" You know, we kinda suck." Akamaru yipped quietly. They had been waiting a half hour for the scout team to return.

" What?" asked Kiba.

" Everyone else is getting way better than us. Naruto's starting to take himself seriously, Hinata's doing that medical stuff, and even Sakura is becoming useful." Akamaru woofed, stretching. " We're falling behind."

" No were not!" Kiba said, getting a reproachful look from Ino for being to loud.

" All we have is the Beast Clone and Piercing Fang. We're okay if we're fighting together, but without each other, we're the weakest of the genin." Akamaru explained.

" Yeah." sighed Kiba. " Asuma-sensei keeps hinting that we should develop some skills that don't depend on each other."

" We should probably do that when we get back." Akamaru woofed, glad Kiba was agreeing with him.

" Yo." said Kakashi, creeping into view with the scout team. The others moved quietly over and met with them. " We were successful."

" Yosh!" said Lee excitedly. Ten-Ten clamped a hand over the excitable boy's mouth.

" The villagers are all asleep, as are most of our targets. There's only eight of them other than the leader, and only he is awake. We can take them easily. We want as many prisoners as possible, so try to knock them unconscious if possible. Their all in building in the center of town. I'll take Shiro out while you all secure the others."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

---

Kiba crept along the rooftop of the villages central building. He, Akamaru, Ten-Ten, and Kurenai were taking the two thugs on the top floor out. Ten-Ten came to a window and peered through. She gave them the sign to continue and crept though.

Inside they found the thugs, one asleep on a beg and the other asleep in a chair. Ten-Ten crept to the one in the chair, positioning herself behind with a needle she had drawn. She clamped a hand over the mans mouth and jabbed him with the needle. He startled for a moment, then fell unconscious from the poison. Kurenai went to the man on the bed and performed a jutsu.

" I trapped him in a powerful genjutsu. He won't wake up." she whispered to the genin. " We wait for Kakashi's signal now."

" I never though about taking a someone out silently." whispered Kiba to Akamaru. The small dog nodded. They had only ever though about punch's and kicks.

From below they heard a muffled thump.

" That was Kakashi." Kurenai said, hefting the genjutsu-trapped man over her shoulder. " We're done. Grab him and follow me."

" I'll get him." said Kiba, trying to be useful. Ten-Ten, however, was already carrying the man downstairs. Kiba and Akamaru stood still for a moment, feeling totally emasculated.

Downstairs they met with the others, who had the other defeated thugs tied up in the entry hall. Kakashi came in, bearing the unconscious body of what Kiba guessed was Shiro.

" I stunned him with a low power Chidori." Kakashi said, setting the man on the floor. " Was there any trouble for anyone else?" Everyone nodded no. " Good. Shino, anyone we missed?"

" My bugs have accounted for all threats." stated Shino. " We can inform the villagers if we wish."

" Naruto, Lee, Guy, that sounds like a job for you." Kakashi said. The three noisy ninja saluted and ran from the building. Kakashi's eye rolled.

---

" How can we ever thank you enough?" said one of the other village elders. They had been startled when they had been awoken, but now that they were safe they had begun to celebrate, despite the early hour.

" It's not a problem." said Asuma. " It'd be bad for the Leaf if we just let on of out villages get taken over."

" Well, thank you anyways." said the man, bowing deeply.

Everyone else had joined in the celebrating, except Kurenai, who was keeping watch of the prisoners, and Kiba, who was sitting aside gloomily.

" Everything alright?" asked Kakashi as he walked past.

" Yeah." said Kiba unconvincingly.

" The mission was a success. Something else must be bothering you." said Kakashi, pressing the matter. It was Asuma's job to watch the boy, but as far as he could tell Asuma had regulated Kiba to the role of the groups comic relief. After doing that to Obito, he wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else.

" Sure, we won, but I didn't do a thing." whined Kiba as Kakashi took a seat.

" Neither did Choji, Naruto, or Guy." Kakashi replied.

" Yeah, but they could have. I didn't even think about knocking them out quietly until afterwards. I'd never though about it." Kiba said as he scratched Akamaru's ear. " Me and Akamaru are thinking that we're falling behind everyone else."

