A/N: I'm back with chapter 4! Thank you to all who reviewed, followed, and favorited!
MyHikari - Thanks! I'm still working on the length of the chapters.
LawLeeEt - Thank you! Details are important to any good story, and I intend to start using more of them.
Stallion6 of Deviantart - Thanks! I felt that Neji needed some recognition. Yes, Naruto's fearless mentality would be helpful to Kiba in this situation.
videogamenerd101 - Thank you for reviewing my chapters. They're encouraging, and they've shown me what aspects of my writing need some improvement.
Hana brought Ino, Kiba, and Akamaru inside with a growing sense of apprehension starting to gnaw at her. Between Kiba's recent worrisome behavior and what just happened out on the porch, something was going on.
"You can sit on the couch if you want," Hana told Ino before yelling up the stairs, "Mom! We have company!"
"Just a minute!" Tsume yelled back.
Ino looked over and saw that Kiba had already made himself comfortable on the couch, so she sat down next to him and observed her surroundings.
The house wasn't fancy, but Inuzukas weren't exactly the extravagant type. There was a staircase in front of the door, a living room to the right, a dining room next to the living room, and a kitchen across from the dining room. She assumed that the bedrooms and bathroom were on the second floor.
The house itself was within the Inuzuka compound, where the homes of all the Inuzuka clan members were built in a close proximity to each other. This wasn't surprising, as the Inuzuka clan took after canines, who live in packs.
Tsume came down the stairs and joined Hana, who had been waiting for her. Together, they went and stood in front of the couch.
"Hello, Ino," Tsume said pleasantly. Kiba was confused by this, since she wasn't normally so amiable.
"Hello, Ms. Inuzuka."
"Oh, please, call me Tsume."
Kiba was still baffled by his mother's friendly attitude. She was usually a hardass, sometimes even frightening. She was strict, to say the least. Maybe she was only like that with him.
"It seems like they've got something to tell us," Hana informed her mother.
"Really? What's up, guys?"
Ino gave Kiba a reassuring look that said, "Go on, tell them!"
"Well...you see, the thing is..." he started, hesitating.
"Spit it out," Tsume urged.
He couldn't tell them. Not yet.
"We're dating!" Kiba blurted out, wrapping an arm around Ino's waist and pulling her closer to him. She let out a small gasp, and her body tensed. Her eyes were full of shock and anger as she looked at him, wanting an explanation for his false proclamation.
"That's it? We already knew that, even though you tried to deny it at breakfast this morning," Tsume said, hardly surprised.
"For a moment, I was worried that something was wrong!" Hana said with relief.
"See? I told you they'd be okay with it," Kiba said to Ino.
Ino smiled, playing along. Kiba was definitely going to hear about this later. "Okay, you were right. I must've made it pretty obvious when I told Hana that we were going on a date if they already knew about us."
"That, and the fact that Kiba was at your house all day, not to mention his odd behavior lately," Tsume added.
"Wait, Kiba said that you guys didn't go on a date," Hana said, confused.
"Well, not exactly. Let me start from the beginning. Recently, I'd been acting strange, because I'd fallen completely head over heels for Ino. I didn't know if she liked me back, and that was driving me nuts, so I decided to go to her house last night to talk to her. It was raining, but I didn't care. When I got there, I told her how I felt, and she said she felt the same. We kissed in the rain, as cliché as that is. She told me to come back in the morning so we could talk about it, since it was late and raining. Then we were going to go out to Ichiraku's, but I got there before her because she needed to drop some finished paperwork off at the hospital. She was so nervous that she forgot where we were supposed to go, so she finally asked Hana as a last resort. She eventually got to Ichiraku's and told me all about it, but she was freaked out because she realized that she'd just told my family about us and she didn't know how you guys would react. So, we got some ramen to go and went back to her house to talk about telling you guys. And now we're here," he said, feeling quite proud of the story he'd crafted.
The three women all stared at him in disbelief.
"What?" he asked, looking back at them.
"I don't think I've ever heard you say that much at once," Tsume said.
"I think it's kind of sweet, and it explains your weird antics this last week," Hana deduced.
"I thought you were just being a finicky teenage boy, but it turns out that you've actually got a case of puppy love," Tsume teased Kiba.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up," he said, slightly blushing from embarrassment.
