Inuzuka Kiba; 1 Year Later

Age 13

-Congratulations-

We had all seen the tournament. We had all SEEN Shino kick ass in the tournament only to fall short at the final victory. But it's not like it mattered. Kurenai told us that Shino was to be made a chuunin anyway. So I got this awesome idea that we could throw a party for him.

At first, I was going to collect up all his friends, but then I realized that we were really Shino's only friends. So Kurenai, Hinata, Akamaru and I hid outside Shino's house with bags of fun party items. Finally, when Shino exited the house, we watched him walk past us. Then, when he was far enough away, we sprung up out of our hiding spots and ran over to the front door to get ready for when he came back. He was going to get his chuunin vest and we were going to be ready.

"This is going to be great!!" I said, reaching for the doorknob.

"Wait…" Hinata said nervously. "Shouldn't we knock first?"

"Good idea, Hinata!" I said, knocking on the door. Hinata was always so considerate like that. She and I, once again, had failed to qualify after the preliminaries but we both had tried our best. By some horrible stroke of bad luck, Hinata had been paired up with Hyuuga Neji in the preliminaries just like last time. At first, they were going to make proper adjustments and have someone else fight him, but he started his ranting on the houses and stuff so she had to fight him. He beat her again.

I lost to Lee.

But it didn't really bother me all that much because my defeat wasn't humiliating like it was last time when I fought Naruto. I'm never going to live that down.

No one came to the door.

"Someone's inside." Said Akamaru.

"I know." I said. "But he's not coming to the door."

"What did Akamaru say?" Kurenai asked.

"He said someone's inside." I answered. Sometimes I forget that no one else can understand Akamaru. It seems so strange to me, but I suppose it is kinda like he's speaking a different language. Strike that. He IS speaking a different language. "I don't think anyone would mind if we just let ourselves in… we have good intentions!"

I know I wouldn't mind. If someone came into my house to set up for a party, how could I POSSIBLY be mad at them? I mean, we were wasting a lot of precious time just standing out there when the person inside was SO obviously not coming to the door.

The four of us peaked our heads in the door. No one was about, so we crept in. We started setting up the decorations.

It was my job to blow up the balloons so I went straight to that.

I think I might have blown one up a little too much because it suddenly popped.

Just when I was about to burst into hysterical laughter because of how much I had frightened the other three, I suddenly saw a figure in one of the doorways.

"Mr. Aburame!" said Kurenai. He looked kind of mad, but you can never tell with Shino and his kind. So Kurenai went over and started explaining things to him, but I figured it didn't concern me so I continued blowing up balloons, being a little more careful to not blow them up as much as I did before.

I saw Hinata coming over to me out of the corner of my eye. So I turned to face her, and I think she might have been a little surprised.

"Should we wear these party hats?" Hinata whispered. She might have just been speaking regularly because there wasn't really any reason to whisper but… oh whatever.

"Of course!" I said. "That's why we got them!"

"But they say 'Happy Birthday' on them…" Hinata observed.

I looked at the hats. "Well… they do…" I said. "But Shino's not going to notice! I'LL make sure he wears one."

"He's coming!" Akamaru said suddenly from the window. I ran over to the window and looked out.

"Guys, Shino is coming!" I said.

"That was quick." Said Kurenai. "Hide!"

We all got into our hiding place except for Shino's dad who stood there like a big annoying tree. Shino came to the door carrying his chuunin vest.

The door opened up and Shino was there.

"SURPRISE!!" we shouted when he entered.

Shino didn't really react.

"Congratulations on becoming a Chuunin, Shino!" said Kurenai.

He still didn't react. I'm not sure he knew exactly what was going on.

"We threw a surprise party for you!" I explained as I put the hat on him. I put it on him before he could see that it said Happy Birthday and not… Congratulations on Becoming a Chuunin.

"Do you feel any different?" Hinata asked.

"From what?" Shino said.

Oh come on, Shino. Even an idiot like Naruto would be able to know what Hinata was talking about.

"From when you were a genin." Hinata replied.

"Oh. No."

"They were here when I woke up." Said Shino's dad.

As if we weren't welcome! We had just thrown him a party. "Okay, Shino, so now you TECHNICALLY don't have to train with us anymore." I said, putting my arm around Shino. "But we know you still will anyway!!"

Shino didn't respond to that. He only looked at me for a moment and then pushed my arm off his shoulder. He always did that. In the year I had been on his team, never did he ever seem to appreciate physical contact. Oh well. Too bad for him.

"So what else do we have planned for today?" Kurenai asked.

"I figured we call all just have a pow-wow shindig and chill out!" I said in an excited tone so I could maybe hype Shino up a little bit.

But Shino didn't say anything in response so I figured that that was as good as an open invitation to party and trash his house and have him clean it up after we left!

"I'll leave you three to hang out by yourselves!" said Kurenai. "You don't need an old lady butting in on you! Come on, Mr. Aburame, let's give the kids some space!"

