Sorry, I missed last week. I was out of town and forgot to warn you guys, and then I was hit by a massive writer's block – which I'm still struggling through. And I've realized how short this fic will be. Hm.

And a disclaimer, I guess: the lines under the title, I reference 'Angel To You, Devil To Me,' by The Click Five.

Disenchanted
She's an angel to you, a devil to me,
And everything in between.

Kiba tipped his head back to stare lazily at Ino from hooded eyes.

"Hey gorgeous, you're in my light." He flicked his fingers to the side. "As much as I appreciate the sight, I'm off of blondes for now."

Ino wrinkled her nose at his choice of words, but took a seat on the bench beside him nonetheless. "You're a scumbag," she told him cheerfully. "Hitting on a taken woman."

"Don't even tell me you don't like it," he said, tugging on her blonde ponytail. "And I'm flattered of course, but—"

"But you like my best friend. Right?"

"Yeah."

Actually, Ino wasn't expecting him to agree. She was anticipating denial, more pick-up lines, some flippancy. She was waiting to tease him mercilessly until he admitted defeat, and then tell him how wrong he was for Sakura and to not even think about going after her.

The honesty was a bit off-putting. Now she couldn't have any fun. So she went straight into lecture-mode, albeit a bit uncertainly:

"Well, forget it. Sakura's not another skirt. And she's too smart for you anyway. Plus, she—"

"Has a thing for Sasuke, I know," he cut in, an edge to his voice. "Quit harping, alright?" he rolled his head to the side to look at her through the dark lenses of his sunglasses, still leaning back in the bench, still relaxed, almost bored.

"I like Sakura, Ino. And I admit, I might stop at any given moment. But not now. I'm going to chase her, as you all so eloquently put it, and I don't go around hurting girls for the hell of it. I don't want to hurt her." With that, he stood up, stretching his arms above his head. He didn't look bothered in the least, as opposed to Ino, who was sitting straight up, looking shocked. The anger, he knew, would kick in any second, and he planned to be far away when that happened.

"I do what I want," Kiba told her, knowing, even as he said them, how his words sounded. "Don't try to tell me otherwise."

And then he left, ruffling her hair as he passed.

-x-

Kiba had another date with Hinata, and he was ready to kill Naruto because of it.

"I tried to tell you!" Naruto protested. "That night of the party!"

"I've got a surprise for you!" Kiba cursed inwardly at the memory. He should've known, somehow, that Naruto was going to screw him over – again.

"Naruto," he began through gritted teeth, "I do not—"

"Come on, we're going to Ichiraku! Hinata's waiting, man!"

"Wait." Kiba stopped, whirling on his idiot of a friend. "Right now?" He was seconds away from strangling the blond. Actually, all blonds were getting on his nerves today. God. Either way, he couldn't back out now. Hinata didn't want to see him and he didn't want to see her – not in that context, anyways – but he wasn't going to blow her off at the last minute. He wasn't that kind of guy.

"Yeah, yeah! So let's go!" he said excitedly, leading the way again. Idiot. He still didn't realize that a date was between only two people?

-x-

The last time he was interested in a girl, Kiba walked right up to her and stuck his tongue in her mouth. Granted, he was drunk at the time, and he knew she wanted him too, but it still should've been clear to Naruto that if he liked a girl, he was straight-forward about it.

But it appeared this wasn't the case, not if the way Naruto flashed him a not-at-all subtle thumbs-up when he saw Kiba lean forward to talk to Hinata. He was too far to hear what they were saying, but couldn't he tell neither of them wanted to be there together?

"I like you, Hinata, so I'm going to be honest with you." Hinata nodded, looking weary, and Kiba smiled. She was really sweet. "I like Sakura. A lot."

Hinata waited expectantly, not saying a word about how he was all wrong for her, which was a relief. Then again, Hinata didn't know much about him, but still.

"And I know you know her. And I know that you like Naruto. And I know that you aren't interested in a relationship with me, and you know that I'm not, either. No offense," he added hastily.

Hinata smiled, casting her eyes to her hands, fidgeting with her napkin. "None taken."

"Good. So, I propose a deal. I keep pushing Naruto at you," he began bluntly. Hinata flushed, but didn't comment. "And in return, you help me with the latest Girl of My Dreams."

Hinata smiled shyly at him. "Deal."

"It's good to have you on Team Kiba. I'll get you a jacket."

Hinata was looking at him in almost-reverence, not entirely unlike the way she looked at Naruto sometimes. Kiba figured it was because she was so shy, she just needed friends to talk to.

Or maybe it was because he was so hot; who knew?

"Um…" She was twiddling her fingers again. "So, what do I do?"

"First," Kiba began. "We drop off lunch."

-x-

Yuuki didn't like new employees. They had to be trained and watched closely. If they were bad at their job, it meant more work and a migraine for her. If they were good at their job, it meant less work and stress over losing the job for her. It was a lose-lose situation.

Sakura was pretty good at her job. She was smart, good with the animals, and polite. She was still figuring out the way they did things, but that was okay. She had only been working there for a few days. But it was still boring. She really needed something to do—

"Oh, lucky me," Kiba said, leaning over the counter. Surprised, she looked up; she hadn't even heard him come in.

She tossed him a saucy little grin, propping her chin in one cupped hand. This could provide some very nice entertainment indeed. "Hey, you. Long time no see."

