Author's Note: Next chapter! Things have been a little crazy, but I'm still determined to update once a week until we're finished. I'm looking forward to getting everything done!

Chapter Twenty-three

"This seems unnecessary, Kiba," Shino stated blandly as he walked alongside his longtime teammate.

"And yet you're here," the Inuzuka grumbled.

"You are purposefully doing this when Akamaru isn't with you. Why? Because you know that Akamaru would not approve of your actions."

"You don't even know what I'm planning to do!"

"Seeing as you left Akamaru with your sister, it's probably something overdramatic. That's why I'm here."

"I'm just going to talk to Hinata. That's all."

"Why can't it wait until tomorrow, then? It will be rude to interrupt her dinner."

"It's not like it's a date. She's with Sasuke now right? Hinata wouldn't be doing what everyone is saying. I just want to warn her about what's going around."

"You should wait until you are calmer to do so. First, because you are likely to hurt her feelings or embarrass her by confronting her in your current mood. Second, because Hinata has always wanted one on one time with Naruto and you will be intruding."

"I'm not confronting anyone," Kiba snarled, annoyed at the pinpoint precision with which his quiet teammate was always examining him.

"What else do you call barging in on your teammate's dinner to talk to her about what people around the village are saying?"

"Not confrontation," Kiba bit out.

"You know this news will upset her," Shino said.

"It's better for her to know than for her to go around doing all these things and having all those rumors spread about her!"

"Surely you're not blaming her for the rumors."

Shino sounded terse. Great.

"No. Obviously Hinata wouldn't do anything like what these people are saying. I just want to give her a heads up! I'd want to know if it was me."

"Would you want her interrupting a private dinner if the roles were reversed?"

"What kind of private dinner do I ever have? I'm only ever eating with family or friends."

Shino pressed his lips together. This avenue of reasoning was not going anywhere. He agreed that Hinata would want to know what the two of them had heard on their mission as well as the whispers they'd heard when trying to find her whereabouts. But Kiba should know more than most how much a night out with Naruto would mean to their shy teammate - even if she had moved on romantically. And the last thing the bug-user wanted to do was ruin Hinata's night. Which is exactly what would happen if Kiba found her and spoke to her as he intended.

The Aburame had to admit that the rumblings they'd heard in some of the civilian villages closest to Konoha had been rather disturbing. They painted a picture of the cursed last Uchiha seducing the kind Hyuga heiress. These people obviously had nothing better to do than come up with all kinds of debaucherous acts that Sasuke must have learned while studying under Orochimaru that they seemed sure he was subjecting their sweet teammate to.

He shuddered at the memory of some of the pictures they had painted.

Of course he and Kiba had quieted as many as possible. There were quite a few people who would now feel small annoying insect bites anytime they decided to talk about Hinata. And Kiba had fought a few of the rowdier men in the tavern they'd stopped for dinner in one evening. The men had deserved to have their asses handed to them for lamenting that they were not currently enjoying the beautiful Hyuga in the same manner as the Uchiha. They weren't supposed to attack civilians, but Kiba didn't use any jutsu on them, just brute strength. So it didn't seem important enough to bring up to the Hokage.

Of course the Hokage's tower had been filled with its own horrors. Rumors spread amongst shinobi quicker than ants swarmed a cake dropped on top of an ant pile. Shinobi were by profession gatherers of information. Most of this information, however, was classified so when they had something they felt they were allowed to talk about… they did just that. A lot.

Apparently Hinata had left on an outing with Uzumaki Naruto not long before they had reported the results of their mission to the Hokage. People were already betting on whether the Uzumaki or Uchiha would win the fight to the death for Hinata's affections. Or on whether they might all join in a relationship together. There was that kiss between the two men in their last year of the Academy which seemed to make the idea of a threesome a popular subject among many of the kunoichi.

Kiba's face had gone red in anger, the triangles on his cheeks hardly standing out. Luckily the Inuzuka had known better than to start a brawl with every shinobi in the building, but as soon as they had left he had dropped Akamaru off with Hana for a post mission check up and instead of waiting like usual had started immediately towards the Hyuga compound to sniff out where Hinata had gone with Naruto.

Shino's eyes shifted behind his dark glasses to observe the wildest member of their team. His shoulders were set and his jaw was clenched. His eyes were narrowed and he walked with determination. It seemed there would be no talking Kiba out of his plan. The best he could do was follow along in hopes of mitigating the disaster that was sure to follow.

The Aburame quietly followed Kiba as he stalked aggressively towards the restaurant where Hinata and Naruto were most likely to be eating. Not only was Kiba's nose a reliable guide, but the energy in the street and shops surrounding the restaurant was rowdier than the rest of the street - which was saying something given it was dinner time and the street was peppered with restaurants among the shops.

The bug user twitched slightly, as his bugs became more agitated by the energy. He didn't stop, however, until one of his insects detected a powerful and quite familiar presence. It seems Kiba, too, had sensed the person as he stopped abruptly in the road, eyes wide at the possible implications of their presence.

Uchiha Sasuke was there. While Hinata was on some kind of outing with Naruto. They had been studiously avoiding their female teammate for the past few weeks, feeling uncomfortable with the idea that she was both sexually active and hiding her relationship from them. They were certainly not prepared to see the man who was supposedly sticking it to their sweet teammate. And neither were up to the task of keeping an angry Uchiha at bay should he misinterpret the situation and fly into a jealous rage.

"Oh shit," Kiba said, while Shino silently agreed that the situation had grown rather precarious.

I want to thank you all for the sweet reviews and messages. I'm glad people are still enjoying the story even though I had to take a pretty long break. I can't wait to finish it up so everyone can see how it ends! For those inquiring about my other chapter stories, I definitely am working on those and plan to finish those up, as well. The goal is to finish this one, then update another one regularly until it's finished, then update the last one regularly until it's finished. And then we'll see what the plans are from there! I'm not sure yet which story will be finished next (Sweetheart has been going on the longest so I'd like to finish it first, but the Revenge story has shorter chapters and is closer to being done so that I could then focus solely on the Sweetheart story). I'm leaning towards Sweetheart because it's NaruHina and they're my favorite, but it's not official yet.