Hey, this fic is really coming along and I'm so glad to be working on it again. I'm extremely anxious to get back to where I originally left off. Hope you all are enjoying the fic and I am super glad to be back in action!

Chapter three

"So, you're telling me that you have no idea who this mystery girl is?" Tsunade leveled a stare at Tsume Inuzuka, her longtime friend and, as she had put it, former alpha of the Inuzuka clan.

Tsume had come to her office personally to explain the situation with Kiba to Tsunade and she understood why. Apparently, if this girl, whoever she was, found out that she had been raped, she could have had Kiba arrested and stripped of his ninja status. Luckily, now that the situation had been made clear, Tsunade would at least be able to defend the boy, though she wasn't sure how much that would help his case. Konoha did have to honor the traditions of all the clans, the Inuzuka's being no exception, but there were still laws. This was one hell of a tough situation.

"Since the boy was only working off of natural instinct, if an issue arises, we might not have much to worry about." Tsunade said. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "But, first things first. We have to find this girl." That was easier said than done. There were hundreds of females alone in the village and they had to find one.

Tsume smirked as she thought the situation over. "Well, if I know my son, whoever the girl is, she's strong. Inuzuka alphas are naturally attracted to the strength."

"This is a ninja village. Most of our females are strong in their own way. That doesn't really narrow it down."

Tsunade was racking her brain to figure this out. There just had to be something they could do to find this odd girl. There at least had to be a sign or something that they could look out for. "Hmm.."

Tsume looked at Tsunade expectantly. "What you got?" She wanted to find this girl probably just as much as Kiba did. Although. She knew that the mating couldn't be reversed; she still wanted to see the strength of this girl first hand. Even if she would be Kiba's mate and the new alpha female, she wouldn't let a weakling get past her.

"For Kiba to unconsciously pick a female with strength, he would have to know firsthand that she is strong, without a doubt right?" Tsunade asked. She wasn't sure how right she was with this, but the pieces were starting to make sense in her head.

Tsume nodded. "Yes, I guess so." Kiba wouldn't have had time to search through female after female in his heat, so he would go for what would be a sure thing; something he was already previously aware of. Tsunade had a point.

"That means, that Kiba would have to have come in contact with this particular girl a numerous amount of times, correct?"

"Yeah." Tsume was starting to see where Tsunade was going with this. "He had to have known the girl on a personal level, or fought with her at one point."

Tsunade nodded. They had at least just narrowed it down to a list of girls. "Our only option is to check out the girls that graduated from the academy with him first and hope it's one of them." She didn't wish something so tragic on any of the girls, but at least they wouldn't have to search the entire village if it was one of them.

Tsume nodded her agreement. It only made sense that Kiba would pick a female whose strength and weaknesses he knew of from experience. "That's not bad. There were only a few girls that actually graduated in his group."

Although Tsunade agreed, she knew that if they were right and it was a girl from Kiba's group, then they might run into an even bigger problem. Most of the girls in his class were daughters of very prominent clan leaders and none of them would take too well to what was going on at the moment.

"Look, let's keep this between us. Until we find this girl, no one else in Konoha should know about this. I don't want a war of clans." Right now, Konoha was experiencing a rare time of peace and, as hokage; Tsunade did not want anything to ruin that.

Sakura sighed and leaned back in her office chair, staring at the ceiling with her arms behind her head. Today was so boring. She was hoping that the hospital would be busy so that the time would pass quickly and her vacation could officially begin, but luck was not on her side. There was no check-ups, no sick or injured kids, no sickly elderly, no injured ninja, nothing. After making her rounds with the patients already admitted, she was done. Even all of the other nurses were somewhere watching TV or playing cards.

"How boring. I'll never get out of here." she thought to herself.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Sakura straightened herself up and called for the person to enter. The door creaked open and Shizune poked her head inside. "Hey Sakura. Working hard I see." she teases before entering the room and stopping to stand in front of her desk.

"I wish. Sakura groaned. "There's not any work to do."

"I noticed." Shizune smiled. "Why don't you just go home? I'll let Tsunade know. There's no need for you to be here. You can just be on call for today."

Sakura almost jumped out of her seat at that offer. She was more than happy to get out of this graveyard today. "I am so taking you up on that, but don't worry about telling Tsunade. I was going to stop by there anyway."

