Anyways, this chapter is, once again, very heavy with the KibaNaru, but it's also the last one that is. After this, it kind of takes a back seat to the main pairing. I think that that's a good thing, since this is a ShikaCho story. Anyways, enjoy the new (and long!) chapter.
Dates are Troublesome
"Ya know it's rude ta stare, kid?"
Naruto quickly apologized while almost all the dogs in the room began to growl at him. Personally, he thought the hostility towards him was uncalled for. He felt that a large talking dog with an eye patch was more than stare worthy. Especially since the dog (which looked more like a hungry wolf to him) seemed ready and waiting to pounce on him and tear his throat out. Apparently, Kuromaru and his pack didn't agree.
Naruto turned back to the dinner table and looked around at its occupants. Across from him, Kiba was giving him an apologetic look, feeling embarrassed and slightly guilty at his family nin-ken's actions. His mother (who Naruto had been very careful to call "Lady Tsume") was joining the dogs in growling from the head of the table. Hana, the eldest daughter situated next to the young vessel, was looking him over carefully as she had been doing all night. It was as if she was inspecting a piece of meat at the butcher's to decide if she would buy it for dinner. That visual, however, did nothing to calm Naruto's nerves.
Naruto found himself wondering not for the first time that night why he had agreed to come to this "date." Sure, the fact that he had been invited to dinner instead of cornered in a dark alley by a pack of angry canines was definitely a good sign, but it had not missed the blonde that Kiba had refused to look him in the eyes when he gave the invitation. As soon as he had arrived that night, he had been made very aware that the Inuzuka clan, both human and canine, regarded him as an enemy.
Still, if he wanted even a slim chance of their blessing, he had to go through with it. No matter what happened, he had to remind himself that this was all for Kiba. So, he tried to remember all the lessons on table manners he had received in his childhood from Iruka-sensei and Sakura (though her "lessons" were more in the form of punches and yelling at him to behave). Personally, he thought he did pretty well, considering that his idea of a fancy dinner was ramen with pork and chicken. He did make a few mistakes, which his hosts/torturers venomously called him on often, but all things considered he was actually very polite and well behaved. Not that any of the Inuzuka seemed to care.
After a few tense minutes of eating in silence, made all the more tense by the presence of all the dogs lying in wait, Hana finally decided to throw her guest a bone. "So," she began, "you've been training with one of the sannin, right? That must be quite difficult."
Naruto brightened up at this. Maybe that ero-sannin could come in handy for once and help him make a good impression. "Yeah," he answered as politely as he could, "I've been with Jiraiya for over three years now. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but he's a real workhorse. I've actually gotten a lot stronger, thanks to him."
"Probably picked up his other dirty habits, too," Tsume sneered. Naruto deflated in his chair. Of course, anyone in the village over the age of thirty knew of Jiraiya's self-proclaimed status as "uber-pervert," especially if they were female. Once again, the entire room, minus an apologetic Kiba and pitying Hana and Akamaru was scowling at him. At least whatever passed for scowling with dogs.
"S-Still," Hana tried to force a pleasant smile. "Three years is a long time. And all so that you can bring that Uchiha kid back. Have you gotten any more leads on him yet?"
As soon as she had mentioned Sasuke, however, Kiba began waving his arms, trying to signal her to stop. She looked at her little brother, confused as to why he wanted her to keep mum about his date's friends. She was at least trying to ease the atmosphere. Then she turned back to the young vessel, and was surprised to find him now staring into his bowl in deep depression. Oh, that's why.
Tsume, who either didn't notice the state her "guest" had fallen into or just didn't care. "Good riddance, if you ask me. That damned brat nearly got Kiba killed. He could die in some ditch for all I care."
Kiba and Hana stiffened in fear and anticipation. They both watched as Naruto's air of melancholy mutated into rage. He looked like he was about to break the silver utensil he was currently holding. The dogs began to perk up, realizing that they might actually have to fight soon instead of just scare the kid.
Naruto, however, simmered out a little before he responded. "Jiraiya actually said something along the same lines. Still, I'm not going to give up on him. It's not Sasuke's fault really. He just has a lot of pain, because of what happened to his family and all, and had to kind of hold it in for a while. He's not really a bad person, though. He's one of my best friends."
The rest of the room sighed in relief, thanking any and all gods that Naruto had been able to keep his temper in check. Tsume seemed to let the topic pass, and took a vicious bite out of her meal. Soon, the rest of the room fell back into that same awkward silence that the conversation had started in. Naruto looked around the room again. Kiba was offering silent support to him, along with an apologetic smile for his mother. Hana seemed lost in thought as she absentmindedly ate her food. Tsume was watching Naruto suspiciously, looking as if she was waiting for a good or even half-decent reason to main him. And the dogs were still glaring at him.