" Well, you are." said Kakashi unsympathetically. Kiba and Akamaru annoyed. " I've seen it happen to a lot of Inuzuka. The gap between the time you can learn the Piercing Fang and the Double Headed Wolf, your clan's next technique, it pretty dramatic. Since I don't think you've had the time to completely master the Piercing Fang, it's probably not a good idea to move on yet."

" Akamaru was thinking that we should also develop some techniques that don't require each other, jus to be safe." countered Kiba.

" A good idea." said Kakashi, standing up. " Tell me how that goes."

" Hey, wait!" Kiba said, exasperatedly. " That's it?"

" Well, yeah. What did you expect?" Kakashi said, voice laden with boredom.

" It sounded like you were gonna help us or something!" Akamaru barked.

" I never said I would." Kakashi replied. Kiba and Akamaru blinked.

" Wait, you can understand him?" Kiba asked.

" Of course." Kakashi said. " I spent a while training ninja dogs. It's not that hard to learn."

" What did you train them to do?" Akamaru asked.

" Fight. I thought you were the smart one, Akamaru." Kakashi said, smirking behind his mask.

" Hey, could you train Akamaru to fight better?" Kiba asked hopefully.

" No. I have my own students. But, I'll send over someone who can." Kakashi said. " Unfortunately, Kiba, your not a ninja dog, so you'll have to practice something else."

" Like what?" Kiba asked excitedly.

" Oh, I don't know. Something that no one else in our teams does would be a good idea. Summoning or Seal jutsu, maybe. That's come up a bit. Their hard techniques, but worth it." Kakashi replied.

" All right! I'll do that when we get back." Kiba said excitedly before turning to his dog. " See? This is gonna work out great!"

I'm going to owe Pakkun a lot of favors. thought Kakashi as he left.

---

Leading the prisoners back to Kohona took two days, which were tortuous to the eager Inuzuka. When they had arrived back and given ANBU the prisoners, the teams went to see the Hokage to give their report.

" Good job." said the Hokage after they had finished. " A flawless mission."

" Sweet. Can we go?" asked Kiba, edging towards the door.

" Oh, sure, but since I have your pay slips for the last few missions, it would be foolish to do so." said the Hokage, taking out a number of envelopes. Everyone took them excitedly. Kiba opened it and found the money for the last two missions. There was nearly seven hundred Ryou, making Kiba and Akamaru's heads race with the possibilities.

" All right, ramen time!" Naruto proclaimed, racing from the room. He, obviously, had simpler plans. Hinata said goodbye and followed him. Everyone else suffled from the room.

" Hey, Kakashi, you'll send that person over tomorrow?" asked Akamaru. The jounin nodded. " All right!"

Kiba walked over to the Hokage.

" Excuse me, Hokage, sir?" he asked. The Hokage looked up from the file he was inspecting.

" Yes?" the Hokage asked.

" I was thinking about learning Seal and Summon jutsu, but I don't know how to find out about that. Where would I…?"

" A rather ambitious project for someone your age, but a admirable one." the Third said, smiling at him. Kiba fidgeted nervously. " I know of a store here in town that sells scrolls describing various Seal techniques and some basic summoning scrolls." The Third wrote an address down on a scrap of paper. " It won't be cheap, but luckily it's payday."

Kiba, his hopes for the money evaporating.

---

Akamaru had headed home with his half of their pay. Kiba had wandered though the crowded back streets of Kohona, trying to find the shop. It was a small looking, old building in a back alley. He didn't like the look of it, but he headed in anyways.

The inside was cluttered with floor to wall scroll cases, boxes of paper, brushes, and ink. The place stank of ancient paper and Kiba almost had to hold his nose.

" Can I help you?" asked an ancient looking woman, coming out from behind a stack of scrolls.

" Uh, hi." Kiba began lamely. " I was told I could buy scrolls here by the Third."

" Oh, goody. It's been a while since he sent anyone by me. Those three, the Sannin, were the last customers he sent. Imagine, his own mothers shop and he sends barely anyone here!" the old woman began with a cackle.

His mother? Thought an astounded Kiba. Isn't the Third like a million years old?

" Now, you'll probably want some basic things to start with. I have a scroll here that shows you how to create summoning scrolls for small animals and insects. They can't fight for you, but they make nice scouts." The woman handed him a large, heavy scroll. " You'll need ink, brushes, and twenty or so blank scrolls." The woman began to pile the supplies on him. " Just focus on the summons for now. It'll give you practice for seals." The old woman then pushed the struggling Kiba towards the door.

