Longer(ish) chapter, because I felt like it. Plus, it's just been awhile.

Hokai, sho heer yew go. (okay, so here you go)

Ahh, almost fogot;; I don't own.

Chapter sixxx

"Did you check the cabinet?"

"Yes."

"What about that drawer?"

"Which one?"

"Second from the top. You used to keep stuff in there, right?"

"Used to."

Hanabi put her hands on her hips and gave her sister an exasperated sigh. "Then I don't know where to look. Maybe you lost it?"

Lost it. Ha. That was pretty funny. Hinata shook her head. No, she did not lose it. She couldn't have.

"I'm sure you can just as well live without it." Hanabi tried to comfort Hinata. "Why is it so important, anyway?"

Hinata froze. Hanabi was right. Why was it so important? Saying "Because it'll match my outfit tonight, and I want to look pretty for Naruto." would be silly, so Hinata went for the next best truth.

"B-because it belonged t-to mom,"

It was Hanabi's turn to freeze. Hinata never talked about their mother anymore. Neither of them did, for that matter. She had disappeared when they were both very young. Hanabi studied her elder sister, who was desperately searching one of the drawers.

Hinata was dressed and Kiba was due to pick her up in 5 minutes. They would walk to the restaurant; it wasn't too far away when they knew where they were going; they had a map. Hinata even had Hanabi help with her hair and makeup. Nothing too elaborate. There was a little blue clip in her hair, that had been pulled back, and an inconspicuous amount of lipgloss on her lips, that were tightened with determination to find what she was missing.

"Oh… ok. I guess I can help you look some more,"

Hinata was down to the bottom drawer. The last reasonable place it could be. She got on her knees and shuffled through all these old things she put in that drawer because they wouldn't go anywhere else. Dry pens, notes, one or two really old books, socks, little boxes…sometimes she wondered why she didn't just throw that stuff away.

A contrast from the white of paper and socks caught her eye. There it was! "Found it!" she exclaimed, and plucked it from the corner of the drawer.

"Did you?" As if Hanabi felt she had to make sure her sister knew what she was talking about, she walked over to where Hinata was kneeling.

There was a small brown envelope in Hinata's pale hands.

"See?"

She opened the envelope and poured the contents into her palm. A silver bracelet with a few heart-shaped pieces of turquoise suspending from the metal like teardrops.

"Let me put it on for you," Hanabi gently fastened the bracelet around Hinata's delicate wrist.

"Th-thanks for your help, Hanabi," when she smiled at her younger sister, Hinata caught a glimpse of the clock. Almost 5:30. Kiba would be arriving soon.

"I'm going downstairs," Hinata grabbed her purse and strolled out of her room without waiting for Hanabi to catch up.

Kiba knocked instead of ringing the doorbell. They planned this. Ringing the doorbell would attract attention from Hiashi, as usual, locked away in his office.

The first thing the brown-haired boy did when Hinata opened the door was ask if she had the directions.

"O-of course I do, K-Kiba," she pulled the sheet of paper from her purse as proof, and slid it into his open hands as further proof.

Smirking, he stepped to the side so Hinata could pass and closed the door behind them.

"You look nice," holding the paper in front of her, he watched a small redness spread across her cheeks. He wondered why she blushed all the time…

"Y-you too," she returned the compliment, while she hadn't really taken the time to look at him. It was nothing special. Though, in the light of high sunset combined with the crimson on his shirt, Kiba's hair adopted a reddish tint. Hinata liked that. And the way it moved in the soft breeze…

She held the paper in front of herself and started re-scanning it.

"Doesn't seem very far away," Hinata flinched. BAM! Kiba was standing – really – close behind her, peeking over her shoulder. He reached his arm around her body and thrust his finger onto a spot on the map. "We're here, right?"

Hinata was blushing again. Did he always have to get so close to her? She was probably just going insane…

"U-um, no, a-actually. W-we're here. B-but you w-were close." avoiding the strange urge to reposition his hand herself, she used her own hand to point out their definite location, which was an inch away.

"Okay," he moved to her side, "Where to now?"

"G-go straight from here, th-then turn here, at K-Konoha Avenue…" Hinata's sky-blue nails traced their path.

"Easy enough," Kiba declared. He began to strut down the block, Hinata trying to catch up.

"Konoha Avenue?" he suddenly asked after a few minutes of leading the way.

"Mmhmm." Hinata nodded, "Why?"

"That's way into the city… like, 17 blocks from here," they had probably walked two or three so far. Hinata looked back down at the map. Sakura wasn't very good at drawing the proportions.

"O-Oh," maybe this would've been a good time to ask her cousin for a ride, if she hadn't been afraid he'd tell Hiashi, "W-Well Sakura did s-say that th-this restaurant was o-opening downtown. Should w-we walk faster?"

"RACE YOU!" Kiba shouted, and shot full speed over the vacant sidewalk, leaving Hinata and her high heels to sit in his dust. She rolled her eyes and stuffed the map back into her purse.

A warm smile spread across Hinata's face when she watched Kiba sprinting away. The smile became a giggle and soon she was laughing and running along with him. 'It's nice running like this,' Hinata thought serenely. The strong wind all around helped her feel so weightless and relaxed. She loved how it made her hair flow across her face and her skirt tickle her knees.

Although, as she ran she still couldn't escape the thoughts at the back of her mind …there was something about Kiba's jubilant attitude and energy. Something that reminded Hinata of a certain blonde boy. As she continued to jog after him, she found herself comparing the two similarly lively people. They were loud, proud and confident, but each in their own ways. Naruto always seemed to be more fun and childish, and less serious than Kiba, where Kiba was very outspoken and stubborn. Yet…if she liked Naruto for the couple traits Kiba also had, could she have the potential for liking Kiba?

Hinata stopped to catch her breath at an intersection. She was able to see the puppy-like boy standing a block away, waving. As soon as a yellow car passed before her, she scurried across the road to get back to him.

Kiba leaned against a sign on the corner that read "Konoha Avenue".

"Here we are," he said very matter-of-factly, arms crossed.

"Finally," Hinata looked around. They were definitely downtown, cars and people everywhere. Well, it was a beautiful Saturday evening.

"Now what?"

Hinata reached for the map in her purse.

It was gone.

"It must've fallen out when I was running," she whispered to herself. She combed through her purse, but no luck. And even if she could remember where it had fallen, the wind would've blown it far away by then. How stupid of her. And what would Kiba think? In some way, she hoped he wouldn't think anything bad of her now.

"Shit," she hissed aloud.

"Hmm?" Kiba's (pretty wide-eyed) gaze locked on hers and Hinata involuntarily gulped.

"I-I th-think I-I lost th-the map, wh-when I w-was running a-an –" she fiddled with the little hearts on her bracelet and tried not to make eye contact.

"No problem. We can just ask someone here for directions," he said calmly. He could tell Hinata was really stressed at that moment, so he wouldn't come down on her. He never could. Kiba had been friends with her long enough to know how fragile the Hyuga could be.

"U-um, ok, I-I'm going t-to call Sakura, t-to let her know w-we're running late…" Hinata mumbled, taking out her cell-phone (which she did have, luckily) and dialing the numbers.

"Alright then, I'll go ask a few people if they know how to get to this place," Kiba scanned the premises, then pointed at a bench, "go ahead and sit there to call Sakura, it can be our meeting place."

And Kiba was off.

Ha. Ha ha ha ha. Yay for chapters.

K, so I'm still working this whole story thing out. Told you, plans and strategies.

I'd enjoy reviews, thankyouverymuch.

- jiao