This is for Kiba. This is for Kiba. This is for Kiba. Naruto kept chanting those four words in his head, hoping that it would help to keep him from blowing his top. He mentally buckled himself down and got ready for what was proving to be a very long night.
"Hmm, you know, I think I'm just going to get a salad. What about you, Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru just grunted in response. If anyone else were with him, they might have been offended. Since it was she, though, she knew that that was as close as an answer the notoriously lazy young man usually gave. This grunt, however, wasn't so much out of his usual laziness as it was due to him being lost in thought. As he looked absently at the menu that had been placed in front of him, he was wondering why on earth had he gone through the trouble of asking Ino out on a date.
Well, he knew why he did. That had been carefully calculated. Chouji had been avoiding him like the plague for a week now, ever since that strange time up on the hill, and Shikamaru needed someone to talk to. Given his current "status," he couldn't talk to a guy or one of his elders without some girl trying to nose in, and right now, he needed some one on one conversation, not a quick chat before being chased by yet another female mob. After some careful consideration, Shikamaru had realized that the only way to move around in town without being unwillingly grabbed by a bunch of girls was to willingly go with one girl.
For that, Ino had been the obvious choice. Despite her feverish attempts to get Shikamaru to ask her out, the genius suspected that once they were actually on the date, Ino would fall into her usual routine behavior that she had always held on to back when they had all gone out to eat as a team. The control ninja was also used to Shikamaru's own behavior and mannerisms, so it would be considerably less troublesome to spend time with her than it would be with some shy girl who didn't know him at all. Or Temari. A date with the attention-demanding Temari would be a nightmare, and quite possibly hazardous to his health.
Still, all reasoning and logic aside, the simple truth was that he had asked Ino out on a date. The pure insanity of the idea was pounding in his head. When he had actually asked her as nonchalantly as he could (he was still Nara Shikamaru, after all), she had been jumping up and down in pure glee. If that weren't bad enough, Temari had also been present at the time, and her pure rage was practically tangible. Even before they had reached the family style restaurant for dinner, nearly every girl in the village was following them from twenty paces behind. It was purely ludicrous how they thought that fifty-odd girls could follow two highly skilled shinobi and not be noticed. If this was a joke, Shikamaru wasn't getting the punch line, and it didn't look like Ino had, either.
"…And this guy's looking at these flowers so I go…Hey! Shikamaru, are you even listening?"
Shikamaru was pulled out of his reverie by his date's sudden exclamation. He finally began to look at her and notice the cross expression on her face. He tried not to smile. It looked right he had been right to think that Ino would be her old bossy self.
A young waitress approached them, asking for their order. Shikamaru quickly scanned over his menu, realizing that he hadn't even looked at it yet. After waiting for a few seconds, Ino got impatient and asked the waitress to come back in a few minutes. The girl then glared at him until he looked up from his menu and finally noticed that their server was gone.
"What is with you?" Ino huffed, "Even you don't space out this much. And this date was your idea, too!"
"S-Sorry…" Shikamaru tried to sound embarrassed and apologetic, even though Ino had been begging for this for months. "It's just that…well…" He took a quick glance across the room. Good, no spying fan girls. He had to hand it to Ino on the choice of restaurant; this place had a strong stance on no soliciting, and none of his followers could take a table without making their already obvious presence known. "Well, it's just that something's been wrong with Chouji lately."
Ino's face quickly morphed from angry to concerned. Sure, Shikamaru should be focusing on her, and not Chouji. Yes, the mass ninja really needed to lose a few pounds. Still, Chouji was her friend, so if something were wrong with him, then of course she'd want to help.
Shikamaru, seeing that he had her attention, and thankful that she actually cared (sometimes it was hard to tell with her), went on. "It's just that, a week ago we were hanging out and watching the clouds, and then he suddenly left. And he's been avoiding me ever since then."
One look at Ino's expression now told him exactly what she thought. "I'm not being delusional, Ino. He's literally run away from me this past week, and when he left the hill, he left his bag of chips behind—half empty. You know that he doesn't do that."
The blond control ninja softened. Shikamaru was right. As ridiculous and unhealthy as it was, Chouji always insisted on finishing those damn chips of his. "Well, did something happen?"
"That's just it. Nothing happened at all! We were just talking, and then he got up and left. Afterwards, I looked around to se if there was anything or anyone that might have upset him, but there wasn't. The only thing that I can think of was that I must have said something, but I can't figure out what it was that would have set him off like that."
Ino settled into her seat and got ready to think. This was her forte. If anyone could figure out odd social behavior, it was she. "Alright, tell meexactly what you two talked about."