Tsunade and Tsume were still talking. So far, they had composed a list of girls to investigate; Hinata, Ino, Tenten, and Sakura. Luckily there had been so few girls in Kiba's class so this should be easy.

"Exactly how do we go about finding out which girl is the one?" Tsume asked.

"Well, there has to be something that would stand out about…" There was a knock at the door before Tsunade could finish speaking.

Tsume and her looked between each other before Tsunade gave the order to enter. The door slowly creaked open and a head of familiar pink hair peeked in. Tsunade recognized who it was instantly. Though, she was surprised to see Sakura. She was sure she had to work today.

Sakura stepped into the room and smiled when she noticed Tsume sitting in the chair. She bowed politely. "I could just come back if you're busy."

Tsunade hadn't seen Sakura in a while. She never had to go to the hospital much when Sakura was on call. She was one of the best medics there. Nothing ever went wrong when her student was overseeing things. And most of the patients knew about her incredible strength and weren't dumb enough to make her angry by causing any trouble.

"No, it's fine. How can I help you?"

Sakura stepped even farther into the room. She bowed to Tsunade this time before making her request. "The hospital was empty today so Shizune let me leave. Also, since I have the next few days off, I would like to request a mission for Naruto, Kiba, and myself" she said and straightened up.

Tsume watched as their eyes met, like they were having a private conversation between each other. This must have been the apprentice that she heard Tsunade had been personally training so hard. She herself had never met the girl, though she did look familiar.

"Is that all you needed?" Tsunade asked, breaking the silence. She had no problem sending Sakura on a low level mission to give the girl a chance to unwind. She did work hard enough to deserve it.

"Well..." Sakura brought her hand up to rest against the side of her neck. She did want Tsunade to take a look at it, but she could always just try to heal it on her own. Besides, she was good enough with her chakra to heal a simple sore neck. That's all it was anyway. Not like she had seriously injured herself at any time.

Sakura smiled. "That was all sensei."

"Then you may leave. I'll send for you with your mission details at a later date."

After that, Sakura gave one last formal bow to Tsume and turned and exited the hokage's office. Tsume looked back at Tsunade, taking note of the fond gleam in her eye she had for the girl. "That must be the apprentice I heard so much about." Tsume stated.

"Yes. She's grown so much since I started training her." Tsunade could still remember when she first encountered Sakura. She was the young, love struck, girl that always got looked over in her group. Of course, being partners with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha didn't leave her much room to make a name for herself. Kakashi had made a mistake when he overlooked Sakura, using her intelligence as an excuse to put his focus into Naruto and Sasuke.

But, that hadn't stopped Sakura. She just needed some help and guidance in order to find her own way in the world of a kunoichi. Lucky for Tsunade, her chakra control and brains had made her an excellent candidate to be her apprentice. It had also given Sakura's own self-esteem a boost in the process.

"Didn't that girl graduate the same year as Kiba?" Tsume asked. That had to be where she recognized her from. Her name was on the list and with hair like that, she was hard to miss. She remembered seeing her around, but she had never personally seen Kiba interact with her.

"Yes, she was top of the class." Tsunade boasted, sounding like she was talking about her own daughter.

Tsume had a thought but decided to ignore it. Besides, what were the odds? It was more likely to be the Yamanaka girl or the Hyuga girl. Kiba actually associated himself with them. But, still...

"You know, Kiba should get out of the village for a while." Tsume agreed. "Also, this might be a good way to test things without letting anyone find out."

Tsunade threw a confused look in her direction. "What are you talking about?"

"Missions; we should send Kiba on a mission with every girl on the list. If he encounters the right one, the two will almost instantly respond to each other."

Tsume smiled to herself. It would be interesting to see if Kiba was connected to this one. From what she knew, the minute the two of them left the village together, if she was the right girl, their mating bond would start to react to one another. It would be impossible almost to keep them apart. Sakura would feel the pull to be near him and Kiba would feel the need to assert himself as her alpha. Things really would get interesting.

Tsunade agreed with this idea. It was a discreet enough way of going about things that wouldn't start any trouble.

Okay, I changed some things around and added some things. Hope you all enjoyed. I am almost caught up to where I left off in the original version and I know you are all anxious for that! Well, remember to read and review. Reviews are definitely what keep me writing.

Cya