A/N: Ok, I did some math, which is shocking in itself, and there's a severe lack of kunoichi in Konoha. The gennins have one female to every two males as is clearly shown through the teams, and the jounins/chuunins are way low on the lady count. They have Kurenai, Anko, Tsunade, Shizune, Tsume (Kiba's mom) and Kiba's sister, who I don't think has a name, plus that purple-hair ANBU chick, and more guys than I'd really care to count at the moment. So if it seems like I'm mary-suing Kurenai by making every guy in love with her, it's totally not my intention, it's just that they had pretty slim pickens of ninja chicks when they were younger. Plus, she's totally hott, and the guys of the village would totally be into her, accept it.

Chapter 4: A Revelation

A couple days have passed since Kiba's question, and he was really beginning to wish he hadn't asked anything at all and had just kept his big mouth shut for once. Kurenai-sensei seemed to move in a daze, never really focusing on what was going on around her. She would come to training late, then leave early, saying they could either continue practicing on their own or go home. The three of them hated to see their sensei like this, she was normally punctual, strict, and worked them until they were exhausted, and while they didn't always like it, they did appreciate her effort towards them.

"Maybe you shouldn't have asked her that question Kiba-kun," Hinata said quietly as the kids were walking back home from their short session.

"Well it's not like I can take it back or anything!" He snapped back, more upset with himself than Hinata for bringing up the obvious. "Besides, you wanted to know too, we all did," he added, his voice softer this time around. Akamaru barked from his normal place inside Kiba's jacket as Shino nodded in silent agreement. The trio plodded on, thinking of the distress they unintentionally put their sensei through.

"Oi! Kiba!" Team eight looked up in unison to see Naruto waving wildly at them from Ichiraku Ramen, "You guys on a lunch break?" Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi were sitting behind the blond boy, the two gennins finishing their meal as their sensei was engrossed in one of his books.

"Nah, we're done for the day," Kiba answered as he began walking over to the other team. Having nothing better to do at the moment, Shino and Hinata followed him.

"Done?! But it's only noon!"

"Yeah, I know. But Kurenai-sensei's had kind of a short attention span the last couple of days."

"Yeah, why is that?" Kakashi asked, evidently paying attention to the conversation while flipping through his pages. The kids were surprised the other jounins had taken notice of their sensei's off-behavior.

"We think, well, we're pretty sure, it has something to do with what I asked her the other day."

"What'd you ask?" Naruto questioned, thinking it must have been something perverted, like what her bra size was or something like that. Kiba shrugged, "I just asked her why she waited so long to become a jounin."

"Ah, so that's why she's been so down lately." Kakashi said sagely, as though he had solved the mysteries of the universe as he turned another page.

"Do you know something about it?" Shino asked as everyone but Sasuke turned their attention onto the famous copy ninja.

"Well, I'm not sure of the details, but I think it was because of her marriage." Eyes grew wide and jaws dropped as another page was nonchalantly flipped.

"Wha? Kurenai-sensei was married? Kiba shouted in his already resounding voice. Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, for a little less than a year, I think it was."

"What happened?" Hinata and Sakura said at the same time. All the gennin were paying close attention to Kakashi now, even though Sasuke was pretending not to listen.

"Well, it came to a pretty tragic end. She and her husband came back to the village to visit with her family. She left to take care of some errands, and when she got back to her old house, everyone was dead," he said, facemask protecting any emotions he may have felt from telling the story. Sakura stared in shock, hands clasped in front of her chest, "Poor Kurenai-sensei."

Hinata's fingers were in front of her mouth, a mixture of fear and sadness on her pale face as Kiba placed a strong hand on her shoulder. Now he felt really bad for asking his stupid question. Had he known it would bring up such painful memories for his sensei he would have just kept his big mouth shut for once.

After thanking Kakashi for clueing the team into the psyche of their sensei the trio once again made their way to their respective houses. But when they reached Hinata's place no one moved. The boys stood protectively on either side of her, and she made no movement to go onto her yard. They all stood there, not wanting to separate, but not wanting to say so. Finally Hinata spoke up.

"Hey, there're some great trees and bugs and things behind the house. Want to go check it out?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Right, Akamaru?"

"A-raof!"

Within moments the three gennins were situated around the trees behind the Hyuuga Manor, each thinking about what was going on within their teacher, and the best way to get her back to being the ninja she used to be so they could become the ninjas they needed to be.

"I think there's something more to it." Shino said as he watched a beetle crawl up the tree Kiba was perched in. "Tragedy's something that every ninja has to be mentally and emotionally prepared for. I don't think remembering some deaths, even the deaths of people close to her, would send Kurenai-sensei over the edge like this. She's too good of a ninja."

"So what would send her over the edge?" Kiba asked, getting sick of Shino's know-it-all attitude.

"I don't know." One thing they all liked about Shino, he could admit when he was wrong, or when he wasn't sure of things. But this time they had both hoped he did have the answer.

"We should find out more about the story. Kakashi-sensei only told us the main part, I'm sure there're details that'll make sense of everything." Kiba said, standing up on his sturdy branch and looking down at his teammates. Even with his facial features hidden, Kiba could tell Shino was intrigued, but frowning.

"Who do we ask?"

"Anyone. Kakashi-sensei's too lazy to tell us anything. Something like murder, I'm sure our parents even know about it. Hell, we probably heard about it when it happened. Come on, let's go ask my mom!" And without a confirmation the Inuzuka started bounding through the trees towards his home, with Hinata and Shino at his heels. Out of all their parents, Inuzuka Tsume was the most likely to tell them anything.

"Maybe we should just wait for Kurenai-sensei to tell us. I don't want to pry into her life." Hinata said as they neared Kiba's house.

"We're not prying, we're worried about the well-being of our sensei. That's totally allowed." Then, when he saw her uneasiness wasn't lifted, he said in a softer tone, "I'll do the asking, all you have to do is listen. I got us into this mess anyway." Guilt hit the pit of his stomach as he heard the family dogs howling, undoubtedly because they had picked up his scent. Hopefully his mom would know as much as he hoped she would know.

Thank you so much for all the reviews! I really appreciate them so much

To Seravy, fear not, Anko will make a grand impact in future chapters.

To PotatoCloud, i have a good idea of where this is going, as i write rather sparadically (i have no idea how that's spelled, forgive me) and have already finished the last chapter, or next to last chapter, i haven't decided yet. But thanks for the warning, as i do tend to write myself into corners sometimes