Time to continue the madness! Sorry for the long wait. Thank you for listening to this crap of mine… And, I hope the cops aren't coming to get me because I forgot to write the disclaimer… Heh. I don't own Naruto! On to the fic!

"Shikamaru?" Kiba said.

"… Huh?" Shikamaru replied lazily.

"I smell something." Kiba informed.

"You're always smelling things." Shikamaru pointed out.

"Well, yeah…" said Kiba, "but it's not a scent I know-!"

Before Kiba could finish, Shikamaru interrupted him. "Obviously. Did you think that you might not be acquainted with every employee of the hospital, despite how frequently you are accommodated here?"

"It's not that," Kiba went on, impatiently waving off Shikmaru's thoughts on the matter, "it doesn't smell like Konoha."

Shikamaru's face changed slightly. "That's weird. You'd think someone would be more careful of that factor."

"Really? It could just be a foreigner, or maybe someone who has been away on a long mission." Kiba reasoned.

"Prehaps." Shikamaru nodded.

The two sat in silence for a moment before Kiba spoke again.

"The scent disappeared." He told Shikamaru uneasily.

This was confusing and Shikamaru currently had no answer to it, so he labeled the phenomenon as something to look out for.

Instead of using his tired brain to figure out the mystery, Shikamaru settled for a question. "Why is it that you lied to Sakura about the taking shifts with Neji and Shino? They won't be back from their mission for a few days."

Kiba sighed loudly, as if he dreaded and expected the question. "Well, she's like a sister that I can actually help, and telling her that we'll be the only ones on the job might get her worried about Naruto and us. When I told her that we're taking shifts, all of her worries lifted."

"Oh, I see." Shikamaru averted his eyes, smirking.

"Hey! No, it's not like that at all. Do you know how sick it would be if I started crushing on my sister? That's what it's like with Sakura. She's kind of off limits, you know, because it'd just feel really…" Kiba trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Sick?" Suggested Shikamaru.

"Err, yeah. It'd be sick and twisted. I would not do that to Sakura. If I did, it'd be affecting Naruto, as well. I don't think you even know how berserk he would go on my ass if I so much as poke her when she doesn't want to be poked! Even I'm not that protective, but he has good reason to be with someone like Sakura. You didn't see her when she didn't know if Naruto would be okay, but I did."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Alright man, I believe you. Wouldn't do that to those two, okay. You take the first shift, I'm gonna sleep."

"What?! No! We agreed to both be awake!" argued Kiba.

"Yeah, well… nothing's going to happen tonight anyway. Just let me sleep." Shikamaru yawned.

"Well, uh! But! Fine." Kiba finally agreed. "You have to take a shift too, though."

"Whatever." Shikamaru smiled, knowing he hadn't agreed.

Shikamaru slept the night away, despite the angry curses coming from Kiba.

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In the morning, Sakura's leg was fixed, but she was still forced to rest.

Kiba and Shikamaru visited her at one o'clock in the afternoon to wish her fast healing and tell her of Naruto's condition.

"Hey Sakura!" Kiba greeted cheerily, opening the door.

He waltzed right in, followed by Shikamaru who was wearing an occupied expression.

"Hi Kiba! Hi Shikamaru!" Sakura smiled.

"What's up? How's your day been?" Kiba asked.

Sakura laughed. "I haven't really been doing anything, Kiba. They've told me that I have to rest a little bit longer."

Although Sakura's laughter broke Shikamaru's absent-minded reverie, he stayed silent and watched the two converse with amusement.

"Why's that? Do they think there's something up with your head?" Kiba questioned.

Sakura smiled amiably. "Clever. I'm not completely sure, but they want me to rest. They say it was a pretty bad crack against my head. My leg's healed but a little stiff. Tsunade believes I might be a tad lightheaded for a while, maybe dizzy. So I'm stuck here for a day or two more."

"Awww… Sucks for you!" Kiba grinned.

"Shut up! You shouldn't mock temporarily 'technically' crippled people!" Sakura shot back.

Kiba feigned a pout. "But Mooooom! That's my hobby!"

"It'll happen soon enough to you, if you aren't careful. And when it does, do you know what I'll do?" Sakura said.

"Preferably heal me." He shrugged.

"No. I'm gonna laugh… at you."

