Sakura's mom, just like Chouji's, was an amazing cook! The food she made ended up making Kiba's taste buds dance in excitement and joy. And he knew that all ten Inuzuka dogs agreed with him. Even Kuromaru had thanked the woman for allowing them to eat some of the delicious food she had prepared.

"This is damned good, lady!" Kiba commented as he finished up with his food, a broad smile on his face.

The woman smiled softly at the compliments, but didn't say anything. Kiba didn't mind this, but he did whine softly when he felt Kuromaru smack him against the arm with his snout.

"She has a name, runt." The large dog growled, "Call her Mrs. Haruno or don't talk to her at all."

The boy didn't like it when Kuromaru tried to discipline him. It was stupid and annoying. But he returned to his meal instead of biting back at the large animal because he knew it wouldn't be worth it to try and argue with him. He was just like his mother. Barely ever present in his life, but when he was, it was most probably to scold him and call him stupid.

One could tell they were Inuzuka partners...

"Thank you for the food, Mebuki. From all of us." The dog continued, which made the woman nod in answer. "Finish up, pup. I'll walk you all back to the compound."

Immediately Kiba wanted to argue. He didn't want to go back home yet! It was so early! It wasn't even ten! But a sharp glare from Kuromaru had him shutting up. He knew that if he fought, the dog would tell his parents. And the last thing he needed was them finding out about his love for the night life.

"Fine..." The boy grumbled, then chanced a glance over at Chouji. "Yo, Pork Chop, want us to walk you home?"

"Kiba." Kuromaru growled at the boy making new plans, but the boy merely smiled at him.

"The Akimichi compound ain't too far from our place, Kuromaru! Besides, would you really feel right leaving a kid like him walking back home all alone at such a late hour?"

From the way Chouji's eyes widened in surprise, the Akimichi wasn't completely on board with the idea. But the rest of his dogs were agreeing with Kiba immediately, barking at Kuromaru and telling him that it would be negligent and down right mean to not make sure the boy arrived back safe.

With a sigh, the large dog nodded. "Fine, fine. Porky, you ready?"


He couldn't really understand why Kiba and Kuromaru called him by those nicknames. He had a name! And he wasn't fat!

But... Coming from a wolf and Kiba, they didn't really feel like insults. He'd heard Kuromaru call Sakura kit before. Maybe he just assigned nicknames to new people whose names he didn't know?

But he called Mrs. Haruno by her name... Maybe the nicknames were only for the younger kids?

That would make sense for the wolf. But why did Kiba have to call him that? Why did he have to call him something so insulting?

With a soft sigh and a strained smile, Chouji nodded. "Yeah, I can go now."

It would be rather interesting to go back home with the Inuzuka's dogs. It sounded exciting, even. And from the way Aki jumped and ran to Chouji, he guessed that the dog also liked the idea of him tagging along.

"Thank you for everything, Mrs. Haruno." The Akimichi bowed respectfully at the woman, who returned it with a soft and earnest smile of her own.

"It was nothing, Chouji. It was a pleasure to meet you." She told him, then looked at the Inuzuka. "It was quite... interesting to meet all of you as well."

For some reason, even though she had been smiling at Chouji, now her smile didn't feel as honest anymore. But that didn't make any sense to the young boy. Why would she have been happy talking to him, but not with the Inuzuka.

"Thank you for tolerating this much stupidity." The wolf answered with a bow of his head, then nudged Kiba with his snout. "Get moving, kid. It's bad enough you're making me go join you at school. Now you've got me taking an Akimichi back to his compound..."

Kuromaru... He seemed like a rather grumpy wolf.

Chouji jumped off from his chair at the dining room table and followed after the Inuzuka dogs, but turned around before he was out the front door to wave at Sakura.

"Bye, Sakura! I'll see you at school tomorrow!"

She smiled back happily with a wave of her own, "Bye Chouji!"

After that he ran after the Inuzuka dogs, only to have Aki jump at him, lick his cheeks, and motion with his snout to run.

"You want me to run?" He questioned with a blink, caught off guard.