Shikamaru did as she asked. Several times. Ino kept insisting that he go over it again, but to make sure that he used their exact words, and not just his side of the conversation. After all, a piece of information that is useless from one point of view could very possibly be crucial to the big picture. So, Shikamaru kept repeating last week's events as best as he could, even though it just seemed troublesome to him. Every now and then, Ino would stop him, insisting that he be clear onexactly what he said. She stopped asking after the ninth telling, and instead became silent in deep thought. The blonde didn't even notice when the waitress came back. Shikamaru politely (she was starting to become annoyed; the restaurant was very strict on their no soliciting policy, after all) asked her to come back later.
Meanwhile, Ino was in a state of focus very similar to the one Shikamaru used in battle. It was already pretty obvious to her what had happened. Even if Shikamaru was a genius, he really didn't seem to realize that what he means when he talks isn't necessarily what other people hear. The only problem was Chouji was aware of that too, so there was no reason for him to get so upset. He would have just brushed it off and forget about it later. Something else must have set him off, but what?
Between his silent dinner partner, the anxiety of finally finding out what was wrong with his best friend, and the glares the waitress was sending from across the room, Shikamaru was beginning to feel a little nervous. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette to calm his nerves.
"You can't smoke in here," Ino said absent-mindedly. Suddenly, it was as if a light bulb turned on in her head. Smoke…don't tell me…he didn't…
"Shikamaru," she asked suddenly. The shadow ninja jumped a little at the sharp tone, but the blond ignored that. "Were you smoking when you were talking to Chouji?"
"What? What does that have to do with it? Chouji doesn't care if I smoke."
"Just answer the question!"
"…I was about to. He left right after I found my cigarettes and was looking for my lighter."
"Now listen Shikamaru, because this is very important. Your cigarettes, did you call them…fags?"
Shikamaru blinked. How exactly did what he called his smokes matter? He could hear the urgency in the girl's voice, though, so he went with it. After a few minutes of thought, he finally answered. "…Yeah, now that I think about it, I did. So?"
Ino groaned and buried her head in her hands. "Shikamaru…you idiot…"
"What?" The boy clearly didn't have a clue what was going on.
Ino sighed. She was going to have to explain this as best she could. "Okay, listen, Shikamaru. You were right, it was something you said, but more importantly, it was how Chouji heard it."
Shikamaru just blinked. He obviously had no idea what his friend was talking about.
Ino sighed again. "Okay, looks like I'm going to have to walk you through this. You told Chouji that you were grossed out by seeing Naruto and Kiba having sex, right?"
"Well, yeah. I hung out with them when we were kids, so it kind of bothered me seeing people I grew up with going at it. Besides, when is walking in on someone having sex ever a good visual?"
"But Chouji didn't hear that. He heard you being grossed out by two guys having sex. Then you made a comment about your cigarettes, except you called them fags. See where I'm going with this?"
Shikamaru eyes blinked. Then they closed in thought, then opened in realization, and finally went wide in shock as he gasped. Ino smirked at her teammate. "About time you figured it out. Seriously, how exactly are you a genius again?"
Shikamaru's brow furrowed in confusion again. "Wait, why would Chouji care? It's not like I called him gay or anything."
Ino just scoffed and waved her hand in dismissal. "Come on, that's easy. This isChouji we're talking about here. The fatso's sensitive to anyone getting picked on, so of course he'd be upset if he thought his best friend was a homophobe. I'd be more surprised if hedidn't get mad."
Shikamaru hung his head in shame. Chouji really thought that he was a homophobe? Quite frankly, Shikamaru didn't care about who other people slept with. It simply didn't seem like any of his business what his peers and neighbors did behind closed doors, and he was more than willing to respect their privacy. But Chouji thought that…Crap.
The brunette asked in a sullen voice, "What to I do?"
Ino scoffed again. "You apologize. Duh!"
"That's it?"
Ino thought a bit before she spoke again. "…Well, maybe not right away. Wait a few more days, just so Chouji will stop running from you. Then apologize. If it's you, then Chouji will probably forgive you in a heartbeat."
Shikamaru just nodded a little in understanding. "Alright. Oh, and Ino?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks."
"No problem. Now let's hurry and get something to eat. I'm starving, and it looks like that waitress is about ready to kill us."
"Hey," Hana suddenly said to her younger escort. Naruto turned to her, a little startled. Up until then, the walk home had been dead silent. Naruto had been to nervous and, as sad as it was, afraid to say anything to the girl, and she was still watching him like a hawk.
After dinner, it had been obvious that Naruto was expected to go home. Kiba had jumped at the chance and offered to walk his "date" home, but his mother insisted that he stay and help clean up. Kiba had argued that, aside from it definitely not being his night to do dishes, it would extremely rude not to escort their guest home. Hana had interjected at this point, and offered to walk Naruto herself. The majority of the household seemed to agree with her.