She pushed Shino's dad out of the house. I'm glad she did because he was creepy and I didn't like him all that much. All he ever really did was loom around and every once and a while, you'd find yourself in one of his really scary and ominous glares.

"What is a pow-wow shindig?" Shino asked randomly.

I looked at him with a confused expression. How did he NOT know what a pow-wow shindig was?

"THIS is a pow-wow shindig." I said. "This wonderful surprise party that we planned for you."

"How come no one else is here?" he said.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"It's only the three of us." Shino said.

"FOUR!" I interrupted. WHY is everyone always forgetting about Akamaru? It's not like they're cooler than he is or anything.

"Whatever." Said Shino.

"Well…we didn't know who else to invite…" Hinata said quietly. She didn't really have to tell him that, but I guess it's in Hinata's nature to be unconditionally honest.

"They're probably all at…" Shino began but then he trailed off. "No, never mind."

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Neji's a chuunin too." Shino answered.

I saw Hinata cringe so I figured I'd have to lighten the mood.

So I laughed. Like anyone would ever even go near Neji, let alone go to a surprise party for him. I mean, even his teammates were probably afraid of him. I know I definitely wouldn't want to be on the same team as him.

Then again, a lot of people say that Shino's a scary guy too. But Shino's not scary. He's just… quiet.

And…weird.

Kinda creepy…

But not SCARY.

"Yeah, like ANYONE would go to HIS surprise party!" I said, referring to Neji's potential party. "I bet not even his own teammates did." I looked back at Shino who was still standing there and not looking amused at all. "Shino, doesn't it make you feel good to know you have pals like us?" I asked him.

No one really said anything.

I could tell Shino was thinking about the fact that Neji beat him in the tournament. I mean, really. What else would he be thinking about?

Then I looked at Hinata who was thinking about the fact that Neji beat her in the preliminaries two times in a row.

I looked down at Akamaru and thankfully, I don't think he was thinking about Neji.

"Don't worry, Shino, we ALL know that it was just a weird fluke chance thing that Neji beat you!" I assured him. "Same with you, Hinata! He must have cheated or something!"

"Wow, Kiba, that's so nice." Hinata said.

"It doesn't matter that he beat me." Shino said. "We're both chuunins."

"I was just thinking that!" Hinata said.

"So what should we do?!" I asked. I mean, we were just standing around like fools talking about pointless stuff. We should have been doing fun stuff like Pin the Tail on the Donkey or breaking open a piñata. I wondered if Shino might have had a piñata because that would have definitely made this party awesome.

"I'll walk you both home." Shino said.

"HOME?!" I demanded. WHAT ABOUT THE PINATA?!

"Yeah." Said Shino. "We could have our pow-wow shindig on the way back to your houses."

I WAS going to be angry at Shino, but the fact that he had just said 'pow-wow shindig' just made me laugh on the inside. I didn't want to laugh on the outside at him because I knew he'd get mad, so I just decided to tell him that I appreciated the use of the term.

"Oh Shino." I said truthfully. "You saying 'pow-wow shindig' has just made my day."

Hinata laughed too. But Shino didn't look all that happy. But Shino NEVER looks happy! I guess we've all learned to just ignore his unhappy glares or else he would make us really sad.

I tried arguing with him for a minute or two, but he wanted his pow-wow shindig to consist of walking us home so I couldn't do much for my argument. As much as I wanted to break open a piñata…man, I'd just have to find my own piñata and me and Akamaru could have our OWN pow-wow shindig and break a piñata.

I think Shino and I mutually and telepathically came to the decision to drop Hinata off at home first.

"Bye guys!" Hinata was as she opened her door. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Bye Hinata!" I waved to her. And, without another word, she was gone. I looked at Shino. What Hinata had just said made me realize something. As a chuunin, Shino was no longer required to train with Hinata, Kurenai, Akamaru and I. He could now do whatever he wanted and would be going on as high as B-rank missions.

He turned to start going towards my house.

I couldn't help but ask the question that was on my mind. "You ARE going to train with us, aren't you, Shino?" I asked him. "I mean, even though you're a chuunin?"

"I don't know." Shino answered.

"You don't know?" I demanded. "Give me a straight answer for once!"

"I will sometimes." Shino said.

"That means no." Akamaru commented.

"Yeah, right Akamaru." I said. "When Shino says something, he means it."

Shino turned around and looked at me. He had one raised eyebrow but I didn't know why he was looking at me in such a confused fashion. All I did was talk with my dog. It's not like that was out of the ordinary.

"Well, you're home." Said Shino.

I looked up to see that I was, in fact, at my house.

"Okay." I said with a shrug as I went towards the door.

"Kiba." Shino said just as I opened the door.

I waited, as he didn't respond.

"Thanks for the pow-wow shindig." He said finally.

"No problem, Shino!"