That was when Kiba made his presence known, "Yeah, we like to run a lot, Chouji. You wouldn't mind, would ya?"

Aki was motioning happily and rapidly with his head, clearly wanting Chouji to run. And at the excited tails all around him, Chouji couldn't help but smile. "Sure! Let's go!"


"Sakura, next time you'll bring friends over, I would appreciate it if you warn me. Okay?"

The young girl blinked up at her mother as she dried the dishes handed over to her, somewhat confused.

"Why, mom? Didn't everything go well?"

The woman sighed softly as she turned off the faucet, facing her daughter. "It did. But I wasn't prepared to have so much company. And I now have to clean up after all those dogs."

Sakura listened to the words and tried her best to understand them, then offered, "I could help cleaning up, mom!"

"No you won't." The woman smiled down at her, although it didn't look quite right. "You have to go to bed to prepare for your presentation tomorrow. Now go along and bathe. I'll be up to your room in a few minutes to tuck you in."

The young girl nodded at her words, but couldn't help but glance at her mother once more before she left the kitchen.

Her mom had been acting so oddly... While with Chouji, she had seemed fine. But after Kiba had appeared with all of his dogs and the wolf, Mebuki Haruno had been acting differently. She seemed stiff, uncomfortable. But that made no sense. The Inuzuka dogs had all been really nice.

Why did her mother seem so off, though?

With a huff, Sakura decided to ponder about all of this later. She would have to prepare her part of the project for tomorrow so everything would be perfect.

She could think about her mother later.


Just like he had expected, all of the groups had used stories that were told to them by people they knew. No one broke Iruka Sensei's rule of close family members or friends. But no one else had been as unique and ingenious as Kiba had forced his team to be. None of them had performed any heart pounding stories found through actual investigation. They were all just the regular shpiel about a Konoha ninja fighting for the good of their village.

Rather boring, really, after getting a different kind of story from the Old Man.

Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Hinata were all dressed really nicely, which was expected because the Hyuga and Uchiha were such high strung clans. But their performance was less than stellar. Sasuke tried to be all the characters, Hinata didn't speak at all, and Shikamaru ended up falling asleep, even though he had the easiest job around, to narrate.

Ino, Shino, and Naruto all looked differently. Ino looked as pristine as a princess even though she was the kunoichi that happened to be the main character in the whole telling, Shino wore his usual attire, although with a belt wrapped around his waist with a sword on it, and Naruto wore cardboard armor that was supposed to be a warrior's costume.

The rest of the group was a mix of okay looking costumes and costumes that were clearly made at the last minute. Which, in Kiba's eyes, all looked like utter rubbish when compared to his costume.

He was wearing what the old man had told them his old friend had once worn. Pants down to mid shin, sandals, a kunai pouch on his left leg, a scabbard with sword on his back, and a black vest that showed off the rest of his body. There was a chain wrapped around his waist, much like the one the old man had said his friend had used before.

Most looked like second rate ninja in Kiba's eyes. While he, Chouji, and his dogs all looked as if they were ready for slaughter, all the while Sakura had such a frilly dress put on that even the bitch Ami had taken note of it and not done anything to her during their breaks. Kiba guessed it was because the dress was so nice, everyone would notice if something had happened to it.

"Kuromaru, what are you doing here?" Iruka Sensei asked in surprise when the large dog walked into the room by the end of one of the last presentations, his eyes wide.

Upon hearing the name, both Chouji and Sakura perked up, knowing that they would finally get their chance to perform their amazing story. The rest of the group gasped in awe at the large dog, which made Kiba smirk while Kuromaru merely huffed at the attention.

"I'm here for the project, Iruka Sensei." Kuromaru explained himself, "Pup, you better perform now if you want me to be part of this! I've got more important things than entertaining a bunch of snot nosed brats to do."

Kiba jumped up immediately and smiled wickedly at the distrustful glare Iruka Sensei sent his way, then nodded at Kuromaru.

"Get prepared to be amazed!" He shouted at the whole group, then pointed at the dogs, "You know what to do. Sakura, put on Kuromaru's costume. Chouji, help me prepare the blood."