Hana, seeing as she had the blonde's attention, continued. "Does Kiba know about…" the girl trailed off. After all, she didn't even know if Naruto knew about the demon inside of him, and she certainly wasn't going to be the one to break the news. Besides, it was forbidden to speak about the nine-tailed fox, and you never knew who might be listening.
Naruto, however, did know about the demon, and quite frankly he didn't give a damn if the topic was forbidden or not. "Yeah, Kiba knows about the Kyubi. He said that I smelled strange after we thought that those weird bee ninja had killed Hinata, and he kept hounding me about it afterwards, so I told him."
Hana grunted in acknowledgement, and silence once again fell on the street. It remained that way until they finally reached Naruto's apartment. The blond unlocked his front door, and thanked his escort before entering his small home.
"Why Kiba?"
Naruto halted in the doorframe. Hana couldn't see his face, but it looked like she had his attention, so she continued. "There are plenty of guys in the village, and you even have friends outside of Konohagakure. Hell, you could have probably gotten with the Kazekage if you wanted. So why did you choose to shack up with my little brother?"
Naruto turned to face Hana. She was looking at him pointedly; there was no way she was leaving without an answer. So, Naruto chose his words, stopped when he decided that he always did better winging it anyways, and began to speak.
"…When I told Kiba about Kyubi, he didn't care. I mean yeah, he freaked a little, but he got over it, and treated me like he always did. It didn't matter to him. It's like…it's like no matter what's inside of me, or how strong I am, or how many times I've messed up, it just doesn't matter with him. When I'm with Kiba, I don't have to be a ninja or a demon or a prankster or whatever. I can just be Uzumaki Naruto, and with him, that's enough."
Naruto could tell by the warmth on his face that he was blushing at this point, but to be honest, he didn't think that he cared. Hana, meanwhile, was still studying his face intently. After a second of neither of them moving, Naruto was beginning to feel a little bit self-conscious.
Then, as if someone had flicked a switch, Hana's posture suddenly relaxed, and she let out a sigh that looked like she had been holding all night. She closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. "Geez, Kiba sure picked a sappy one, huh?" She opened her eyes and looked at the now confused boy in the doorway, but now with softer eyes. "Still, I've got to say, he's got pretty good taste."
Naruto blinked. Twice. Three times. Hana just smiled at him, the same playful canine smile that Naruto had seen on the younger Inuzuka's face countless times. "Well, I guess I approve. He could have definitely done worse, that's for sure. I don't think I could take it if he brought someone like…well, like that Ino girl home."
Naruto was still blinking. "You…approve?"
"Yep!" It was kind of frightening how Hana was so energetic and friendly after the silent observing she had done all night. It was if she had become a female version of Kiba. "Mom didn't know, but I knew Kiba was seeing someone. Never figured it was a guy, though. Seven months, right?" Naruto nodded slowly, eyes wide, and the girl's grin just grew. "Well, seeing as Kiba's been the happiest I've ever seen him the past seven months, I guess you're good for him. And don't let Mom get to you, all right? She does that if everyone who might possibly come into the family. You wouldn't believe the stuff she put my boyfriends through."
With that, Hana turned on her heels and began walking down the stairs of the apartment building. "Well, good night, kid. You did well tonight." She waved over her shoulder as she walked descended. Naruto finally broke out of his daze and responded with a much more animated farewell then he had given before. He closed the door behind him, and immediately went to his bedroom and crashed on his bed, completely exhausted from his night. As he stared up at the ceiling, a smile slowly crept over his face. Maybe tonight hadn't been so bad after all.
Meanwhile, Hana had reached the bottom of the stairs, and stopped for a second. "Kind of an odd time of night to be practicing stealth, isn't it, Hinata?"
Hana chuckled as she heard a soft gasp and footsteps running away. Why was it that everyone always seemed to forget about the Inuzuka's trademark sense of smell? Well, things will be interesting, at least. Hana hummed to herself and enjoyed the night air as she began her walk home.
Once again, a little explanation. As I said before, since Chouji doesn't have a fan nickname like a lot of the characters do (shadow ninja, dog ninja, etc.), I gave him one and called him the mass ninja. I'm doing the same for Ino. Since her family techniques all involve manipulating the opponent in one way or another, I've dubbed her the "control ninja." Anyone who reads this is free to use this term as much or as little as they want.
Also, so I don't offend anyone, let me make it clear that I do NOT dislike ShikaTem. It's probably my favorite of the non-yaoi couples for this universe. However, Ino is very much Chouji's friend, no matter what she says in the original manga, so I need her to be the less-evil suitor (suitoress? I'm really not sure what the term is when women go after someone), so Temari's getting the short stick here.
Anyways, make sure you review. I can't really say that it will get me to update faster (damn I'm lazy), but it will influence how I write. Seriously. So go review. Please. Don't make me use puppy-dog eyes, because I suck at them.