" How much does this all cost?" Kiba asked, quite concerned.

" Oh, everything you had." the old woman said, showing him the ryou which had been in his pocket before. Before he could protest she shoved him outside and shut the door. " Come back when you need to move on!"

Kiba mumbled obscenities under his breath as he headed for home.

---

Kiba arrived during dinner. He walked past the door to the dining hall as he headed for his room to drop off his newly purchased supplies. However, he was spotted by Tsume.

" Kiba, what's all that?" she called out. " Wallpapering your room?"

" Naw. It's all this stuff the lady at the scroll shop sold me." Kiba said, struggling under the weight.

" Scroll shop?" his mother asked.

" Yeah. I'm going to try learning some summoning jutsu." Kiba said earnestly.

" Did you hear that?" said his mother, laughing. " Kiba's going to learn summon techniques."

To Kiba's annoyance and confusion, the entire clan joined in laughing at him.

" What?" he asked. " What's so funny?"

" Kiba, you just wasted a lot of money. There's no way you can pull that stuff off." said his mother, wiping her watering eyes. " You should take it back for a refund."

Kiba was tempted to swear at his mother, but he resisted the urge and stormed up to his room. He shut the door and plopped the scrolls down on his bed. He swept the odd's and ends from his rarely used desk chair, plopping down angrily. He put the summoning scroll on it, unrolled it, and began to, for the first time in years, read.

---

" Aw shit." said Kiba, five minutes later. " They didn't say it was going to be this hard."

He'd ran though the entire scroll quickly, skimming it. It detailed the creation of weak summoning scrolls, suitable for small animals. Apparently, the more powerful the scroll the stronger the creature that could be summoned. There was a number of strangely named symbols and patterns that he had to work together to create the scrolls, and if you didn't match it correctly to the animal you wanted to summon it wouldn't work. To finish it off, you had to make a contract with the summoned creature using your own blood.

If I stay up all night, I might be able to…summon a moth. he thought, looking at the simplest seals. Sighing, he got to work.

---

Asuma couldn't believe his eyes.

He had showed up ten minutes before practice. Hinata was there, buried in a medical jutsu scroll, but sitting besides her was Kiba, making marks on a scroll, and Akamaru, who was wagging his tail happily.

This was going to be a odd day, he just knew it.

---

Another sqiggle…a mirror of it on the other side…a broken circle thing…with two dots…Kiba talked himself though the process as he brushed the ink onto the parchment.

" Hey Kiba." said Asuma as he walked up. He looked rather surprised.

" Hey, sensei. " Kiba replied, not looking up. He had almost finished, and since it had taken him four hours, he didn't want to screw up right at the end. " There!" he said triumphantly, making the final stroke.

" What is that?" Hinata asked curiously.

" It's a summoning scroll." Kiba said, smiling widely.

" Woah, woah, kid, you can't just draw a bunch of lines on a scroll and say it's a summoning scroll. There are certain shapes…." Asuma began before Kiba cut him off.

" Sensei, I stayed up all night reading some huge, boring scroll on this stuff and making this." Kiba said. Asuma looked at him skeptically. " Well, one way to find out."

Kiba bit down on his thumb, causing Hinata to gasp. " All right, here it goes!" he proclaimed, making the hand sign's. He pressed his still bleeding thumb to the center of the scroll. As he did so there was a small puff of smoke, and a moth about the size of a coin appeared.

" All right, it worked!" cheered Kiba. Hinata and Akamaru looked disappointed.

" Kid, that's pretty good." said Asuma, slapping his shoulder.

" Hey, moth, go land on Hinata's nose." Kiba commanded with a laugh. Akamaru and Hinata were stunned when it landed on Hinata's nose, causing her to sneeze. The moth flew away slowly. " Thanks. That's all I needed." The moth flew a shot flourish, then vanished.

" So, what's the use of that?" woofed Akamaru.

" Now, nothing except making Hinata sneeze whenever I want.." said Kiba teasingly. " But if I get better, I can summon bigger creatures to fight for me or something."