"Blood?!"

"Don't get your panties in a twist, teacher man."

Both Kuromaru and Iruka Sensei sneered at the insult, but Kiba merely rolled his eyes and moved to Chouji so they could prepare the fake blood. It took them only a few seconds to prepare the bag for spewing, then, with a mischievous smile, Kiba jumped to the front of the classroom.

While all of this happened, Sakura tied Kuromaru's forehead protector around his neck and made sure that all of the dogs had their own tied correctly and in place. After she had done this, she reminded them of their qeue, and finally ran to the front to stand on Kiba's left while Chouji made to stand to his right.


"Good afternoon, you stinking louts!" Kiba shouted out, prompting a glare from Iruka Sensei and a warning growl from Kuromaru. "You know who we are, so I'm not wasting any breath introducing us. Today we're going to perform the greatest, most amazing war story you'll ever get to see in your stinkin' lives!"

With this, he nodded at both his teammates, prompting them both to get into their positions.

Both children positioned themselves in front of Iruka Sensei's desk, allowing the whole room to see them. Chouji looked very different with the clothes that hid all of his body, and Kiba was proud of how mean he looked. Sakura turned her back to the Akimichi, her green dress flowing softly as she did so.

"There once was a black ninja with a dark heart, there was no room for love in it for no one…" Kiba began mysteriously, stepping off to the side of the room to not interrupt the scene between both kids. "That is, for no one but a green beauty with the power to buy anything she wanted…"

"P-Please, don't leave!" Sakura gasped out, turning to Chouji with wide eyes. "I love you! Please! I'll buy you anything you wish if you'd just stay with me!"

Chouji, trying to act as mean and dark as he knew the old man was, shook his head softly, and in a gruff tone that mimicked the old man's own, said, "I'll bring you nothing but ruin."

"I don't care!"

Kiba stepped forward now, looking at both his fellow students with a feral grin.

"I see you have the woman's love as your own." He noted with a shake of his head. "I want her powers for my own."

Chouji turned to glare at Kiba, sticking a hand out to push Sakura behind him. He knew that the old man was a quiet and stern kind of guy, so he said nothing, instead keeping a steady glare on the Inuzuka.

A few seconds passed in which Kiba waited for him to do something, then noticed what the boy was doing. This made Kiba shake his head softly with a tut of his lips. Then he looked up at Chouji with a glare, pulling out the sword he had managed to take from his home without Hana noticing.

"Then you leave me no choice, old friend."

He 'stabbed' Chouji with the sword, careful to make it pass between the boy's arm and body rather than actually hurting him. Chouji gasped out and fell to his knees, sword stuck between his body.

"You… You traitor!" He made out before falling to his knees, clutching at the sword. Then he fell to the floor, allowing his head to fall softly.

Sakura screamed in surprise, causing a few of the kids in the room to jump at the sudden sound, then had Kiba grab her by the arm and pull her off.

Iruka Sensei looked at them all with confusion, and seemed ready to question what they were doing. But Sakura stepped forward with a solemn expression on her face and began to speak before the man could get a single word in.

"The ninja with the black heart had been betrayed by his oldest, greatest friend." She explained, pointing at Kiba, who waved at the group. "Left with nothing but his weapons to his name, the man left the village he had once called his home and roamed the world, alone and angry."

Chouji stood up from the floor, patted himself off, and placed the sword on Iruka Sensei's desk so it wouldn't disturb the rest of their performance. Then he walked to the middle of the room, standing beside Sakura.

"He did not know it, but the Third Shinobi War had broken out among the Hidden Villages. Ninja were fighting and dying, but he knew nothing of it because he had not allowed himself any contact with anybody that wasn't his green beauty. Then, one day, as he walked among the forests in the Land of Fire, he heard a branch snap behind him."

Sakura walked out of the space they had set as their stage and Kiba stalked in.

"Old friend… It has been some time…"

Chouji looked at Kiba with wide eyes, then glared as darkly as he could. It wasn't easy to look mean, but he really hoped that it was working.

Kiba chuckled darkly now, "Even after all this time, she still has your heart, doesn't she? You old fool!"

