers and once after I got a cut on my leg and it got infected - it was seriously disgusting - she brought me a bouqet and told me that each flower had a meaning behind it."

That sounded seriously girly.

"It was filled with alyssums, ambrosia, and some fennel or something. But she wouldn't explain to me what they meant."

'Typical. Of course the girl wants the boy to put some work into it,' Shikamaru thought.

"I found out that she wanted to tell me that I was something beyond beautiful; that she saw my inner beauty. I know, I know it's really cheesy. Stop giving me that look."

True, Shikamaru had given something close to a 'what the hell?' look but let his friend continue.

"That the love I feel for her isn't unrequited and that she thought I was so strong. That I had some hidden strength left within me and that was better than what those guys who always flex have."

OK, Shikamaru had to admit that that was kind of cool for her to do. He knew that Chouji had always been insecure about himself, especially around Sasuke, Neji, or even Sai.

"That's when I knew that I couldn't love anyone like I love her, Shikamaru. I'm in love with Yamanaka Ino, and that's OK."

Silence reigned between the two before Shikamaru finally spoke. "Well, Chouji, she does seem nice enough, even if she's troublesome. That night when you... when Kyuusaisha-sama was taking care of you, I could tell that she loves you too, y'know."

Chouji smiled at hearing that and Shikamaru felt compelled to continue.

"We always said that we'd find some troublesome girls and settle down into our troublesome lives. I just never thought that you'd find your troublesome girl before I did."

Chouji laughed and Shikamaru could only stare at him and question his friend's sanity.

"Shikamaru, drop the act. I know that you already found your troublesome girl."

Chouji gave Shikamaru a knowing smile while the latter just stared. Again.

"What are you talking about, Chouj? There isn't a single girl that I'm slightly interested in."

"Riiiight. What about..." Chouji paused for dramatic affect, "Sabaku no Temari?"

Shikamaru prompted felt his ears turn pink and he turned his head away to cough. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, yeah. You've always found girly girls disgusting and now you've found this kickass girl and you're in denial? You know that it will only be even more troublesome if you do that."

Shikamaru refused to answer and he and Chouji stayed quiet for the rest of the journey home.

With Kiba and Shino

"Can you seriously believe that? How could someone just... no, it's gotta be a joke. How could that 'doctor' person even be serious?! Doesn't even look like a saint or anything. 'Help us just to help us!' That has fake written all over it! Right, Shino?"

The boy just continued walking and asking himself, 'Why did I agree to walk with Kiba again? I knew that it would be, dare I say it, troublesome. Damn it. Oh, he's looking at me, I suppose I should answer'

"No, Kiba."

"NANI?! You actually believe the crap that the doctor was spewing?" Kiba asked with an incredulous look on his face.

"Kiba, what reason do you have to not believe the doctor's words?"

"For one thing, I couldn't tell if it was a male or female. If Akamaru was here, I'm sure he could tell."

"I'm not sure about that, Kiba. Not even the bugs could tell. The doctor was some... mechanism that prevents us from knowing. The doctor is definitely smarter than he, or she," Shino quickly added, "looks."

'And that,' Shino thought, 'was even more dangerous than Akatsuki, Hebi, and Oto combined since the doctor knows everything about them too.'

"I... guess. Still though, I wonder how she knew so much about us."

"Like the doctor said, information goes in and out of that house on a regular basis. I'm sure even men of stature would feel compelled to say something under the guise of death," Shino concluded. Of course, he didn't add in the possibility that perhaps the doctor drugged them for the information.

"Even so, what makes you think that the doctor is a female, Kiba?"

"Isn't it totally obvious?"

Shino gave Kiba a look that said, 'No, it isn't totally serious.'

"Well, consider this. All these criminals are always there right? And most of the criminals are males. I don't think that they would just bow down to a male barking out instructions and... touching them everywhere," Kiba shuddered at his own imagination as Shino rolled his eyes, which went unseen behind his sunglasses.

"Besides, I don't think that Ino, Hinata, or that Hanabi chick would stick around with a male doctor unless they were getting some."

At that remark, Shino promptly smacked Kiba upside the head.

"Ow! What?! I'm being totally serious."

"Kiba, don't you remember Hinata-sama? She wouldn't be that type of person. She went to school with us all those years ago before we met Neji-san, remember?" Shino asked.

Kiba gave Shino a blank look as he was trying to recall that timid little girl with the silver eyes in his memory banks.

"Well... I remember back in what, third grade?, that there was always some little girl that everyone else picked on."

"Yes, that was Hinata-sama. And while you always played fetch with Akamaru, I actually tried to help her."

Kiba looked blankly at Shino again. Why didn't he notice his best friend leaving his side to defend some girl? No, going near a girl period? Shino wasn't exactly the most social person that you'd meet and felt less inclined to meet new people that he didn't have to or that Kiba didn't introduce him to.

"Then why didn't you say anything when she came in?"

They walked a bit more in silence before Shino answered him.

"Hinata-sama needed a moment with Neji-san. I would not want to come between them while they shared a familial moment."

Kiba considered this and it did make sense to his puny brain. Shino really wasn't the type of person to try to intrude on someone else's parade. He thought he felt Shino stiffen a bit when the doctor called out Hinata's name, but he thought nothing of it at the time.

"Do you know her little sister too then? Hanabi or whatever?"

"I only know of her. Hinata-sama often spoke of her whenever we would converse."

Again, Kiba was dumbfounded that these moments had slipped past his knowledge. What other secrets was Shino hiding from him? Was it possible that Hinata was Shino's first crush or something?

