I don't know what possessed me to do it.

I watched Hinata run out of her house, down the front lawn, followed by her little girl. She was meeting up with some of her friends, all of which had their young children with them.

I cocked my head to one side and peered at the children from a distance. Perhaps it was time for me to have a son of my own.

The group, without even noticing me, turned and started walking.

I took a lot of walks these days, and, as I watched them get further and further away from Hinata's house, I pondered about Kiba's whereabouts. Just a few months ago, I heard that Akamaru had died. I didn't know at the time so I had foolishly gone over there since I had promised Hinata the day before that I would.

I knocked on the door and waited a few minutes for it to open. I knew that because Kiba wasn't there to loudly greet me and cheer in surprise, this meant something was wrong. After all, there seemed to be a dark cloud over the little Inuzuka residence.

The door opened a little bit and Hinata was there, looking as though she had been crying, and still was.

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked.

"No, no." she said, swallowing her tears. "Come in."

"That's all right." I said. "You two are in the middle of something."

"No, we're not, please come in." Hinata insisted.

I stood there and stared at her as she tried to wipe her eyes and pretend nothing was wrong.

"It's Akamaru, isn't it?" I said.

Hinata nodded and covered her mouth as she started to cry again.

"I figured so much." I said. "Well, you two need some time alone. We'll have to get a rain check on this dinner."

"Thanks so much for understanding, Shino." Hinata whimpered.

"Whatever." I said, turning my back to Hinata and walking down the path.

As I look back on that, it probably wasn't the best thing I could have done. Maybe I should have gone in and offered my respects, even though Akamaru was just a dog.

But I guess Akamaru wasn't just a dog. He was Kiba's dog. There's no way I could understand something like friendship, though, so I tried to forget it.

Something bothered me, however. If I didn't understand the first thing about friendship, then why couldn't I let that memory go?

I remembered the first time I had referred to Kiba and Hinata as my "friends" when I was speaking to my father.

"Father, I have to train with my friends tomorrow morning."

"Your friends?"

"Yes."

My father cleared his throat and sighed a bit.

"Is something the matter?" I asked.

"No." said my father. "But your teammates are not your friends."

"Kiba and Hinata say I'm their friend."

"It's not true." My father replied. "No one can befriend an Aburame. They all believe we are incapable of love and friendship, so therefore we become so."

"You love mother, don't you?"

"It's complicated, Shino. Don't ask anymore questions about the matter."

When they were far enough away so I knew they wouldn't notice me if they happened to turn around for one reason or another, I started walking again. The last thing I needed was for Hinata to turn around and see me and then call Kiba over from wherever he was hiding and then force me to go with them to wherever they were going.

I walked by the Inuzuka house, a place I hadn't visited since that day I found out about Akamaru. It was pretty big, but not unnaturally big. Bigger than my house, anyway.

I looked ahead of me at Hinata and Sakura getting smaller off in the distance. Then I looked back at the house.

I don't know why, but I went up the front walk and knocked on the door. No one answered it immediately, so I went for the doorknob, which was unlocked.

I opened the door just a little bit at first.

"Hello?" I said.

"Shino?" said Kiba as he poked his head around the corner. "Hey! Shino! Wow! What a surprise!"

"Uh…" I said, realizing just how stupid I had been to come in the house.

"Come in!" said Kiba as he practically sprinted over to me and dragged me inside. "What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Um." I said.

"Oh." Said Kiba with a nod.

"I'm just going for a walk." I clarified.

"Okay!" said Kiba. "But NOW you get to hang out with me instead!"

I made a move for the door but Kiba threw himself in front of it.

"You know what I've been doing with my time lately?" Kiba said as he grabbed my arm and led me into the kitchen where I definitely smelled something burning.

"Burning things?" I tried.

"No." said Kiba. "Cooking of course!"

"Of course." I said. He said that as if it were obvious.

"What are you making?" I said, turning the oven light on and leaning over to see what was inside.

"Well, I haven't really started yet." Said Kiba. "But I wanted to use this Tupperware that was in the refrigerator but it turned out that it was in the freezer so I put it in the oven so it would thaw."

It took a minute or so for that to process.

Then I stood up and stared at him.

"No you didn't." I said. No one could possibly be THAT stupid.

"Yes I did." Said Kiba, looking confused. "See?"

He pointed in the oven.

"You didn't do that." I concluded.

"Yes I did!" said Kiba, sounding a little annoyed as if he was offended that I was suggesting someone else had thought up the idea first.

I turned the stove off. "You're not supposed to do that." I said. I had never cooked before and even I knew that you weren't supposed to do that.

"Well, it's probably all thawed by now anyway!" said Kiba as he flung open the stove and reached in with his bare hands. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back away from the stove.

"You're not about to do that." I said.

"Yes I am, Shino!" said Kiba, sounding ABOVE annoyed.

I pulled open the drawer that was right next to the stove and it, sure enough, had oven mitts in it. "Use these." I said, handing him the mitts.

"Oh yeah!" laughed Kiba. "I remember LAST time I took something out of the oven without putting these oven mitts on."

