A/N Songs:
Stricken - Disturbed
Jesus Saves - Slayer
Consign to Oblivion - Epica

Warning: LOTS of nerd talk later in the chapter.

Disclaimer: No.

Recap:

"Understandable. So who is it?" Ino asked, genuinely interested. Kiba looked away, a hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I swear I won't laugh or call you a freak."

Kiba gulped. "Okay...It's Hinata."

"...O-kay, that really is kinda fucked up" Ino said truthfully. Kiba sighed, and buried his face in his palms.

"I know. I just...I dunno, for fuck's sake!" He grabbed a rock and threw it at nothing in particular, out of pure frustration. "Hell, I don't even know why I like her! And I can't steal one of my best firends' girlfriend either! I just don't know what to do anymore!"

She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you. You shouldn't get your hopes up. Hinata's just not that kind of girl. But there's plenty of girls around. Surely there's one with the magic spark who'll like you back."

He looked at her angered. "No shit. I'm a rock star. I'll just have to wink and girls throw themselves at me. Small detail: they just love me for who I sell, not for who I am. And when I look at Sasuke and Sakura for example, I mean, they're perfect. When I met Hinata, and I mean really got to talk to her-"

"Exactly when was that?"

"Umm...Let's see...I think that was after our last gig on 'Memorial Tour', you know, the one in Japan? We hung out afterwards, in one of those creepy karaoke bars. I think you and Naruto were too busy battling Sasuke and Sakura to mind us, but we got talking about all kinds of stuff. I felt...different...about her afterwards. Then Naruto pulled his little stunt, and I've been feeling emo since."

"Does that explain why Naruto was ranting on about how he couldn't figure you out to Hinata before I left?"

"I guess."

Both of them looked at the lake in front of them, in thought about Kiba's problem. Ino's guitar and Akamaru laid in the grass, both completely forgotten. A minute of silence later, Ino hesistanly said "...Maybe you just have to...look better, you know? There really are a few girls around that like you like that." She took a breath.

"There's one talking to you right now, in fact."

Kiba looked at her deadpanned, as his brain processed her words. "...Shit, Ino. You can't be serious."

She shrugged. "Can't help it. I'm a sucker for guys with a bad guy-look, but are really sweet when you get to know them. You happen to fit that description."

Kiba fidgeted. "Uhh...I...can't really say it was love on first sight or something, but I wanna give you a chance. I owe you one for hearing me out. Wanna hang out sometime?"

"Yeah, sure." She smirked evil-ish. "Maybe I can set off that spark in your heart that makes all the guys fall for me."

He returned her smirk. "Maybe you just might, darling. Maybe you just might." He looked away at the sky. 'I hope.'

Kiba laid on his bed, more asleep than wake, with a DVD documentary about Akatsuki playing on his surround set and huge TV screen. The interviewer was asking Kisame about his influences (Lars Ulrich from Metallica, Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Mikkey Dee of Motörhead being the biggest names), when the camera panned to Hidan soloing on a bass. Kiba perked up. 'Never knew Hidan could solo on bass. I mean, I heard Deidara before, and the guy's a beast, but Hidan? The dude used to have an extreme distaste in anything that wasn't a heavily distorted guitar.'

Kiba picked up his bass and tried improvising a bit, and to his surprise it worked out. Suddenly, an idea hit him. The 'Stricken' solo, probably one of the most known solos throughout the world (Itachi, you're a freaking genius), would sound pretty neat on bass too. And so he started working on it.

Besides, it gave him a good chance to show off for Ino tonight.

He never told the guys he met Ino a few days ago in the park, he just told them he finished his song so they could go on to their parts. They didn't know about their date tonight either. Then again, did Sasuke tell them when he started going out with Sakura? Did anyone tell the others?

...Oh yeah. Naruto.

'Doesn't count,' Kiba thought. 'That was a whole different situation.' He looked at the clock. He was supposed to meet her at six. Seeing how it was five, he had exactly one hour.

"Might as well get ready..."

About half an hour later, Kiba came walking downstairs, wearing casual black jeans and a black tank. He snatched his blood red SPZ hoodie from the couch and put it on, before locating his iPhone on the dining table. The dining table was, come to think of it, the only piece of furniture that didn't look trashed. Whereas the rest of the stuff in the house almost fell apart from improper use (not like they cared; it gave the place a more rock star-ish look), the table still looked neat.

Then again, they hardly use it anyway. So it's not that hard to believe.

He ran back up to grab his bag and his bass before taking the back door to the car park. Izumo was on a holiday, so he had to find his beauty himself. The keys practically screamed at him to take the new one. A smirk crept up his face. Oh yeah, that definetely would make an impression.