" That is very impressive." said Hinata genuinely. Kiba smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

" Hey, I'll be right back." said Asuma, walking away. " I need to buy more cigarettes."

When Asuma had gone, Kiba spoke up.

" Hey Hinata, just a question. What do you and Naruto do when you hang out?" he asked. Hinata blushed.

" We…go for ramen…and…" Hinata began dreamily.

" You do what Naruto wants to, right?" Kiba said flatly. Hinata nodded. " Just a thing, when he yelled at you about Neji's seal and all that stuff, you kinda just bowed to his wishes. It was a good thing, but you can't always just do what Naruto wants or he gets bored. My dad always said that a woman who knows what she wants is better, I think."

" Why are you telling me this?" asked Hinata, looking at him strangely.

" Well, when Naruto got angry with you, I got worried. I'm not your boyfriend like he is, but I'm your friend." Kiba said nervously. " I don't want to see something happen to you. It's the pack instinct thing the Inuzuka all have. I was going to talk to Naruto about yelling at you too." Kiba said, sitting up.

" My mom always yells at me about being polite to girls."

Hinata nodded politely.

" When the hell did you get so thoughtful?" yipped Akamaru.

" I donno." replied Kiba. " It just seemed like the thing to say."

" But if they broke up, you'd have a shot at Hinata!" yipped Akamaru.

" Aw, crap, I didn't think of that!" said Kiba, slapping his face. He looked to Hinata who was staring at him a smiled nervously.

Shortly afterwards Naruto and Asuma arrived and practice began. Kiba was tired from his lack of sleep and not very focused, which meant Asuma had to correct his form a lot. About a hour after they began a small dog came running up.

" Yo." it said in a Kakashi-like fashion. " I'm here to work with somedog named Akamaru?" he asked.

" That's me!" Akamaru barked, hopping to his feet and running over, tail wagging.

" Hi kid. The names Pakkun." said the dog, introducing himself.

Kiba did a double take and, consequently, received a Jyuuken strike he would otherwise have dodged.

" No way!" said Kiba, wincing as he felt the numbness. Naruto and Hinata came to a halt, confused.

" You get to train with Pakkun?"

" Lucky!" yipped Akamaru.

" Who's Pakkun?" asked Naruto.

" Only like the best ninja dog in the world." said Kiba. " He worked with the White Fang. He's one of the greatest trackers ever and knows more ninja dog techniques than even the Inuzuka."

" That's great!" said Hinata.

" Come on, pup. Let's get to work." said the small dog, lazily walking away. Akamaru looked back briefly before following.

---

By the end of the training Kiba was a wreck. He was tired, cranky, and sore from the hits he had taken. Akamaru came back, looking tired but excited.

" Good job Hinata and Naruto. Kiba, go get some sleep." said Asuma, dismissing them. " It's good your working more seriously, but missing sleeps not a good idea."

" Yeah." said Kiba with a yawn. " See ya."

He had gotten nearly twenty feet when Hinata stopped him.

" Kiba…do you really think I should do what you said?" Hinata asked in a whisper. Kiba checked and Naruto was out of earshot.

" I think so. My dad said that and he's been married a long time." Kiba whispered back.

Hinata nodded, then walked over to Naruto.

" Hey, Hinata-chan, want to get some ramen?" the boy suggested.

" Naruto-kun…could we go somewhere else?"

His back turned to them, Kiba smiled, congratulating Hinata.

---

" Mom! Mom! You'll never guess what happened!" Akamaru said, bounding through the dog door into the Inuzuka manor. Kiba didn't bother with the small door, simply opening the human sized one and slumping though tiredly.

" What?" asked Akamaru's mother while chewing on a tennis ball.

" This Kakashi guy who's one of the jounin, he sent a dog by to help me learn some techniques that don't rely on Kiba. I'm getting lessons from Pakkun!"

" Really?" said one of the dogs, perking up.

" Hey, you could make something of yourself yet! Make sure the boy keeps up." jeered Kiba's father. Kiba looked at him sourly before heading for his room and collapsing on his bed.

He woke very early the next morning. The sun wasn't even close to rising, but he got up anyways. Akamaru was curled up on Kiba's dirty laundry pile, snoring contentedly. Kiba sat down at his desk and took out his scrolls, looking them over. They were rather unwieldy and would be hard to fit into his pack if he wanted to take them into the field. He'd need to modify his backpack to hold his scrolls, brushes, and inks if he wanted to take his stuff with him.

