A month had passed and Ino had to admit that she was the happiest she had been in years. She had truly found her niche working with the animals at the veterinary clinic.

She found herself quickly becoming a part of the Inuzuka household; even if at first she felt a bit guilty. She was receiving a salary, yet they were providing her with nearly all of her meals. She could have added boarding to the list as well because she was definitely waking up more often in Kiba's bed than in her own back at the house with her father. Fortunately she was naturally infiltrating her way into meal preparation and clean-up, bonding greatly with Kiba's mother as much as with his sister, but she still felt that she should do more.

Ino spoke with Tsume about contributing something to the household, paying for part of the groceries, doing laundry- anything to help out, but Tsume just grinned. The girl was definitely becoming an integral part of the family and as far as she was concerned she was already doing enough by looking after her son. Kiba was becoming a familiar face around the compound again. He was willingly helping out at the clinic, walking the dogs and taking care of the feedings like Hana had pestered him to do for ages on a regular basis. Tsume was quite pleased to see her son becoming more responsible, finally turning into a respectable young man. It might have sounded harsh but as the mother of a rather wild pup she felt it was about time that some girl put him on a leash and this girl had remarkably tamed him without breaking his spirit. Plus she had the added bonus of being a kunoichi with an innate talent for veterinary medicine. She was taking a tremendous workload off of her daughter, not that she was seeing her daughter anymore than usual, but at least she'd have no more excuses to not get out and find herself a mate. Now Hana was definitely the one she needed to worry about most, as the eldest sibling still residing in the house; Kiba seemed very well provided for. She just hoped that he wouldn't screw it up.

Yes, all was going well from Ino and the Inuzuka's standpoint but, needless to say, the more Ino implanted herself over at their compound, the less she was appearing over at the flowershop. She was asking everyone to fill in for her shifts, promising that she would make it up to them the following week, only to ask again. The first two times that her father confronted her (when she actually came home at night) she swore that it wouldn't happen again. The third time he needed to speak with her to put an end to her disregard, he discovered that she hadn't been home in a week. No amount of work at the vet clinic could explain this behavior and he would not have her out and about destroying her reputation- not now.

The following evening he was at the usual bar with Chouza and Shikaku complaining about the plight of having to raise a daughter.

"You guys don't know how easy you have it," he spoke into his beer. "Here I am trying to insure Ino's future and she won't even show the decency to come home at night. She's single-handedly undermining her reputation, spending her nights out in the clubs."

"Sounds too troublesome for my blood," Shikaku added in what was the most sympathy his lazy ass could muster.

"What makes you think she's out clubbing? You should be more worried about her new boyfriend," Chouza warned.

Inoichi nearly spit out the beer in his mouth. "Ino has a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, the Inuzuka kid," Chouza chuckled. Chouji mentioned it to me the other day. They were all in the same graduation class."

Why was he, the father, always the last to know about these developments? Shit! He had to leave now. "You guys cover my bill will you? There's somewhere I need to go."

He didn't wait for an answer before exiting the bar and stomping over to the dog ninja family compound. He was livid. How could his daughter be dating a boy and he not know about it. Worse, why was she dating, of all people, the Inuzuka boy? Inuzukas were to be avoided at all cost. He had learned his lesson the hard way. Now his daughter was falling into the same trap that he had years ago and was unknowingly destroying the plans he had been so painstakingly drawing out for her, to boot.

He banged on the door.

Tsume appeared at the entrance in fighting stance, Kuromaru by her side. She knew that she would be facing an enemy but never had she expected to come face to face with Inoichi, a man with whom she hadn't spoken more than two words to in over twenty years.

"I want to speak with my daughter now!" he informed her.

"Ino and Kiba are out. What's with the urgency?"

Instead of responding, he lifted his hands to perform a mind body switch. He would find out where they were alright; but Tsume recognized her ex-lover's hand signs immediately. They were the same he had used on her so many years before to read her mind, to learn about the man who would go on to become Kiba and Hana's father. It wasn't that she hadn't cared about Inoichi, what they had shared had been special at the time, but this other man from her clan had truly swept her off her feet. Even Inoichi could not have compared at the time or even today now as she thought back to her long deceased husband who died fighting the Kyuubi, leaving her with a young daughter and three month old son to raise alone.How was she supposed to have known that he was on the verge of proposing? Besides, it hadn't been the end of the world. He had gone on to find a lovely civilian wife whom he loved very much; but to have held a grudge this long was pure Yamanaka stubbornness. The look she was seeing in those large pupil less eyes was still fired by hate, there was no denying.

"You wouldn't dare," she threatened.

Kuromaru growled.

Inoichi understood that he had overstepped his bounds on their territory. He would back down for now but he would confront his daughter.

XXXXX

The following morning at the breakfast table, Tsume told Ino and Kiba about their unexpected visitor.

Kiba kept quiet in front of his mom but he and Ino had their first serious argument just minutes later outside on their way to the clinic.

"What do you mean you haven't even spoken to your dad about us yet?"

"I don't know. I just never really found the time."

"There's always time when it really matters, Ino. Are you ashamed of me or something? Cause if you're not serious about this relationship then you might as well let me know now."

"It's not that, Kiba. I just, I just…" she really didn't have a good explanation. Why couldn't she face her father? Probably because it was so much easier to stay in her warm bubble of bliss over at the Inuzuka compound than to risk having said bubble burst by her dad. If her friends had questioned their relationship, then there was no way that her father was going to let her live out her dream so easily. So it really did come back down to being embarrassed in some weird context. "Well," she started again, "I just don't think that my father would approve."

"Of us?"

"No, of you."

