Alas! Chapter 4! wheee...

"Ohayo, Kiba-kun." Sakura waved and smiled at the Inuzuka boy when she spotted him walking through the village. "Ohayo, Sakura...Oi, do you know why Ino's so mad at me? I don't even remember doing anything to piss her off at all." Kiba asked her. Sakura looked thoughtful. "I think I do know why. Because Naruto told me that you two, you know...did that. And, fuming, I stomped into the flower shop to question her about it..." She said with a guilty expression. "And Naruto kinda told me that you told him...so I kinda told Ino that it's what you said..."

Kiba's eyes widened, "So she's mad at me over a stupid misunderstanding? Ah, damn it. Whatever. I don't need to deal with her."

"But you do...Hokage-sama assigned you a mission a few days ago, remember? And she said you could pick one person to bring with you...You said Ino. And you're supposed to be leaving in about...an hour.."

The memory hit Kiba. "Damn it. I did pick her, didn't I..."

"Do you want me to talk to her?" Sakura offered. "I feel kinda bad..."

"Nah. There's no reason to fret it. It's too late. We both know that Ino's stubborn. It's harder to move her than it is an enormous boulder..."

"Ino!" A certain pink-haired medic-nin called out to her as she ran down the road. "Oi, what is it, Sakura?" Ino stopped in her tracks while walking back to her family's flower shop. "Tsunade-sama is assigned you for a mission! She told me to gather you and your partner to leave." Ino raised an eyebrow. "A mission? Hai, I understand" She nodded. Sakura raised her hand and put up her index finger. "Oh, and one more thing. Do you know where Kiba-kun might be?" Ino's eye twitched. "Why...?"

Sakura sweat dropped. "He's your partner.. um, if you don't mind me saying. You shouldn't be so hostile toward him. Last I checked you were in love with him." The pink haired girl smirked. That was it. Ino snapped. "I was NEVER in love with him! I never even liked him! I surely detest Inuzuka Kiba! And you should know! You're the one who told me-"

"Umm, Ino." Sakura smiled with a sweat drop and pointed behind the blonde girl.

She could feel a presence behind her. She heard a familiar voice talk through clenched teeth. "Huh... Is that so? Well thanks for telling me that now, Ino. That I requested you to be the one to go on this mission with me..." Ino turned on her heel, and there he was, the very boy that she'd just admitted to hating. "Yeah, well, Dog Boy, you should've thought harder on who to bring with you." She crossed her arms and made a loud "hmph."

"I'm already regretting it...Let's go." Kiba said plainly and turned to walk toward the village's main gate.

Sakura and Ino walked together, far behind Kiba. "Ino, remember what I said to you in the flower shop the other day..."

"Yeah, that bastard Kiba was spreading rumors that I slept with him." Ino said with disgust. "Well...That was kind of just a misunderstanding...See, Kiba told Naruto that nothing happened, but Naruto didn't believe him, apparently, and told me...that something did happen." Sakura said, hoping Ino wouldn't get angry.

"Is that so..." Ino said thoughtfully. "Well it's too late now. Like hell I'm going to admit to Dog Boy that I was wrong and apologize. Besides. You can tell. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about me. Not that I'm angry, or about what I did..."

"Ino, what did you do?" Sakura questioned. "Nothing. It's not important anymore." She grimaced. It was not going to be fun going on a mission with an angry, irritated, and/or jealous Kiba.

When they reached Konoha's main gate, Sakura waved them goodbye and headed back towards the Hokage mansion, where she came from.

As soon as they left, it was completely silent between them. Until Ino realized something.

"Kiba..."

"What, Ino?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"You never briefed me on our mission." She smiled awkwardly. "Oh, right... Members of the Akatsuki group were said to be spotted in a fishing village in the tea country. No one knows where they were headed, but we're going to that fishing village to see if we can find any trace of them." Kiba stated sternly. "Akatsuki...We're...Does that mean..." Ino began.

"No, we're not going to track them down ourselves." He cut in, "We're just gathering information about where they might be now, and we'll go right back to Konoha to tell Tsunade-sama what we find, if anything..." He added.

"Ah, I see..." Ino nodded and said nothing further, until they stopped to make camp when it got dark.

"I find it absolutely revolting that I'm forced to share a tent with a dog" Ino complained as Kiba attempted to light a fire.

"Aw, come on. Akamaru's not that dirty..." He consoled.

