Chapter 11

A/N: Alrighty folks I'm gonna try for a good one here! Thank you to everyone who faved, followed an reviewed, and I hope you all had a lovey new year.

Cloud Ex-SOLDIER: Thank you! :)

Zatheko: Thank you! :)

Death by manga: Why thank you, I sometimes worry about not having enough dialogue, but I'm glad to know that readers like all these feels.

Starfire201: They do indeed. Drama is going to unfold.

Shikamaru watched as Eiji introduced Naruto and Neji to the families of the council. Eiji himself was a widowed father of two sons, something Shikamaru noticed was a recurring pattern among the village. Nakina, Mitake, Hibiki and Eiji were all widowed with children. Toru was young, but only Masanori and Kirika had living spouses.

Shikamaru turned to Nakina, his brow furrowed. "It is understandable that ninja die, but your village seems to have a large amount of widows an orphans."

Nakina looked down. "So you've noticed. This is why we seek to have a medical training program. Eiji's wife Su, she died in childbirth. Hibiki's wife Wakana got sick, and nobody had appropriate skills to fix it. Mitake's husband and my own husband died in battle. Their wounds were too great for our novice healers. Mitake works around the clock to keep our population healthy, however, there aren't many skilled and experienced medics here."

"And why is it that there isn't any medics with enough skill?"

"During the civil war, there were two factions of people battling for control of Ryugakure. My own clan, the Byaki, and my husband Torao's clan, the Takeshi. The Byaki clan had many members who were highly skilled medics, and they constituted as most of the village's medical corp. The two clans were both large and always had a rivalry over which options were best for the village. Different clans joined different alliances. Tension built for a long time, and it finally broke out when the Takeshi leader died, and the head Byaki doctor had been accused of not doing enough to save him. Members of the Takeshi clan confronted members of the Byaki and a riot broke out, before turning into a civil war for dominance. Unfortunately, the Byaki were overpowered after awhile and the Takeshi took control. Most of our skilled doctors died, and few were spared. Of my close relatives, only myself and and my cousin Suka survived. Torao's father Masato betrothed me to his son as a sign of peace. We were only 10. Ryugakure soon moved to rebuild itself, but we no longer had many doctors, as they were mostly Byaki."

"What about your cousin and yourself?"

Nakina smiled sadly. "I don't have the healing skills which is partly why few resisted when I inherited control after Torao died. Suka does have the skill, but few trust her, so she mostly trains Tsubaki, whom I suspect did inherit it."

Shikamaru looked around. "Some pieces still don't make sense. How has your population been able to recover so quickly? And how come you've never gone to Iwa for help?"

"We allowed refugees to come here. Some have come from Mist during their own civil war such as Masanori and his wife, Yoshie. They've been here since they were children. As for Iwa, we do not go to them for the protection of some of our refugees."

"What refugees would need protection from Iwa?"

Nakina peered at Naruto for a moment, before leading Shikamaru farther away. "Despite this recent war, our intelligence is not certain if Iwa is aware that Naruto is a Namikaze. Similarly, we are trying to prevent further persecution of the Namikaze."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "As at as I am aware, Naruto is the last Namikaze."

Nakina sighed. "Technically. They changed their names. Because of Minato's actions against them after the war, Iwa tried to avenge the clan after his death in revenge. They came here, thinking that Iwa wouldn't think to find them so close to their village."

"Why have you continued to keep them then? Surely you know that you endanger your village."

"We owe them. During the war between Iwa and Konoha, Minato Namikaze once spared our village from being a battleground by singlehandedly drawing the battle away from here. Besides, the clan knows and is prepared for the possibility they will have to leave within a moment's notice."

Shikamaru nodded, before looking in Naruto's direction. "You have to tell him. If you want anything from us, you need to tell Naruto that he has living family."

Nakina stood shocked, as the Nara walked away without another word.

Sakura stood and stretched, hearing a satisfying crack along her spine she put her hands on her hips and looked down at her sparring partner, who was relaxing after their training system. Ino looked up at Sakura with a smirk. "And here I thought that you were only making out when you said you and Naruto were training."

Sakura shrugged "What can I say, I'm good enough to be able to do both."

The two girls started to walk back to the village to clean themselves up, but noticed in a different training ground that Kiba was training hard, more so than usual. Ino frowned. "I think he is upset about Hinata's engagement."

"Noo, really, I honestly hadn't noticed Ino." Sakura chimed in sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I should think he would be upset. It was a rather sudden engagement."

Ino nodded, remaining pensive for a moment. She felt kind of bad for him actually, never having an opportunity to tell Hinata. She sympathized. Back when she liked Shikamaru, (that was ages ago), she had been sad when she saw him with Temari so much. Eventually, she got over it, but she certainly understood his feelings. Come to think of it, he was rather moody at Hinata's engagement party.

