A/N: Thanks for reviewing IamTehKatz, Otaku Nayami, and ShYgIrL.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The next day, Kiba was awakened by a knock on his door. "Mom?" he called, sleepily. He then realized that it was five o'clock in the morning. "Why are you waking me up so early?!" He was really irritated, not to mention tired.

"It's not your mother. It's Shino," replied Shino. "Kurenai-sensei wants you, me, and Hinata to meet her at the training grounds. Hinata is waiting outside."

"Oh," Kiba hastily got out of his bed. He got ready and was soon walking out of the door with Akamaru and Shino. "Hey Hinata." Smiling, Kiba ran up to his friend.

"Hi Kiba," Hinata managed to mutter without stuttering.

Shino walked past the two shinobi, "Come on. We have to get to the training grounds." Kiba and Hinata followed him with Akamaru right behind them.


Once they reached the training grounds, Shino, Hinata, and Kiba realized that Kurenai wasn't there. "It's not like her to be late," stated Shino, seeming a bit confused. Akamaru started sniffing the air. Then, he barked a few times. Nodding, Kiba smelled the air too.

"Kurenai-sensei hasn't been here yet," Kiba told his friends.

"M-maybe she just lost track of time o-or something," suggested Hinata. As Kiba sat down, he shrugged and started stroking Akamaru. Hinata plopped down next to Kiba, and started petting Akamaru too. Shino rolled his eyes. Instead of "being immature" and playing with a dog, he squatted and tried to get a ladybug on a piece of grass to crawl onto his finger.

"I see that you all kept yourselves busy until I got here," Kurenai startled the three shinobi. The three teens nodded. "Sorry that I'm late. Naru… I mean… someone asked me some questions." Kurenai gave Hinata a sympathetic look.

"So why'd you want us to come here?" questioned Kiba. In addition to being curious, he was trying to get Hinata's mind off of Naruto.

"You've been assigned a mission," Kurenai answered. "See, two academy students have gone missing. It shouldn't be too hard to find them, but they've left the village."

"A-are you coming with us?" questioned Hinata.

Kurenai shook her head, "No. Lady Tsunade has all of the details, so you all have to go see her." The three teenagers nodded.

"Bye Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba yelled, running off to get the mission details. Hinata and Shino waved to Kurenai, then, took off after Kiba.


"Here's a picture of the two academy students," Tsunade finished her explanation of what the three shinobi were to do. Kiba reached out for the photos, but Tsunade handed them to Hinata. One of them was a short, happy-looking, brown-eyed girl with beautiful, long brown hair. The other one was a boy with dark brown hair and identical eyes to the girl. He was also short and happy-looking. Tsunade had told them that the kids were twins. Kiba rolled his eyes. Then, as he looked at the pictures, he smirked. The kids couldn't be too hard to find. "Okay. Try to get this mission done as fast as possible. We don't want these kids wandering too far off."

"W-we will," assured Hinata as Kiba and Shino nodded. Tsunade waved for them to leave, and the three shinobi were gone instantly.

"Tsunade said that they were spotted north of here," Kiba stated.

Shino looked at the sun, "So, we should go this way." He started running in the opposite direction that Kiba and Hinata were walking.

"Well, I guess that we'd better get going," Kiba smiled. Nodding, Hinata grinned back at him. Then, they took off after Shino who was about five meters ahead of them. Although Kiba could have caught up with ease, he ran at Hinata's pace just to be with her. As Hinata noticed that Kiba was running with her, she blushed. Since she wasn't paying much attention to where she was going, Hinata stumbled but quickly regained her balance. "You okay?" muttered Kiba. Blushing an even deeper red, Hinata nodded. Soon they were out of Konoha and were jumping through trees. After a while, Shino stopped abruptly. His two comrades halted right behind him. "What is it, Shino?"

"They look like the academy students in the photographs," Shino answered. "Can I see the pictures, just to make sure that it's them?" Hinata handed him the photos. Shino nodded. Kiba and Hinata glanced from the pictures to the kids.

"I-I'm pretty sure that it's them," agreed Hinata. Kiba nodded, showing that he thought so too.

"So… should we just knock them out and bring them back to the Leaf Village?" questioned Kiba. "They shouldn't be too hard to knock out, and we can't really hurt them."

Shino nodded, "I'll do it." He popped up behind the unsuspecting twins and easily knocked both of them out. "Now we can get back to Konoha."

"Wow, this mission is easy," Kiba yawned as he picked up the girl. Shino picked up the dark haired boy. "Now we just have to get back to Konoha and we're done."

"Not quite!" yelled a high-pitched voice. The kids that Kiba and Shino were carrying turned into logs. The person who had screamed was the dark-haired boy who they were trying to bring back to the Hidden Leaf Village. His sister was standing right behind him.

"Come on, kids. We have to get back to Konoha," Kiba sighed.

"No. We don't want to go back!" the girl shook her head.

"Wh-why not?" asked Hinata. Maybe she could convince them to come back if she solved whatever problem it was that made them want to run away.

"Because of our daddy," the girl replied.

"Kaede…" the boy seemed worried, like he didn't want his twin to tell anyone why they ran away. He sighed. "I don't know if we should tell them…"

"It's fine, Kisho. I'm sure that they can help us," Kaede assured her brother, looking at the shinobis' headbands. Kisho nodded, showing that he agreed that it was a good idea. Kaede's hopeful eyes stared up at Hinata's. Trying to reassure the child, Hinata smiled.

A/N: Please review!! I hope that you liked the chapter even though the mission is sort of weird… And Shino is kind of OC…