Chapter 19 The Planning

Yeah, sorry for the late update. I hope you like it!

"So what exactly is your test, Kiba?"

The brown-haired boy with dark, slit-like eyes and two identical red upside down isosceles triangles on his cheeks grinned wolfishly at the blonde girl that looked at him with a wicked glint in her ocean-blue eyes. Ino had been Sakura's best friend since they were about six, and of course now that the pinkquette had gotten herself a guy, Ino just had to be involved in the testing for her boyfriend. It was mostly a girl thing to do that sort of thing, but guys could really come up with ingenious – not to mention mischievous – ideas for tests. She would be damned if she didn't participate in some way.

"Well, my dear Ino," Kiba drawled lazily as he glanced at his glass of water with pretended indifference, "my plan is to test our dear Itachi-san's control on his emotions."

His statement was met by a shock-still silence that made him look up at his friends in confusion. Why were they all looking at him like that? Choji had actually managed to stop half-way from eating his potato chip; the light golden treat frozen in his hand in front of his chest. Shikamaru, who was seated beside him had actually pulled the sufficient amount of energy to place his elbow on the table and rest his cheek on his hand, giving Kiba an 'are you serious?' look. Ino was openly staring at Kiba as if he was demented. Even shy little Hinata, who was usually so reserved, was looking at Kiba wide-eyes with a hint of unbelief in her expression.

Kiba blinked, not understanding. What was wrong with his plan?

"Kiba, are you serious?" Shikamaru asked him. Kiba turned to face the lazy ninja with an inquiring look.

"Of course I'm serious. Why? What's wrong?" Akamaru, the ever-present companion and partner-in-crime of Kiba, barked as if backing up his master.

Shikamaru and the rest of the group (save for Kiba) shared a look before turning back to the now annoyed dog-nin specialist. "Kiba, man," Choji said after he swallowed the potato chip he had been munching. "It's not that your plan isn't a good plan, it's the person who you decided to use it on that's the problem." He looked into his now empty potato chip bag and shrugged, stuffing it in his pocket to throw away later. He debated to whether to take out another bag or not and decided on the latter, glancing at Shikamaru to finish the explanation since apparently Kiba still didn't understand what they were getting at.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…" he mumbled as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, just spill the beans already, Shikamaru," Ino scolded, taking the words right out of Kiba's mouth. Hinata just sighed quietly as she watched the exchange.

Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow lazily at the blonde before turning his attention back to Kiba. "Itachi is very reserved. He's known for being almost an ideal ninja for showing a lack of emotions not just on official missions, but also in his daily activities. Even when he is furious, deeply sad, or otherwise has a very strong emotion it's hard to tell because he has such a tight restrain on his emotions. Heck, all the Uchihas do, but he's the best of them at it. So you see, it's not that your idea is a bad one, but it's kind of pointless since the whole village and then some already know Itachi's perfectly impassive personality."

Kiba snorted, earning a few surprised looks from his companions. He crossed his arms moodily as he regarded the shadow specialist with a hint of restrained annoyance. "I know that already. Do you think I'm stupid? Don't answer that." He took a swing at his glass of water before setting the glass down on the table and scratching Akamaru behind the ears. "As you all know, our dear and stoic Itachi-san becomes quite open emotionally when it comes to Sakura. So I want to see if he can restrain negative emotions when it comes to her since she is the only one that can make him open up."

"Listen here, Inuzuka," Ino growled menacingly at the boy as she leaned over the table to glare at him. "I don't know what you mean by 'negative emotions when it comes to Sakura,' but I don't like the way you said it. Now, that might have been unintentional, but the way you said it implied that you were going to imply something bad about her. If that is you plan, I warn you," she closed in on him until their noses were inches apart, forcing Kiba, who was effectively frightened, to lean away from the hostile blonde, "I will personally skin you alive."

"I a-agree with Ino-chan," Hinata added in before Kiba could defend himself. Hinata was calm, even a little worried for his sake, but the determination in her eyes had the same strength as Ino's fury. "If you do anything to make Sakura-chan look bad, you…you'll have to answer to me t-too."

"No!" Kiba exclaimed, understanding and panic flooding in. "No! Good grief, girls, what do you think I am? She's my friend too! I would never do that to Sakura! Hell, if anyone dared to even think about doing that to her and I got a whiff of it, they'd be answering to me!" Akamaru barked twice, loudly. "And Akamaru too, of course."

"Then explain properly!" Ino growled again, but his time in an exasperated voice as she sat back down on her chair and leaned back, slowly getting rid of her anger as she rubbed her cheeks.

"I would if you'd be quiet for a minute." Ino glared at him but said nothing. Kiba looked around his little group, waiting to see if anyone else had something to say. No-one did, so with a satisfied grunt he looked at Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, for once I agree with you – women are troublesome." The lazy genius nodded in acknowledgement to what he decided to take for a compliment. "Anyway, what I meant was that since Itachi-san is much more likely to be open to and lower his guard to emotions when he's with Sakura, he might slip and let a negative emotion overtake him. Are we good so far?" Although he asked the group in general, he was looking directly at Ino, who blushed and nodded.

"I get it already…" she mumbled. Kiba looked at her for a moment longer before looking at the others, who nodded as well, encouraging him to keep going. After a brief hesitation in which he took a deep relieved breath, Kiba did. "We all know the danger of letting an emotion take over our reason, and I honestly don't want to imagine what the consequences would be for Itachi who was thought to barely have any emotions himself. So my plan is to see if he can restrain negative emotions so as to not only not frighten Sakura, but to not do anything that might put her in an awkward or otherwise bad position. There; is that better now?"

His explanation was met with silence yet again, but this time with approval.

"Nice work, Kiba," congratulated Choji, smiling cheerfully at him.

"T-that's great, Kiba-kun," Hinata smiled warmly at her teammate who blushed, pleased.

"You're not so dumb after all…" Shikamaru said, but the impressed look he was giving Kiba made the offensive words into a compliment.

"I concur," said Ino.

Needless to say, Kiba puffed out his chest in pride and gained an inch of height in those few seconds.

"So, now do tell me, Kiba Inuzuka," the blonde said, her voice low and teasing. "How do we play part in this little test of yours?"

Kiba grinned, his slightly larger-than-normal canines revealing themselves. His grin was playful but with a whole lot of mischievousness in it. The others, not missing this obvious fact, couldn't help but grin back. This was going to be good.

Kiba crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table, using his arms to support him. He took in the eager looks of his friends and dropped his voice and octave. "This is what we'll do…"