How could someone make that mistake twice? How could someone make that mistake ONCE?

Kiba reached in and pulled out the melted piece of Tupperware. Half of it was still glued to the insides of the stove, but he didn't seem to mind. What he was mostly concerned about was whether or not it was thawed.

I guess Kiba had gotten a little senile ever since his dog died.

So I took it upon myself to close the stove. And turn it off for him, just to be safe. This reminded me of the time when Kiba nearly set my house on fire because he insisted on making me a birthday surprise.

We were nineteen. We sat outside waiting for my father to return home and discover the mess we had created in the kitchen. I don't remember how we got sidetracked, but it had something to do with Hinata that all of a sudden became an uncomfortable conversation about me.

"Come on, Shino." Said Kiba. "You can't tell me that you've never been in love before!"

Of course I could. After all, I never lie.

"I've never been in love before." I said.

"That's a lie!" said Kiba, pointing at me.

"No it's not." I said.

"I KNOW you have a girlfriend." Said Kiba. "I see you with her all the time."

What? Why was he saying that? It wasn't true. Oh, then again, he may have been speaking about Tsuma. Because, even though she hated me so very much, we did spend a lot of time together. But we weren't interested in each other in a 'life partner' sort of way.

But Kiba's pretty stupid so he must have thought that we did.

Even though we don't.

"She's not my girlfriend." I said.

Kiba looked surprised. I suddenly felt like I had messed up.

"So you DO have a lady friend?" he said, looking astonished.

I wouldn't exactly call her a friend, especially since she hates me.

Besides, I don't have friends.

I have acquaintances…like Kiba and Hinata… and Tsuma… but not FRIENDS.

I shook my head, wanting to get back on track as Kiba waved the Tupperware around in an attempt to cool it down.

"What did you want the Tupperware for?" I questioned.

"Oh, this and that." Said Kiba with a shrug.

…Okay…

"What did you plan on making?" I tried.

Kiba shrugged. "I dunno." He said. "Do you have any ideas?" He put the melted Tupperware on the table and opened up the freezer. "Hey! I didn't know we had ice cream."

"You don't put ice cream in the oven." I said.

Kiba looked at me as if I was being the stupid one.

"I know that Shino." He said. "That much is obvious."

All of it was pretty obvious.

I watched as Kiba sighed and sighed, just standing in front of the open freezer as if something would just jump out at him… as if he was SUPPOSED to just leave the freezer door open like that. Then I glanced at the clock and realized I had been out for almost twenty minutes.

And, while I wasn't going to let Tsuma give me a curfew, it's not like I wanted to stick around and watch Kiba destroy more of his kitchen items.

"I have to leave now." I said, going for the front door before he had an opportunity to stop me.

"Oh, Shino!" said Kiba, running to me without even closing the freezer door. "You have to go? Now? And leave me here? Alone? By myself? Without anyone to talk to?"

I waited for him to finish.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes." I answered all of his questions.

He only lowered his head as I opened up the door.

I must admit that I did feel a little bad for him. Kiba's the kind who can never be alone and, as of late, he found himself alone a lot. There was only so much Hinata could do to help his need for company.

I made my way home, hoping not to crash into anyone else I knew. Then again, it's not like anyone else in the entire world would have said hi to me. Unless Kiba suddenly appeared outside in front of me or Hinata suddenly was coming from the other direction, I was pretty much in the clear.

I entered my house to find Tsuma had pretty much not moved from where she had been when I left.

"You're ten minutes late." She said.

"Seven." I corrected her.

"You were visiting Kiba, weren't you?" she said with a suspicious eye.

"So?" I said.

"I hate him." She said. "You should too."

"I have no reason to hate him." I told her.

"He's annoying. That's plenty reason."

"Shino!" Kiba said happily. "What a pleasant and strangely random surprise! What are you doing here?"

"I got your invitation." I answered.

"Oh, my wedding invitation?" said Kiba as if that sort of thing happened every day. "Yeah, I mailed those I guess. You want to come in?"

"I just came over to congratulate you." I clarified.

"That was nice!" said Kiba. "Are you going to be able to make it?"

"I suppose." I replied.

"Good because I was hoping you'd be my best man." Said Kiba.

I coughed a little bit in surprise. "Your best man?"

"Well YEAH!" said Kiba. "You're my best human friend! So will you do it?"

"I need to think about it." I said. This wasn't something I could just... DO.

"Aww…" said Kiba sadly as I turned to leave. "Do you really not want to be my best man that much?"

"It's not that." I said. "I'm just trying to figure out WHY someone like you would choose someone like me to be the best man."

"Well Shino, I already said that it was because you were my best friend and if that's not a good enough reason then I don't know WHAT is."

I shrugged in response. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. I don't hate Kiba, I just don't really like him all that much. Then again, that's really what I keep telling myself. Maybe, in reality, I was just afraid to admit that I had actually come by a friend.

I mean, if I could end up getting married to a woman outside the Aburame clan then what's stopping me from having a friend outside the Aburame clan? Or just a friend in general?