Kiba snickered. "Yeah, okay. You are the ultimate sadist."

"Alright, fine. How's Naruto doing?" Sakura asked.

"Eh, he's great, I suppose, though I wouldn't want to be in his head."

"So in other words?" Sakura urged Kiba to continue.

"On a one to ten, I think Naruto is a five. I think he'd prefer to be awake, but it's a good thing he's not." Answered Kiba.

Sakura sighed. "A great job I did of preventing that."

"No, don't say that! It was a surprise attack, directed at him. The village should have been secure." Kiba replied.

"Ninjas are supposed to be prepared for anything." Sakura responded glumly.

Kiba opened his mouth to argue, but Shikamaru cut off his attempt and spoke first.

It was probably a good thing, because Kiba wasn't exactly full of good points to give a doleful woman at the time.

Shikamaru said, "I know I wouldn't have been ready for invisible Rock nins to attack me in a ramen stand that late at night, especially when Rock nins haven't invaded for decades. I wouldn't expect them to specifically target my eating partner or me."

Sakura looked sore and rather docile at that moment, so Kiba intervened. "I wouldn't have, either. Shikamaru and I, we're pretty decent shinobi, would you say so?"

Sakura nodded meekly.

"Well, neither Shikamaru nor I would have anticipated that kind of thing would happen. I think you're a really decent shinobi, so case closed. No problem, right?"

Sakura smiled. "Using big words, eh, Kiba?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so. What of it?"

"I surmise that that may be a sign that you are finally getting more smarter." Sakura smirked.

"It's not 'more smarter,' it's 'smarter.'" Kiba corrected with a grin.

"I know, I was mocking you."

At this, Shikamaru laughed out loud, disregarding the dirty looks he was getting from Kiba.

I will now skip to that night

"Shikamaru, I'm gonna go take a pee…" Kiba informed.

"That's great. Good luck." Shikamaru said absently.

"Yeah, thanks." Kiba responded awkwardly.

"Take the room key!" Shikamaru suddenly snapped out of his spacey trance long enough to order that Kiba do that.

"Err… alright." Said Kiba even more awkwardly, not quite used to the lazy boy suddenly snapping out of space to give out orders.

Once Kiba got done with his… well, his act of relief, he did all the right things that you do in a bathroom and exited.

He went to the hospital room that occupied Naruto and Shikamaru. He automatically pulled out the room key (which is like the hotel things… the credit card like-objects) and slid it through the lock.

The door clicked and Kiba began to pull it open, but then he heard a sound uncommon in a near empty wing of a hospital.

He heard footsteps.

He let the door handle slip in his concentration.

It loudly clicked shut.

Kiba jumped.

"What the hell, Kiba?" Shikamaru asked, slipping out of the door.

The ninken user gulped. "I hear footsteps."

Shikamaru looked at Kiba dubiously. "Is this some sort of ghost story for senses? First you smell things, and then you hear things. What's next? Seeing things?"

"What? That's not what this is!" Kiba whispered.

"You can cut it with the whispering. How am I supposed to believe something that's completely illogical and I have no way of confirming?"

"I have a way around that." Kiba hissed.

"Then, what is it, Dog-Boy? Hey, you know, I'll have to start calling you D.B." Shikamaru said.

"Listen." Advised Kiba through clenched teeth.

Shikamaru was suddenly and distressingly aware of the soft 'slap slap' of sandals on tile.

All of a sudden, the footfalls quieted.

"Where are they?" murmured Kiba.

"I don't know, but I think they realize that we know that they're here." Shikamaru replied in a monotone.

For the next few moments, Shikamaru's heart was pounding in his throat and blood was pounding in his head.

Then, the floor in front of him began to glow like fresh coal had been dumped on it.

"Exploding note." Shikamaru muttered. Then he looked over at Kiba. "What are you doing?"

"Give me a sec, I'm busy." Kiba answered, pulling out a kunai and 2 exploding notes of his own. "You get out of the way of the explosion, I'm going to be right behind you."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and took off abruptly in the opposite direction.

The explosion soon, followed, but Kiba was not behind him.

"Stupid." Shikamaru said, then ran back toward the explosion.

He looked up just in time to see Kiba put the kunai with the attached exploding note into one of the Rock ninja's stomachs.