Chouji seemed ready to attack Kiba, but they both suddenly stopped when Kuromaru stepped into the scene, an irritated scowl on his face. "You are trespassing on our territory. You will not live to see the sun rise."

Then Sora stepped forward from the other side of the room, trying to keep from giggling, "Wrong, you Leaf Trash! They are to die at my hand! They both have a good bounty on their heads!"

"You are both wrong! I shall not be dying tonight!" Kiba proclaimed, then turned to look at Chouji. "What do you say, old friend? One last time?"

Chouji said nothing and instead fell into a fighting pose beside him, glaring at the dogs that began to come in.

Sakura stepped forward, calling attention to her once more. "There the black ninja stood surrounded by ten squadrons of enemy shinobi, with ho help other than the man that had betrayed him. All seemed hopeless."

Then she stepped back, signalling that the dogs could begin their part.

A flurry of dogs and attacks came next. Chouji did his best to not accidentally hit one, while they did their best to not hurt him. But Kiba was laughing almost maniacally as he flung himself into a very real fight with the bigger dogs, rolling around the floor before 'killing' them. When the dogs died, they'd bark sharply and drop onto the floor, although Sora didn't.

Sora was the last dog Chouji was to dispatch. And when he did, he grabbed the bandanna that they had tied around his neck, aside from also placing a forehead protector on his head, and prompted the dog to scream out, "My heart!"

Crushing the blood bag inside of the bandanna prompted it to be soaked in red, and Chouji looked at the rest of the classroom.

"And there he stood… With the enemy's heart pumping in his hand…" Sakura whispered out, acting surprised and horrified by Chouji's actions.

Kiba knocked Kuromaru down, who glared and lay down softly in a show of displeasure with being caught in the school to help him with his project. Then the boy turned to Chouji with a broad smile, and, with a shout, jumped over to him. Chouji, though, was prepared for this and turned around and, with his other hand, reached into Kiba's cloak, grabbed the cloth wrapped blood bag, and squeezed, pulling it back.

With a shout Kiba staggered to the floor, hands reaching up for his 'wound'. "You… We were friends…"

Chouji, though, said nothing. Instead he looked first at the 'heart' from the enemy shinobi, then to Kiba's own. Finally, he looked up at the horrified faces of his fellow classmates, shaking his head softly before allowing it to fall once more.

"From that day on, the black ninja was not the same… But that is a story for another time."

A moment of silence passed between all of the classroom. Kiba and the dogs stood up and smiled at each other, and Chouji nodded at the praises Sora was singing. Sakura even walked towards them with a broad smile on her face, pleased by how well their project had gone, even with Kiba winging his own lines.

But their moment of celebration was cut short by Iruka Sensei.

"Kiba Inuzuka, Chouji Akimichi, and Sakura Haruno!" He shouted, glaring at the kids and planting his hands on his hips. "How could you have totally disregarded the only rule I gave you?!"

Their celebration died down immediately at the man's shout and Kiba glared at him.

"Hey, that's not fair! We got this story straight from one o' the allowed sources!" He shouted.

Sakura nodded, worried and agitated by Iruka Sensei shouting at her. "We really did, Iruka Sensei! We didn't make this up!"

"Yeah! We're not lying!" Chouji defended, "We met this old man-"

But he wasn't allowed to say more by the man. Iruka Sensei raised his hand with a glare, cutting them all off.

"I would expect a trick like this from Kiba. But for you and Sakura to allow him to do this to you…" The scarred man shook his head sadly, looking at Chouji, then Sakura, "I am heavily disappointed."

Sakura was hit hard by the words. Just like Chouji. Both of the kids' faces adopted crestfallen looks. But Kiba, being the hot blooded boy he was, growled at his teacher.

"Hey, you old fart, listen for once in your life! We aren't lying! We met this guy by the tavern area of Konoha! He told us this story and a lot more!"

He glared at his teacher fiercely.

But it wasn't the scarred chunin to answer him. Instead it was Kuromaru.