Sakura started to wave her hand in front of Ino's face, as the blonde had stopped walking all together. Ino looked up at Sakura, before making a snap decision. "Uh, sorry. Hey, I'll talk to you later, there's something i gotta do."

Sakura was confused by her best friend's antics, but decided to let Ino do whatever she needed, it's not like she wouldn't see her later anyhow.

Once Sakura left, Ino headed towards Kiba's training ground. The Inuzuka stopped fighting with his Akamaru-clone and turned around, presumably after smelling Ino's presence.

"Ino? What are you doing here?" He looked genuinely surprised to see anyone here, let alone her. She looked a tad sweaty and disheveled herself, and was probably in the neighborhood training. The blonde looked at her toes.

"Oh y'know, I was in the neighborhood. I was wondering how you were holding up?"

"Holding up? What are you talking about? I'm fine." He said it a little more forcefully than he should've, he noticed.

"Oh you know, with the whole Hinata thing. I noticed you had left the party for awhile." Ino said, trying to keep it nonchalant.

"I just needed some air," he said uncertainly. Ino looked and could tell he was getting frustrated, not to mention he was confused as to why she was talking to him.

"I.. I'm sorry, I'm just going about this the wrong way-"

"I'll say."

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to lunch?" Ino said finally, taking his comment in stride.

"Like a date?" he asked, a gloating smirk starting to appear.

"No, just to talk. About things." Ino said, hoping this wouldn't set him off.

"Look, if you think that you can fix me with your Yamanaka mind tricks Ino, I hate to tell you that it's not gonna happen. Don't think we'll go to lunch and have nice therapy session and talk it out or something."

"I didn't want any therapy, I just wanted to tell you I understand why you're going through!"

"Pffh, know what I'm going through. Please, have you ever sat by while the person you love lusted after some other guy only to get her heart broken and go off and marry the first schmuck who asked?"

"No, but I have had to watch a person I had feelings for be totally perfect for another person. Listen, I am not going to waste my time here. I'm sorry I wanted to help you."

With that, she walked away, and Kiba went back to venting his frustrations on the training ground.

Sakura sat across from Ino in the hospital cafeteria as she fumed over her lunch. She wasn't quite sure what got the blonde's panties in a bunch, but it was quite clear it had to do with her strange behavior from earlier. The rosette took a sip of tea, before looking at her friend.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, breaking the awkward silence. Ino started to rub her temples.

"Once again, I interfere too much."

"Oh? And what does that mean?"

"Sakura, if it's ok with you, I'd rather not talk about it right now."

Sakura shrugged and started to steer the conversation towards Karin's progress, today's patients and other asinine things.

Ino continued to float through the day in a pissed off mood, though it later became somewhat guilty for poking the proverbial bear. Her only reprieve was during her next break, where she settled into her office doing her paperwork, keeping her distracted from her mishap. She continued to work, periodically checking the clock, and humming a bit of a tune.

Focusing on the work kept her min free of Kiba guilt, until she got a knock at the door.

"Just a moment, Forehead."

A knock again. Ino looked up, and finally stood up from her desk before opening the door and heading to turn back to her papers.

"Ino."

She had been expecting Sakura's voice, but this was the last voice she had wanted to hear today. Her heart sank, and she slowly turned around. "Kiba."

The Inuzuka sheepishly ran his hand through his unruly brown hair, before his eyes met her own. "I came to apologize."

Ino sat on her desk, arms folded "Why? I am the one who should be apologizing."

Kiba shook his head. "I shouldn't have snapped. It's just, nobody's ever noticed whats been going on with me before."

"Oh." Ino said awkwardly, before standing up from her desk and walking a bit closer. "I just wanted to tell you I know how you feel is all. I probably shouldn't have confronted you about it though."

She looked up into his eyes, a consummate believer in eye contact. It was silent for a moment, as Ino tried to translate what was suddenly stirring in Kiba's eyes. Suddenly however Ino felt a warm hand on her face before lips met her own. Eyes still wide open with shock, she found herself kissing back despite herself. Before she could let herself unstiffen and lean in to his sudden embrace, he pulled away, with a guilty frown. "Sorry," he said in an almost panicked voice before swiftly turning around and rushing into the hallway, leaving Ino standing in her office, somewhat stupefied with a flushed face.

A/N: And that's all I wrote folks. I hope you like it. I hadn't planned to write this, but it kind of took its own turn on the pathway of life and I was all like, hey why not.

SPOILER: In memory of Neji (who I am happy to announce will not be dead in this story) I have written a oneshot called Legacy where he is in fact, dead. *shamless plug* Feel free to check it out. END SPOILER

Now, as always, leave a review, let me know what kind I feels you get from the story, suggestions, predictions, etc etc etc.

Love, MyHikari