He didn't know why he had done it, but he had.

It was all he could think of doing. He couldn't let Anko wander back into her room and let the cycle continue. Something had to interrupt it and force it to change. Kiba wasn't sure if it was a good idea to put himself out in this situation; what if he failed? What if he made himself the force behind the change but wasn't able to follow through with it?

He sat there with her, holding her for what felt like hours. Then, she stirred and pushed herself out of Kiba's grasp. "Alright, enough of that."

"What?"

She looked over him, her eyes a bit read, but otherwise alright. "Enough crying, enough feeling sorry for myself. It's time to get back to how things were." She walked over to the door, leaving Kiba on the floor looking confused. "You coming?"

Kiba blinked, barely containing his shock. "Coming where?"

"Out! Come on, we have training to do!" She then marched up to him and grabbed Kiba's jacket before dragging him out the door with akamaru following confusedly behind them.

It didn't get much better as Anko dragged him across the village. Every time he struggled for her to release him, she only held on tighter. Eventually, she released him somewhere near the edge of town, in part of the forest.

"Gah! What is your problem?"

"You would have taken too long by questioning what I was doing. This was simpler. Now... Think fast!"

In the blink of an eye Anko was already released a kunai, barely missing Kiba as he tried to dodge it. By the time he looked back, Anko had vanished from view, making him quite nervous. Had he done something wrong earlier? Was she planning on killing him and erasing the evidence?

Kiba's senses sharpened as Akamaru moved to his side. The two of them took off into the trees, trying to sniff out wherever Anko was hiding. If she was going to try and kill him, he wasn't going to go quietly. Besides, he loved a good fight.

It didn't take long to get a hold of her scent; he had been familiarized to it for a number of hours now after all. He honed it on it, bounding over trees in pursuit of his quarry. Then, after leaping over a particularly large branch he saw her standing casually on a branch, as if she was waiting for him.

He dove forward, planning on tackling her so that he could go on the offensive. But before he could do that, snakes appeared out of the wood beneath him, forcing him to twist in mid air to avoid their probably venomous bites. He wouldn't put it past Anko to poison him without warning based on how she was acting.

He felt her feet on his back before he had time to react again; in an instant she kicked him down towards the ground with enough force to cause him to spin head over heels as he descended. Finally, Kiba decided enough was enough. Focusing his chakra to his hands and feet, he softened the impact of his fall. Then, he jumped back up into the trees, knowing that akamaru was already waiting for his signal. The two of them were like a well-oiled machine; they knew each other's patterns so well that they could function separately in combat if they needed to and still perform as a team.

Once again the scenario played out between Kiba and Anko; he was coming down from above while she stood casually below. This time however, he was ready for her. "Gatsūga!"

Instantly he began spinning rapidly, creating a drill with his body. Anko dodged his attack by jumping out of the way, but he had expected that. While his technique drilled through the wood and deprived Anko of a place to stand, the reason as to why he had yelled the technique was revealed. It wasn't him being brash, it was a command.

Akamaru dove from cover, using the same technique as Kiba. The high speed drill was too quick for Anko to completely dodge in mid-air, causing Akamaru's claws to shred Anko's coat as she attempted to dodge. Then, as she fell. Kiba rebounded off of the ground and moved upward, hitting her dead on. He had her off balance and he was going to take advantage of it.

As his claws cut at her, he noticed something seemed off. She was no longer trying to avoid him. Instead, she took a deep breath before spewing fire from her mouth. For a moment, Kiba became a flaming whirlwind, while Anko used her technique to get her out of the way of Kiba's claws.

While the moving air created by the gatsuga had insured that he wasn't burned, he had once again lost sight of Anko. Not to mention the smell of burning wood obscured her scent from his sense of smell. He ceased spinning, dropping down on a branch to get his bearings and try to find Anko again. Now that she had outmaneuvered him, he was back on the defensive.

Suddenly the wood exploded all around him, forcing him to try and dodge out of the way. What he initially assumed to be explosives were actually hundreds of snakes that proceeded to try and entangle him with their long bodies. He clawed and bit at them, trying to figure out a way to get himself free.

Then, laughter hit his ears. Anko sat down on top of one of the snake's bodies, looking down at him. "Well, that was fun! Haven't got a good work out like that in a long time."

"Work out? You could have killed me! I almost killed you!"

Anko laughed again and gave Kiba that smile that reminded him of Naruto. That confident grin that never seemed to admit that things were wrong. "Yeah, you owe me a new jacket for that. Still, you almost had me beat, until you played your hand by using Akamaru. You're pretty strong for a chunnin you know."

Kiba blinked. Man this woman was weird. "Uh, thanks."

Anko sighed and leaned back slightly to look at the sky while Akamaru hoped up to Kiba's entangled body to lick his face. For a bit there was nothing but silence, then Anko looked over at Kiba. "Thanks. For holding me back there."

"Uh, no problem. You looked like you needed it."

"That I did... Oh! I should probably let you go."

"You think?" Kiba accidentally put more anger in his question then he had meant to; he knew he should watch his temper.

Anko only frowned before letting a playful smile appear on her lips. "Alright, down you go." The snake's bodies relaxed, causing Kiba to yell as he plummeted downward.

Finally, after twenty minutes of Kiba grumbling about how she almost killed him with that stunt, the two of them made it back to the edge of the forest. He sighed, not really sure how to handle all this. First she was angry, then upset, then violent, then happy... this woman had to be insane. There was no way she couldn't be.

"Alright then! Meet me back at my house at seven."

"Wait, what?" Kiba looked flabbergasted. Had he missed something? He sure felt like he had.

"Did I stutter? We're going out for dinner and drinks tonight. You're treat of course." She winked at him, before taking off before he could respond.

Kiba could only stand there completely dumbfounded. What had he gotten himself into?