"No, Kiba. It was a relatively short friendship. I am not hiding anything else and no, I never felt attached to her in the way that you are thinking of," Shino answered.

Kiba scrunched his face at his best friend's uncanny ability to discern what he was thinking. Really though, he shouldn't be surprised. Naruto and Sasuke had that ability, and Chouji could usually tell what Shikamaru was thinking, except for those really complicated plans.

Kiba could only read Shino a few times since he always had those damn sunglasses on, but Shino read Kiba like a book most of the time. Then Sai and Neji were a completely different story.

Sai and Neji weren't best friends, far from it. If anyone were to relate to Sai, it would be Naruto and Sasuke since they had worked together before. Neji though... his best friend was someone else who wasn't associated with Shinobi.

Shino always made it clear not to ask Neji of his past because it was always troubled. It had to be if he didn't even know that his two younger cousins were alive until today.

"Then what was she to you, Shino?"

"I already told you, we were friends, Kiba. She was probably the first female that I bothered to befriend until she moved away unexpectedly," Shino answered as he reflected on the years gone by.

Hinata-sama and he would often go to the park because it was where she liked to be most. She would usually insist - well not really, more like plead with her eyes or guilt him - to go on the swings. Sometimes Shino would push her and sometimes they'd swing together.

Then one afternoon, Hinata showed up rather late. If it was one thing that Shino knew about Hinata was that she was never late. She said that it made her feel bad for making someone else wait for her. Plus, she was crying.

Between broken sobs, Hinata told Shino that her father was making her move because of something or other. All Shino processed was that Hinata was leaving. No, he never liked her in that way, but he always thought of Hinata as the little sister that he always wanted.

As she continued crying, all Shino could do was hug her and promise her that he would find her one day. He would build her a swing set and they could talk and play all she wanted.

He never found her, until today.

With Sai and Neji

You couldn't exactly say that Sai and Neji didn't like each other. After forced companionship for the last maybe ten years or so, even the most unlikely people grow on you.

Well, maybe the first three years were spent on trying to ignore and/or destroy each other, but now they could tolerate each other.

They would never be best friends, because Sai's best friend died a long time ago and Neji's... well, Neji's best friends were a bit too weird to speak of often. One of them didn't agree with Neji's lifestyle, but still remained friends, while the other was the opposite of Neji in nearly every single way.

"Hey princess, what do you think of that doctor?" asked Sai.

Princess because of his hair. He probably took more care of it than most girls. He was very, very meticulous about it.

"I don't know, Barbie, what do you think?" retorted Neji.

Barbie because of his personality. Sai was one of those few people who could be completely apathetic and unfeeling, in other words: plastic. It didn't help the fact that he usually liked to flaunt his abs too with short shirts.

Nope, definitely never best friends. Could they even qualify as friends? I guess, if you categorized their friendship as a love/hate one.

"I think that the doctor could be everyone's undoing," Sai sagely stated.

Neji wasn't sure of what to make of this and waited for the boy to continue.

"The doctor knows everything, sees everything, could destroy everything. Your cousin mentioned Haku's name. He's a member of the Misu gang and very, very dangerous."

Neji considered Sai's words and saw that they held truth. The doctor very well could see to their end, to his own end. He would have to make sure not to get on the doctor's bad side anytime soon.

"Who knows what other dangerous criminals are lurking around in that house. I wonder what those girls have to do to calm the criminals down."

Sai couldn't have known what that sentence would trigger in Neji. Neji really didn't want to think of Hinata-sama or Hanabi-sama doing... impure things for that doctor. What did Hinata-sama know about the doctor anyway? She had always been a little too trusting and he always feared for her safety.

Neji's jaw clenched and his hands formed fists as he thought of his cousins' safety in that house. Why were they there in the first place? Did the doctor blackmail, bribe, kidnap them? Where was Hisashi-sama in all this? Did he give his daughters over to this doctor? What if the doctor actually used them as labrats? What if...?

But... didn't the doctor say that if anything, they could defend themselves? That had to include Hinata-sama and Hanabi-sama, right? And Hinata-sama looked alright, although shocked to see him. He could always read Hinata-sama, and not once did she give off a 'save me' vibe or anything of the sort. He would trust the doctor... for now, because his cousins did.

"They probably drug the criminals to get them to calm down. Like morphine or something of the like," Neji supplied. He would not consider any other possibility.

"I suppose that could be it, Princess," Sai answered with his fake smile.

Neji wasn't bothered by the smile anymore. He knew that it wasn't intentional; it was the only way that Sai knew how to smile.

And Sai wasn't bothered by Neji's coldness anymore as well. He was used to it by now. He had Sasuke to practice on, after all. Plus, he could still read Neji sometimes even though he tried so hard to hide his true emotions.

He knew after he had mentioned the girls' state of being in that house, that Neji would react in some way. He saw what transpired between Neji and the young female Hyuuga. He knew that Neji had a heart in that body somewhere, no matter how small.

As for himself... he had a heart literally speaking, but metaphorically... he wondered if someone stole it from him. He read it in books all the time where a boy would tell a girl that she had 'stolen his heart.' Perhaps his mother had stolen it from him when he was child? Or his best friend had taken it with him when he died?

Whatever the reason was and wherever his heart was now, he still strived to feel human. He had always questioned the state of his humanity, and it became increasingly easier - though probably not easy enough - to feel with Naruto and Sakura's help. Speaking of Sakura, when was the last time that he saw her?

27 January 2007