"Pup, what were you doing in the taverns of Konoha?" The dog growled, taking one step towards him. "And how dare you speak to your elder in this manner? If you didn't follow the rules of your project, you cannot whine about him scolding you!"

"But we're not lying!" All three kids shouted together, only to have Iruka step forward with a deadly glare.

"All of you, outside. Now."


She couldn't believe what was happening.

They had worked so hard... They had done such a good job... Everything had gone as planned... Yet now they were in trouble...

Why were they in trouble? They had followed all the rules!

... Maybe it was because of the blood? Maybe they gone too far because of using such a gruesome thing... But... They hadn't lied!

"This I would expect from Kiba." Iruka Sensei glared at all of them from his desk, the disappointment in his voice heavy and thick. "But for him to influence you in this manner... Sakura, Chouji, you have both let me down."

Tears stung at the young girl's eyes when Iruka Sensei finished. And she had to fight the incoming sniffles that wanted to be heard.

She had been nervous, yet excited. But when she had gotten to the front of the classroom, all sense of fear had left her. She had worn a beautiful dress that made her feel beautiful. And she was going to performing one of the greatest projects, hands down. She had thought the A was going to be automatic because of all of the hardwork they had put into what they had done.

They had been forced to stand outside of the classroom, silently, until the rest of the presentations finished. Then, once the classroom had been emptied by the other students, they were called back to sit before Iruka Sensei.

Kiba's dogs had all left. But Kuromaru had not left before telling them how disappointed he had been to hear they had chosen to cheat on an assignment.

But they hadn't! And Sakura couldn't understand why that was so hard to believe!

She did her best to stop the tears from falling. But there was a tightness in her chest and a burn in her eyes that she couldn't ignore. Softly, she allowed a few tears to fall.

She didn't want to cry. Not after what the old man had said... But it was so hard!


"I've already sent for your parents." Iruka Sensei told the three kids, and Chouji chanced one look at him, noticed the pure betrayal in his eyes, and had to look away.

They hadn't lied... But he felt horrible.

Maybe they should have listened to Sakura at the beginning of everything and just asked someone close to them for a story...

Hands down, their presentation had been the most interesting. He had loved being the old man. He had felt mysterious and powerful because of what he had worn. But nobody believed that this could be a true story.

It hurt to not be believed. Especially when they were all telling the truth.

Seconds of silence passed. He didn't dare look up at Iruka Sensei, he couldn't face the disappointment in them. And he couldn't look at Sakura either because he knew that if he did, he would try and comfort her. She was sniffling softly, fighting tears. And Kiba sat with his arms crossed and an angry look on his face, but he didn't say a single thing.

He couldn't understand why their teacher wasn't believing them. Weren't people supposed to listen to the truth?

There was a knock on the door to the classroom and Iruka Sensei looked up, but Chouji didn't dare to.

"Come in." He called and had the door slide open. "Please, come in. We need to have a small talk about your children."

"Kiba, what have you done this time?"

The harsh female tone surprised and kind of scared Chouji, but he didn't react. Sakura whimpered minutely, but Kiba just huffed in anger.

"I tried to do something right for once... Last time I try it." He growled back, only to have his very wild looking mother appear beside him, a fierce scowl on her face.

"Iruka Sensei, what happened?" This time it was his father that spoke up, and Chouji felt a huge sense of guilt begin to grow in his stomach.

If his father was here, it meant that he'd had to interrupt his daily schedule and leave some of his work unfinished to come here. And if there was one thing his father didn't like to do, it was leave work unfinished.

"Your three children were given a history project." Iruka Sensei began to explain, giving the three kids one more look. "They were to find a story about any of the Great Shinobi Wars from someone they weren't directly related to. It couldn't be stories from parents, aunt and uncles, or grandparents. This was like this to make them investigate a little."

As the man spoke, Chouji felt a heavy and warm hand fall over his shoulder. But, even though he knew his father was an understanding man, he didn't dare look up at him because of how guilty he felt.


"I wanted these kids to be creative and present the stories in front of the class. But these three decided to go their own way for the project and fabricated a story. And I do not know if they were aware of it, but they even depicted the murder of at least a squadron of Konoha shinobi. And they depicted it as if they had been the villains in the story."