"I wasn't talking about Akamaru." Ino said with disgust, crossing her arms. Kiba's eye twitch in anger. "What the hell is wrong with you, Ino?" he stood up and clenched his fists. "One second you're nice and, hard to believe, a good friend. And the next you're acting like...like this!" He exclaimed angrily, pointing at the blonde. Ino's expression turned from disgust to a moment of shock, then to anger. "And what is 'this', exactly, Kiba?" She asked, attitude beaming from her person. "You're bossy, you're picky, and just...everything I can't think of that describes a terrible person!" He spoke through clenched teeth, eyebrow twitching. "It's no wonder why you could only get one lazy ass guy! Every other guy is completely apalled at your personality!" He tried to give himself an excuse to turn his jealousy into anger.

Ino looked shocked for the second time. She didn't know why his words hurt her so much. But they cut into her like a knife. "I wasn't aware that you thought so low of me" She said, fists closed hard and her eyes stung, tears threatening to let loose. "And for your information, I've had alot of offers to dates. I just turned them all down. And Shikamaru's not my boyfriend." She muttered. "I only pretended to date him to make you jealous." She admitted, a bit ashamed. Kiba's eyes widened in surprise at her words, and her tears.

"I'm waiting for the right guy to come along as my first boyfriend. And I thought maybe that guy could be you." She forced out. "But I guess I was wrong." She whispered bitterly and turned on her heel, running into the trees. Leaving Kiba behind. "Wait, Ino!" He called. But to no avail. She was already too far away to hear him.

Ino continued to run through the dark woods when she tripped and fell next to a river. The tears fell freely then. She didn't pay attention to the scratches she had all over her body from brushing against branches. "Ino!" She heard Kiba call from in the trees nearby. Ino, on her knees, lowered her head so that when he came, he wouldn't see her cry. She gripped onto the grass next to her and tried to stop her own sobbing.

"Ino..." Kiba said softly, as he kneeled down in front of her. She turned her head away sharply and bit her lip, stopping the tears and holding them back. Though it was impossible, of course, to make the tear stains on her cheeks vanish. "Ino...I didn't mean it."

"Yes you did!" She turned her head to face him, glaring hard and cold into his eyes. "I'm a terrible person! I know it! I'll give you an example. I pretended to date Shikamaru to make you jealous. Even though I may not have, I could have hurt you! And I didn't think about it, because I wanted to!" She said aloud as tears began to flow once again. "I wanted to hurt you! Because if I hurt you then I would know that you cared... But half of me knew that you wouldn't." She didn't dare look him in the eye. "And you didn't..." She clenched her fists, which were now resting on her thighs as she sat on her knees. "You didn't care." She whispered and looked down, tears falling on her hands.

"Ino, you're not a bad person. I'm really sorry. I only said that because..." Kiba sighed, "Because I was jealous. And I did care that you were supposedly going out with Nara." He put his hand under her chin and lifted her head up to face him. "And it did hurt, Ino." He smiled softly. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Ino's cold eyes glared and she turned her head away again, refusing to look him in the eye. "It just proves that I really am a terrible person." She muttered, eyes stinging again. "Ino," Kiba put a hand on her cheek and moved her head to face him again. "It hurt because I like you." He smirked.

Ino's face reddened, and now held an expression near to that of shock. Her hypothesis was that if she could blush any harder, her head would most likely explode. "...You do?" She asked quietly. Still not believing what she had just heard.

"Yeah...I do." He said awkwardly and took his hand away. Standing up and offering her a hand to help her up. She took it, still blushing. His eyes narrowed when he noticed all of the scratches on her arms and legs. Shaking his head, he lifted her with ease. "Look at all these scratches. Are you all right? Don't be so careless next time you decide to run off into the woods in the middle of the night." He chuckled and grabbed her hand to lead her back to the camp site. Ino blushed as red as a tomato and nodded timidly. "G-Gomen..." Why was it so hard for her to choke a simple word out? She inwardly scolded herself. She was never once nervous around a guy, let alone Kiba. Not even her first crush, Uchiha Sasuke, made her nervous. Why should this be any different?

So there ya go! I thought I owed it to you guys, since it took so long to get chapter 3 out, to at least post another chapter within 2 days:)

I had no idea that people were actually waiting in anticipation for me to update it...lol. :

My apologies, if it's written kinda hastily, and if it might not make a full amount of sense. You see, it's about 1 in the morning right now... :/

Oh, and btw, I hate the word, "chuckle" lol...

I shall get chapter 5 out at soon as possible:)