"No girl should have to suffer any period of time without Kiba," he agreed.

"We should make up for that later."

Kiba smiled at her, straightening. "Anyways, we're actually here to see Sakura. Is she in?"

Finally, Yuuki looked past Kiba. A girl around her age was hanging back, looking at the posters lining the walls, and she turned wary. She really hoped she hadn't just made a fool of herself and that that wasn't Kiba's girlfriend…

"She's out back, exercising the dogs. You can go out there if you'd like."

"Thanks. Can she take a break for lunch?"

"No way! I—"

"Come on, Yuuki," Kiba said in a low, smooth-as-velvet voice, sly smile tugging lazily at his lips. She felt her breath quicken, and cursed him, viciously, in her head. He knew all too well how to get under a girl's skin. Damn womanizer. "Do a guy a favor."

I hate you. "Fine. But don't keep her out too late."

"You sound like my girlfriends' parents. I won't." To the other girl he added, "Be right back, Hinata."

-x-

The hard part had been ditching Naruto. Kiba had had to say that dates were only for two people, and he and Hinata wanted to spend some one-on-one time together before the blond let them go. He really hadn't wanted to say it, and he knew he'd regret it later, but right now, he didn't regret much of anything, because it was hard to feel bad when you were in heaven.

He loved pretty girls.

And he especially loved pretty girls with nice legs (actually, nice any-parts-of-their-bodies), especially when they were in shorts and kneeling down beside dogs and reaching out to play with them.

Kiba liked dogs, too. Not necessarily in the same way, but the two of them put together was always nice to see. Not enough girls liked dogs so much, in his opinion.

Point for Sakura.

She hadn't noticed him yet, but the dogs were beginning to. Kiba's sister used to work here, as had his parents, and he planned to, soon. It was something of a family tradition, and playing with the dogs here was routine. So, without even thinking, he walked over, scooped up a ball, and chucked it as hard as he could, letting the dogs chase after it, barking frantically.

A plus was that Sakura was now (a) alone and unoccupied, (b) looking at him, and (c) smiling.

"Hey. Having fun?"

"Just a bit. What are you doing here?"

"I was out, having lunch. With Hinata," he added, waiting for her reaction. Which was to—keep smiling. Damn. "Naruto's still trying to set us up."

"Moron."

"The worst kind. Anyways, she wanted to bring you lunch. So here we are. She's waiting for you inside."

"Oh, how sweet. But…" Sakura looked down at herself. "I guess I'll need to freshen up first. I'm a mess."

"My favorite kind." Kiba held out a hand to pull her up. She didn't take it, instead staring up at him with an unfathomable expression. "I think you're beautiful."

Beautiful was, Kiba found, the key word with most girls. Cute and pretty were too simple. Gorgeous was going too far. And hot was out of the question.

As expected, Sakura flushed, embarrassed. "You don't have very high expectations. Does sweat turn you on?"

Kiba raised his eyebrows at her, amused. She had walked right into that one.

"For future reference?" When she sputtered a bit, apparently getting ready to deny it all, he added, "Go get ready then. We're waiting."

Before he could turn to go, she reached out to grab his hand, and he pulled her up, just hard enough that she stumbled against him, in prime position for… well, everything he wanted. But she leapt back almost immediately, and just about ran off, leaving Kiba to stare after her.

What was he doing wrong?

-x-

They took her out to the park, offering her some ramen they had picked up when they left, still warm. They couldn't go back to Ichiraku; the probability of Naruto still being there was too high.

He didn't know how Hinata knew Sakura, but it was obvious they were close. Maybe not like Sakura and Ino or Naruto, but the friendship was there. He almost felt like a third wheel. But he also felt like a bit of a pimp, even if he wasn't interested in one, and the other was adamantly refusing his advances.

And of course, there was that confusion again.

The first time he met her, Sakura was blushing a lot, but also mouthing off a lot. It was clear that she had wanted nothing to do with him. But he wasn't about to give up.

The second time, she was almost sweet. She tried to refuse him, but she just wanted company and some attention, which he was all too eager to give. He thought they were getting along.

But obviously, he was wrong.

With a sigh, he turned away from their conversation. A tall girl with blue eyes and long hair was passing, and he decided to entertain himself in his own way.

"I'll be right back," he said, and stood, not waiting for a reply.

He didn't look back as he strode along to catch up with the girl, and when he did, he went right into Charmer-mode.

"Hi," he greeted, coming to a sop in front of her. The girl stopped, looking a bit taken aback.

"Do I know you?"

"I really want you to. Can I have your name?"

"Aiko," she answered, almost immediately, and Kiba grinned. No effort required. He had it, all right.

"I'm Kiba, and I've just ran across the park after you because—"

"Let me guess. I stole your heart and you want it back?" Such a Sakura response, but this girl was being flirtatious.

He shook his head inwardly to get her out of his mind and said, "How'd you guess?"

Later, when he looked back, laughing with Aiko and back to feeling confident in his skills as a girl-chaser, he saw Hinata's expression first, of unconcealed disappointment. Then his gaze shifted to Sakura.

She was smiling, in that small, 'I-Knew-It' kind of way. She didn't look happy, or even sad. She just looked satisfied.

-x-
Love requires courage. People are going to fight you, every step of the way.
Don't listen to them. And prove them wrong.
Don't do what I did.
-x-