"Hey, you got your information wrong! The Konoha ninja wanted to kill the old man! He was just defending-"

"Old man?" Tsume interrupted her son with a hiss, glaring down at him. "Who is this old man?"

Iruka Sensei said nothing and instead motioned for the children to answer. Kiba glared back at his mother and kept his lips sealed tight, which left it up to Chouji or Sakura to answer. Chouji kept his head down, refusing to look up at any of the adults. Which left the terrified Sakura to stutter out an answer.

"Th-the o-old m-m-man that to-old us th-the story..."

Mebuki Haruno was looking at her daughter with soft yet sad eyes, then sighed. Stepping up to her, she softly passed her hand through her daughter's pink hair, hoping it offered some comfort for the clearly scared child.

"You thought glorifying the death of our comrades was a good idea?" Chouza questioned with more surprise and hurt than anger, feeling Chouji flinch under his hand.

"It was what the old man told us!" Kiba growled, moving to stand and defend himself and his teammates, only to have his mother force him to sit back down.

"These lies you're feeding us about an old man, pup, are inexcusable!" She growled down at him, "Does this old man even have a name?"

"He never told us his-" He tried to argue, then had Iruka Sensei interrupt.

"How could you think we would believe a story about a nameless man that supposedly defeated ten ninja squadrons with the help of just one other man?" The scarred chunin shook his head, then looked up at the three parents. "This was an end of the semester project. That means that it holds a lot of weight for their final grade. It may be the difference between them passing or being held back."

Both Chouza and Tsume nodded in understanding, but Mebuki couldn't hold back her concern.

"But, Iruka Sensei, I helped them with their fabrication. Their costumes and planning for this whole thing... They gave it their best. Could they not get some points for that?"

She was worried of having her child held back in the grade. Even though Sakura had great grades, she was terrified of the idea of her getting held back. Especially because this great offense had happened with two clan children. If any of them were to take any fall, it was undoubtedly going to be the civilian.

"We put on an amazing presentation! Everyone was looking at us! No one fell asleep like they did with the rest of the presentations." Kiba growled at their teacher, "Even Shikamaru was paying attention. And he never pays attention!"

The dark haired man looked at a very angered Kiba, then at Chouji and Sakura, both whom refused to look up at him, then up at the parents. Finally, he sighed.

"If they make up for this project with a written essay about why lying is bad, I could substitute the grade." He offered, which immediately received a grateful nod from Mebuki. "I will expect your essays by Monday. You have a weekend to write it." Iruka told the three kids, then looked up once more at the parents. "I believe that is all discuss. Anything else?"

"Not at all." Tsume answered immediately, then grabbed Kiba harshly by the arm. "This one will be writing something worthy of a literature class. I promise you that, Iruka Sensei."

The fierce woman forced her son out of the room, all the while Kiba glared down at the floor with a clear frown on his lips. Then Chouza patted his son on the shoulder, prompting him to stand up.

"I am sorry that my son caused you so much trouble." He apologized as Chouji stood up without a word, "This will not be happening again."

The chunin smiled softly at the jonin, nodding. "Thank you. He's got a good head on his shoulders. It was most probably just a lapse in judgement."

"One that will hopefully never happen again." Chouza finished, signalling for Chouji to walk ahead of him.

Then, once both of them were gone, Mebuki sighed softly and looked at Iruka with a tired smile. "Thank you for giving them a second chance, Iruka Sensei. I know what they did was wrong. And Sakura will not be causing you any more grief after this. Right, hun?"

The pink haired girl nodded without looking up at the adults, then stood up and began to walk away.

Mebuki felt horrible for the tears falling from her daughter's eyes, but she wasn't going to coddle her straight away. She needed to understand what she had done was wrong. Especially when involved with clan children.

"Goodbye, Iruka Sensei."

The man nodded, looked at Sakura with worry, but said nothing.

They both understood. It felt bad to allow children to feel so down. But it was for their best.

Longest chapter yet! Hope you enjoyed it! Please review.