Kiba could feel his blood beginning to boil. "Ok, I get the picture. An Inuzuka's not good enough for a Yamanaka princess. You know, I'm not so dense that I can't figure it out," he paused as if he wanted to add something more… "Oh, just, fuck it!" He spat and ran off needing to spend some time alone to think things through, to re-evaluate the situation, because if he stayed there another second he knew that the conversation would turn even uglier.

Ino had her first bad day at the clinic. She couldn't concentrate on any of her tasks. She just kept hoping that Kiba would walk through the door so they could talk and make up but he never did.

When he didn't show up for dinner her already distraught mind sent her imagination into play. Why wasn't he there? Where could he be? What if he was reverting back to his 'old ways,' now that he was mad at her?

Tsume avoided interrogating the girl about her son's absence. They were obviously fighting over something quite serious and if her caninelike senses weren't steering her wrong she figured she had a pretty good idea about what. This wouldn't be an appropriate time for her to intervene quite yet.

With him away, Ino decided to walk Akamaru instead of helping to clean up after the meal. She felt that the brisk Autumn air would help her to clear her thoughts but as she and the dog made their way through a dense series of trees she found herself even more at unease. It was a scene much like the nightmare she had back at the conference- a thick forest, moonlight serving as the only sign of an exit. She was feeling clammy and nervous. Her stomach was in knots and she found herself vomiting up her dinner onto the forest carpet. She so wanted to know what Kiba was up to.

They walked on a ways when Akamaru barked, giving her an idea.

She knelt down to the large dog's height, her back against a tree for support. "Akamaru, I'm sorry sweety but I have to do this," and she performed a mind transfer on the canine. There would be no one to watch over her body but her safety was the last thing on her troubled mind at the moment. Now in Akamaru's body she left off to look for Kiba.

With the dog's strong flare it was easy to locate the young shinobi. Oddly enough, she found him sitting in a tree across the street from her house.

Kiba saw his faithful companion approaching and he leapt down from his perch. "Hey, boy. I figured you'd come and look for me," he reached out to scratch his pet behind the ears, not realizing that he had undergone an inner transformation. "Sorry I wasn't around today, but I just needed some time alone to think. Ok," he breathed in, "it's getting late and I need to make my move. I'm going to do this, dammit!" He was obviously trying to pump himself up for a difficult task. "I'm going to go talk to Inoichi… but it's probably best that you head home, Akamaru. I don't know how long this will take and apparently he's not much of a dog lover."

Ino remained just long enough to see him cross the street before returning to the place where she had left her body.

As soon as she released the technique she could feel tears of joy welling up in her eyes. Kiba was going to personally speak with her father and set him straight about their relationship. She felt so foolish for ever having doubted him.

Kiba showed back up at the compound rather quickly. In fact, Ino and Akamaru were still outdoors when he walked up to them. Inoichi had unfortunately not been at home when he went to knock but at least he was no longer angry with Ino. Even he had felt rather intimidated about confronting the tall mind manipulator. Now he understood how she must have felt.

He walked up to his girlfriend. "Ino, about earlier… I'm sorry that I blew up on you like that and I went to talk to your dad…"

"I know," she said taking him into a strangle hug.

"Wait. How did you know?" he wondered aloud, pulling her off with a quizzical look.

She explained about how she had been worried and about the jutsu she had performed on Akamaru. She seemed quite happy with herself.

Kiba, however, was far from pleased. He was completely and utterly furious. "You did a mind transfer on my dog just to follow me around?" he yelled.

"It's not like I followed you around all day," she answered in her defense, quite surprised that he was taking the information so negatively. The technique had definitely reassured her so she didn't find anything immediately wrong with what she had done. "I just saw…"

"I don't care what you saw Ino! I can't believe that you would spy on me like that, and with Akamaru. And you're implying that I'm the one who can't be trusted? Is it your dad who has a problem with me or is it you?" Tears were burning at his eyes. His throat ached and a large lump forming there was splitting his words as his anger turned to anguish.

Ino stepped forward to hold him, to try to explain, but he wasn't having it. Besides, he really didn't know if he was ready for the answer to his last question.

"Just, just go away Ino," he sighed, unable to look her in the face. He did however turn to see her running away from the compound as he felt his heart sink, already regretting the request but unsure how else to react.

He went into the house and straight to bed although he wouldn't fall asleep until hours later. He had far too much weighing on his mind.

He was very hurt and the fact that he was trying to apologize for getting mad earlier only to discover her betrayal only added salt to the wound. Sure he had a reputation, one that he would have been proud of just over a month ago but he really had turned over a new leaf ever since he had befriended the kunoichi and quite honestly, he would have done anything within his powers to wipe the old slate clean today. Why couldn't she just understand that? Maybe she was as afraid of getting hurt as he was when he still wasn't sure that he was ready for a relationship. Then maybe there was a reason behind her madness. It did prove that she cared, but that still didn't make her actions hurt any less.

Ino ran home in tears. It was finally occurring to her that what she had thought to be an auspicious move had been truly downright dirty. She hadn't even stopped to think what Kiba might feel at the time but he was certainly right to be mad. She had acted like a jealous bitch and had allowed her foolish thoughts to cloud what she knew deep in her heart; but she had ruined all of that. Kiba would never forgive her now.

Her mind was racing and tears blurred her vision as she brushed past two familiar figures exiting a barbeque restaurant.

"Hey, Ino," Chouji started, but quickly realized that she was in no state of mind to stop and chat.

Shikamaru gave him a curious glance. Was Chouji thinking what he was thinking? A distraught Ino running through town in tears, ignoring them completely, it could only mean one thing.

"Kiba," they spoke together.

Yes, Kiba had obviously fucked up big time! Hadn't Shikamaru predicted that his teammate's relationship would somehow become a troublesome affair for him as well? The prediction had come true as he and Chouji agreed to head over to the Inuzuka compound at the crack of dawn to set the dog ninja straight.