" Screw that." he said to no one, digging into his desk for some money he had saved. " I'll just buy one." He figured the crazy lady would have one. He left Akamaru a note, stuffed his supplies into his backpack, and headed off.

It was rather pleasant on the way to the scroll shop. There was a light mist over the village, obscuring the morning stars only a little. The first light of morning had appeared when he arrived at the shop. He knocked on the door hopefully. There was a rustling as the old woman opened it.

" Hey. Do you have a pack I could buy to keep all this stuff in?" he asked. The old woman nodded and walked into the back of the shop. She returned with a sturdy looking leather pack with dozens of scroll holders of multiple sizes.

" This'll hold any scroll you want. You can fit the big one's on the back and the small ones on the straps." said the woman, showing him the bandoliers. " Here you go." she handed it to him.

" Is this free?" he said eagerly.

" Nope." said the woman, giving a toothy smile. She shut the door. Kiba immediately felt for his money, which was gone.

" How the hell did she do that?" he asked the open air.

---

It took him most of breakfast to fit all the scrolls and supplies into the pack. His family gave him a lot of funny looks, but thankfully no one laughed. Eagerly, Kiba and Akamaru departed for practice.

" Man, this things nice." Kiba said, flexing while wearing the backpack. " It's a lot lighter than I figured it'd be and there's like a billion pockets and holsters."

" Oh, hey Kiba!" said Naruto, running up.

" Hey Naruto. What's up?" he asked.

" Nothing. I woke up early from a sore stomach. Hinata-chan had us go to some weird restaurant last night. I haven't eaten that many vegetables ever." Naruto said, rubbing his stomach. " She was weird last night. She didn't agree with me like she always does."

" Well, she's a girl." Kiba said, giving Akamaru a mysterious look. " My dad always says to not expect to win with them."

---

" I'm going to have us go back to the old schedule for a while. Everyone has their own custom techniques they are working on, and doing nothing but group practice is going to hold everyone back." Asuma told then genin when practice began. " Morning's you'll work on your own techniques, afternoon's we'll spar or go do a mission."

" Hey pup." said Pakkun, bounding up to them. " About time to start."

" All right! One thing, though." Akamaru yipped, looking back to Kiba. " Could we, after today, start training only every other day? I'm supposed to train with Kiba too."

" Yeah. I don't want to do all that seal crap every day." said Kiba, taking the pack out and setting it down.

" Fine with me." said Pakkun. " Hey, do you know the technique that let's you speak to humans yet?"

" No." woofed Akamaru.

" Well, that's the first thing we'll work on." said Pakkun, leading Akamaru away.

Kiba opened the large scroll and began reading over the symbols and techniques, understanding them far better this time. Having done one scroll made everything seem less intimidating. Smiling, he set to making a new scroll.

Squiggle…boxy-liney thing…smiley face…

" Done!" he cried, holding the new scroll up. " Now to test it out!" He nipped his thumb and pressed it to the scroll. A small red bird appeared and ruffled its feathers.

" Hey. Thanks for showing up." Kiba said jokingly.

" Not a prolly.." replied the bird. Kiba almost fell back.

" You can talk?" he asked, recovering.

" Wot?" asked the bird.

" Uh, most animals can't talk." Kiba said slowly.

" Aye, daft one, arnt'e ye? Summons all got the gab if ye do it rightly." explained the bird.

" Really? Sweet. Uh, do all animals have an accent?" asked Kiba.

" Accent?" asked the bird, not understanding.

" Uh, sorry, never mind. So, I might summon you sometime if I need you." said Kiba rolling the scroll.

" Righto! See you then!" The bird saluted and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Kiba looked to his watch. It had been about a hour. He still had a two and a half hour's before they broke for lunch. Let's see how many more I can finish. thought Kiba determinedly.

---

When they met before lunchtime, Kiba proudly displayed nine scrolls on the front straps of his new backpack. Akamaru trotted up.

" Hi, Hinata." said Kiba in a strained human voice. The small dog relaxed, looking proud of himself.

" You talked!" exclaimed Naruto.