Kiba turned around and ran straight into Shikamaru, unaware of the other's approach.

The Inuzuka shook it off and got up, dragging Shikamaru with him while Shikamaru gave lazy protests stating his ability to walk unaided.

Kiba finally let go, allowing Shikamaru to nearly fall on his face.

The rock ninja exploded, taking the ninja next to him with him.

"I almost didn't notice the part where you weren't right behind me." Commented Shikamaru.

"Well, that doesn't really matter right now, does it?" Kiba snapped, keeping an eye on the enemy ninja.

"I don't suppose it does, though sometimes it's nice to actually be able to trust your word as what you'll do."

"Sorry, I don't always have time to think things through, and I'm not a genius like you. I'm a little more of a spontaneous, impulsive, spur-of-the-moment guy."

"Now isn't a good time to get angry at each other." Shikamaru responded tersely.

"Right, not the opportune moment to dig into our shit. Dually noted." Kiba shrugged.

"Great. You just had to go blow one of them up, didn't you?" Shikamaru moaned.

"Two of them." Kiba corrected.

"Yeah, even better. Now that you've blown two of them into the great blown up abyss, I don't think they'll be too happy with us."

"Like they were singing our praises before." Kiba muttered.

"Here they come."

Before the words could fully take affect, the ninja were upon them.

The only things breaking Shikamaru's concentration were the screams of mortal pain that he feared might be Kiba's, but other than that, the only distracting occurrences were the times when he was stricken.

Kiba punched the jaw of a rock ninja hard, flooring him.

He threw a few haphazard kunai at the grounded man and took him for dead to continue his fights.

Suddenly, the window beside him exploded, the force of the blast sending Kiba to the floor.

Shards of glass and chucks of wood crashed into him, but he had to be quick on his feet… err, back.

An airborne rock nin came down at him, so Kiba grabbed a stray katana and swung it in front of him at the last second.

The ninja was shish kabobed instantly.

Shikamaru ducked, narrowly avoiding several kunai knives.

No matter how many ninja were defeated, which the number was definitely growing larger, there was an endless amount to replenish the gaps.

Suddenly, the room ignited with Katon jutsus.

Kiba barely dodged one, and the ball of fire smacked into the floor beside him.

A second later, the flames seemed to have given way to an explosion, and Kiba was flat on his face from the force of the explosion.

Kiba saw Shikamaru realize that exploding notes were hidden in the Katons, so there was one less worry.

Shikamaru punched out a ninja the moment he touched the floor in front of him, but the Kage Mane user failed to notice the Katon coming in behind him.

Kiba got up and tried to motion to Shikamaru, but the genius clearly wasn't getting it.

He dove at Shikamaru and tackled him to the ground just as the extreme heat spiraled above them.

Kiba grimaced when the flames licked at his back, burning it.

Both hit the ground hard and rolled slightly.

Kiba sat up shakily then looked warily about the room.

The ninja were coming again, and Shikamaru was beginning to question the end of it, however that would turn out.

A ninja crept up behind him, but Shikamaru could think fast whether he was on his feet or on his ass, so his Kage Mane no Jutsu caught the ninja just in time and Kiba drove a kunai through his throat.

They both stood up and adroitly readied themselves.

Shikamaru ducked another kunai and struck the rock ninja in front of him in the jaw.

Close by, Kiba kneed the shinobi immediately in front of him in the chest.

Shikamaru fell to a Katon, letting out a shout of surprise as it unexpectedly hit him.

"Damn it." Cursed Kiba and he launched into the seals for his infamous Gatsuuga (can't remember so well… please, if I made a mistake here, inform me of it!).

Shikamaru used Kage Mane to hold multiple people in place before he threw kunai knives to slit their throats.

Kiba ran down four ninjas with his Gatsuuga before he stopped without warning and collapsed.

A kunai knife was stuck in his right shoulder.

"Kiba-?" Shikamaru started, but he perhaps started his question too late.

Kiba exploded.

Dramatic, no? Sorry, didn't have a lot of Naruto in it, did it? Well, Naruto is a little bit unconscious, so that's expected. Anyway, please review! I would like to have three reviews at least, but the desires of the author are always less important than that of the reader! Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening!

-WarRain