"I'm... I'm sorry, you're right. A ninja shouldn't cry." Sakura smiled weakly as she wiped the tears from her eyes. For a moment, the two ninja's just sat there in the kunoichi's room in solemn silence, neither really knowing what to say or do next.

"I guess I did know," Sakura finally said softly; "though to be honest I don't really know why." Sakura stared at her fingers nervously tapping against each other, embarrased to realize just how ungrateful and unappreciative she had always been of Naruto. First she'd been too wrapped up in her schoolgirl crush on Sasuke to appreciate her other teammate, even though he was always the first to have her back even back then and later, after the Uchiha had left, she might have started to appreciate Naruto's skills and abilities, but she had still failed to really appreciate him as a person and as a friend because she was too busy being embarrased about her inability to keep up with him.

She had wanted to be able to take care of herself, to not have to depend on her teammate to protect her and get hurt for her all the time, but truth be told, that had more to do with her wanting to prove herself as a ninja and less with her concern for Naruto. Only now that she was starting to think about the blonde in that way did those priorities begin to turn around in her mind. She'd never liked to see him get hurt of course; she didn't like any of her friends getting hurt, but now she had to admit that the idea of Naruto getting badly hurt, maybe even killed, was more than she was willing to conceive.

"He has always been there for me, even since before we were in the same team and all I did for much of that time was ignore him, reject him. All those times he took the hits to keep me from getting hurt, all those times he saved me, was there for me... I almost never thanked him for any of it, scorned him even." Sakura's face scrunched up into a deeply pained expression, thinking back on the conversation she'd had with Ino just a few days earlier, or with captain Yamato some time before that. "And to make things worse, I can't even repay him for all his sacrifices, for his kindness. Even with all the training I've been doing with Tsunade-sama, I can't take the Kyuubi out of him and I can't defeat Akatsuki for him. I don't deserve his affection."

"No, you don't." Kiba's words stung Sakura like a thousand needles. "At least, not as long as you keep acting like some whiny loser anyway. You have it all the same though, his affection, his love even, so the only question that remains is; what are you going to do about it?"

Sakura's shame deepened even further. It was bad enough that she'd been such an ungrateful, useless brat. Sitting around moping about it wasn't going to make anything the least bit better. Kiba was right, she had to stop whining and start doing something. The problem was that she still had no idea exactly what it was she should do. As much as she liked to act like she knew everything, this was new territory for her and all of her book smarts were proving completely inadequate for the situation.

"I... I don't know." She hated to admit this to the Inuzaka boy, but it was the only answer she could give. "What would you suggest?"

It occured to Sakura that this was turning into a very peculiar week indeed. First there was that weird conversation with Shion which got this whole rollercoaster started, then the odd obsessiveness with a boy she'd known for years and never really thought about all that much and know she was actually asking for advice from Kiba of all people; the only guy in Konoha who she had always thought of as being as clueless as the boy she'd been obsessing about.

"I know it might be a radical idea, but you could start by not running off or nearly fainting like some scared little puppy every time you come close to him and talk."

"HEY! I did not run off, I do not faint and I'm not scared of anything!" Even as she said it, Sakura knew it wasn't exactly true, but even in all her shame and confusion there was only so much she was going to accept from that mutt or his dog... "But... you're right of course. I have to talk to Naruto. I just don't know what to say. I don't even know what I feel..."

Kiba shifted his position on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and murmuring unintelligibly as if pondering what sage words to offer next. Just how badly had she underestimated him? Sakura had never imagined the Inuzaka to have such depth or to be anywhere near as insightful as he had already shown himself to be over these last few minutes. What kind of profound wisdom was he going to come up with this time? If she could be so wrong about the dog handler, about Uzumaki Naruto, about herself, what else had she been blind to?

"Nah, I don't know either. I really don't know anything about such things." Kiba just laughed and shrugged his shoulders as he got up and walked to the window through which he had entered Sakura's room.

Maybe not quite that insightful after all...

Just as he was stepping through the window however, he stopped and turned to face Sakura, his face once more deadly serious.

"How about you do the one thing you, by your own admission, haven't done enough and thank him at least?"

Before Sakura had a chance to respond, the Inuzaka took one more step out the window and disappeared into the now dark streets of Konoha.