" Great job, Akamaru!" said Kiba, picking the small dog up.

" It's really hard, but it went pretty well." yipped Akamaru in his usual dog voice.

" What all can he say?" asked Hinata, smiling sweetly.

" Hi Hinata!" Akamaru said again. " That's all I got so far. But the hard part was learning to use my chakra for this." he yipped.

" Well, that's still good Akamaru." said Kiba, setting the dog down.

" Why'd you work on that rather than a combat technique?" asked Naruto.

" Hey, this way Akamaru can talk to you guys without me." replied Kiba.

" Oh. I just figured with that great ninja dog, you'd work on more useful techniques." Naruto said with a shrug.

" Hey, Naruto, your one to talk. Akamaru already knows more jutsu then you do since all you ever work on are your shadow clones." Kiba snapped back.

" Like I need anything else!" Naruto shot back. " Tell be one thing my clones can't do!"

" Uh, fight!" yelled Kiba. " Sure, you can mob you opponents with numbers, but you can't hit very hard. What happens if you run into someone that numbers don't work against?"

Naruto memory of the fight with Sasuke immediately flashed into his mind. " I'd…uh…"

" Kiba's got a point, Naruto." Asuma said, leading them towards the restaurant they usually went to for lunch. " You ought to learn a jutsu with more hitting power, or at least a second type of clones."

" There's other clone techniques?" asked Kiba.

" Well, yeah." said Asuma. " Water clones, mud clones, rock clones, there's a bunch of them. There all a bit different."

" I'll learn them!" Naruto shouted.

" Hey, at least it's something new." Asuma said to the others apologetically. " So, Kiba, Akamaru's showed us what he can do, how'd the morning go?"

" It was great!" Kiba said ecstatically. " Watch!" He pulled out a scroll and threw it open, placing his palm in the center of the design. He channeled chakra into the seal. A puff of smoke appeared, revealing a squirrel which ran up his arm onto his shoulder. Akamaru barked at it.

" Huh? Huh?" Kiba asked a rather unimpressed looking team.

" So you can make squirrels?" asked Naruto.

" No, summon them. I made these scrolls this morning. Hey, watch this. Go get me an acorn." The squirrel leapt away at Kiba's command, racing up a tree. A moment later it skittered back down and returned, presenting the acorn to Kiba. " They'll do what I ask if they can. You can have the acorn." he said to the squirrel who began to eat the nut. " Sure, squirrels aren't much, but from what I read some creatures you can summon are pretty strong."

" Kiba, you made all those this morning?" Asuma asked, astounded.

" Yeah." Kiba said proudly.

" Kid, I've seen people work of summoning scrolls before. If you know exactly what your doing, you can churn one out in, a day maybe. Some special seals you can do quicker, but those are all weapon summons. Even little scrolls like those should have taken you a long time."

" Really? It's pretty easy. You just draw the little things in the right order. How hard is that?" Kiba said, rolling the scroll up, feeling superior.

" Well, look out you two." Asuma said, addressing Naruto and Kiba. " Looks like we have another prodigy here."

---

" Hey! Were back!" said Kiba, squeezing through the dog door behind Akamaru. Tsume gave them a motherly smile. " Hey, mom, check this out!" Kiba took out he scrolls he had prepared. " They all work!"

" What?" asked his mother, surprised.

" During training today I made a bunch of summon scrolls and got them to work. Watch!" He pressed his hand to the scroll and channeled the chakra in. The red bird from earlier append.

" Wot? We have a misson, guv'nor?" it asked. Kiba's mother blinked incredulously.

" They just summon little animals at the moment, but with some practice I'll be able to summon things that can fight." Kiba told his mother, grinning ear to ear.

" Kiba, I don't know what to say." said his mother, dumbfounded. " Well, besides telling you that you should have applied yourself back in school like this."

" What?" Kiba exclaimed in disbelief.

" Well, you worked hard and saw progress. Imagine what you could have accomplished if you'd started a few years ago." Tsume turned and walked down the hall. " Hurry up, Kiba. It's almost dinnertime."

Eh, it was a good day anyways. Mom can't ruin that. Kiba thought happily, walking for the dining hall. He'd found something he was good at, helped Hinata out, and actually gotten a compliment from Asuma. All was good.