He soon located the brand new, never driven before, $ 1,700,000.- Bugatti Veyron. Most expensive, most powerful, and fastest car in the world that can be driven on the road legally. It's wonderful to have money...

Kiba smirked as he revved the engine and sped off, drifting a few corners and skidded to a halt in front of the gate. As soon as it opened (remotely, of course), he hit the gas. The engine roared, the tires screeched and the car sped off at almost double the speed limit.

Ino anxiously waited for him, not sure how to act. Yep, just like that. She scores a date with the guy she had liked from the dawn of time (Shikamaru? Who's this 'Shikamaru' you speak of?) and she doesn't know what to do or how to act. Sigh.

She got up, deciding to leave it up to fate and see how it'd turn out. She grabbed her guitar bag and located her shoes. She was about to grab them when she heard a car skid to a halt close by. She pondered on getting her heels or her sneakers, and decided on her sneakers since she wasn't really into the whole Sympho fashion anyway. That was Hinata's...thing. A minute later she was outside, gaping at Kiba's awesome ride.

"Do you know how much that thing costs!?" she screeched. Kiba smirked.

"Yea, bought it from our pocket money this month. We're eating instant ramen all month because of it, but it was worth it. I'm the first one of us to drive it around, actually."

She hopped in the passenger seat, squealing over every last detail of the car. Kiba blasted the legendary Slayer album 'Reign In Blood' through the pimped out sound system, with Ino air guitaring and the both of them singing along all the way. They were getting looks alright; if it wasn't for the Bugatti, it was for the sight of a teenage boy headbanging behind the steering wheel like crazy and a teenage girl half-standing in said car air guitaring like crazy. That is, until Kiba opened the sun roof. Ino popped up and air guitared upright, with Kiba driving almost 80 mph. So it wasn't really surprising they saw red and blue lights flashing and heard sirens screech soon after.

"Here we go again..." Kiba muttered, unaudible over the full-force 'Jesus Saves' pounding through the speakers.

Kiba rolled his eyes at the police officers ranting on about responsibility and stuff. He cut the guy who was speaking off.

"Alright, I get it already. What's those things add up to?"

"All your violations add up to a total penalty of $ 550, sir. You've got-"

Kiba cut the dude off again by stuffing six hundred-dollar bills in his hands. "Keep the change. I'm in a hurry." He looked to Ino and motioned her to get going again. She was desperately trying to hold her laugh, and considering the utterly stupid look on the officer's face, so did he. He jumped in the driver's seat and revved the engine, while inserting a new disc into the CD player. Ino got in the passenger's seat laughing her ass off, and pressed 'play' while Kiba sped off.

When Ino calmed down after a good ten minutes of hysterical laughter, she turned down the volume to talk to him. "Did you see the look on his face? Priceless!"

"Heh, bet that's the first time he heard a guy call fifty bucks 'change'. He looked like a total shiny."

She raised her eyebrow, still smiling. "Shiny?"

"Shiny. Synonyms: Noob, Newbie, Rookie, and so on."

"And why 'shiny'?"

"Picked it up from a video game. The new soldiers were called 'shinies' because of their clean armor."

"...You're a total no-lifer."

He smirked. "Tell me something I don't know, darling. Besides, I heard you're the CoD mistress of the girls."

She smirked mischievously. "You bet'cha, dog boy. Nobody's got shit on me. I kick their asses. If I don't get them with my M4, they're fodder for my Deagle."

"Assault class? Why's that? Oh, nevermind. You just can't live without the spotlight, can you Ino." She shot him a fake glare. "I rather stay hidden," he continued. "I make headies as easy as I play bass, with my Golden Dragunov."

"Snipers are so slow," she said. "I can't play them for shit. I'm all like 'Where the hell did the guy go to!?' and I move, and somehow they always get me. I'd rather be on the breaching team."

"Rusher."

"Shush, I'll nade you."

"You wouldn't want to ruin my car."

"...Damn you."

They listened to Akatsuki's third album 'Consign to Oblivion' (The first album to feature Konan, in fact) in silence the rest of the way to the restaurant they were going. Kiba was smirking, though. He had just found the perfect second date.

So Ino and Kiba had their first date, and the first thing Kiba brought up was Call of Duty. It's scary how much his no-life-ness and video game addiction resembles mine. Don't worry if you don't understand what they were talking about. Us gamers are usually hard to follow when it comes to game language. You don't want to hear me talking to a fellow World of Warcraft player. Seriously.

Anyways, next up is more KibaIno and getting close to the conclusion of the story!

Rock on!