"Ino, we're having dinner in a few hours. You're welcome to join us."
"Thank you, Tsume. I'd love to. I need to start heading home now, though."
"No problem. I'll have him go get you when dinner's almost ready."
"Alright," she replied, getting ready to leave.
"Kiba!" Tsume barked.
"What?"
"Walk your girlfriend home."
"I was just about to do that," he muttered as he stood up to escort her home.
"I'll see you at dinner!" Ino called over her shoulder to Tsume and Hana before leaving with him.
The two left the Inuzuka estate in silence, not daring to speak until they were outside of it.
"Alright. Spill it," he said, feeling an oncoming argument.
"What the hell, Kiba?! You said you would tell your family, but you didn't. You lied to them instead. Why? What could have possibly made you think that this was a good idea?" she whisper-yelled, keeping her voice down so they wouldn't attract the attention of others.
"Hey, you practically forced me into a situation that I wasn't ready for! I've told you before that I wasn't ready. Technically, you started it when you said we were going out to lunch!"
"I'm sorry for worrying about you! I'm sorry I looked for you so that you wouldn't do something reckless! You weren't ready to tell them, and I wasn't going to be the one who did. Thats why I thought it would be best for you to tell them before something like this happened again. Besides, a lunch doesn't always equate to a date."
He was hit with a sudden pang of guilt. "You're right. Sorry. I know I've probably put you in a difficult situation. I just...I panicked. I couldn't bring myself to tell them the truth. It's really hard to make sense of everything right now."
Her face softened. "It's okay. I shouldn't have tried to make you tell them, but I thought you were going to do something that you and the people who care about you would regret."
"It's alright. This is stressing the both of us out. On the bright side, you played your part pretty well."
"It was nothing compared to what you did. Where'd you pull that whole explanation from?"
"It wasn't that hard. I needed to tell them something that they'd believe and that would explain my symptoms. I mostly just took what actually happened and twisted it a bit to make it work with what I'd told them."
"That's...pretty smart, actually."
"Heh, thanks."
The last few minutes of their walk was quiet. Ino became wrapped up in her thoughts, while Kiba took in his surroundings. When he saw her house, he stopped.
"Why'd we stop?"
He pointed at her house. "We're here."
"Oh. Well, I'll see you at dinner, then," Ino said, starting to go inside.
"Later."
He turned around and headed back to his own house.
Ino walked into her living room. Her mother was there, having just gotten home from the flower shop.
"Hey, mom. How was work today?"
"Fine, dear. There was a young man from the Inuzuka clan who came in today and bought a bouquet. Coincidentally, it's identical to the one on the dining room table."
"Yeah. He came by and gave it to me. I was just out with him."
"Are you in a relationship with him? I've never seen the two of you together before."
"Yeah. It's pretty recent. We have some stuff to work out because it's still in that stage where things are a little confusing," Ino said, sitting down beside her mother. It was best if they pretended to be together for everyone, rather than just Kiba's family.
"You kids tend to make things more complicated than they need to be."
"You don't know the half, mom."
A few hours had passed, and dinner at the Inuzuka household was almost ready. They were having steak with rice. Kiba had gone out to get Ino. He knocked on her door, and an older woman with dark brown hair and light brown eyes opened it.
"Is Ino here?"
"Yes. She's been expecting you. Come inside while I get her."
He stepped inside and watched as the woman went down a hall and opened a door.
"He's here."
"Okay."
Ino and the woman came back down the hall.
"Mom, this is Kiba. Kiba, this is mom," she said, introducing them.
"Hi," he said, holding out his hand.
"Hello," her mother replied, shaking his hand.
"You look familiar. Didn't I see you at the flower shop this morning?" he asked, tilting his head.
"You did."
"Mom, I'm going over to his house for dinner. I'll be home soon."
"Okay, dear."
They left Ino's house and set out once again for Kiba's house.
"Jeez, I feel like I've been going back and forth all day," he said, mildly irritated.
"Yeah," she agreed.
"You know, you don't really look like your mom."
"I know. It's because I take after my dad."
"Does your mom think we're together, too?"
"Yeah. She recognized the flowers you bought this morning when she saw them on the table, so I told her what you told your family. It's better for everyone to think we're dating, instead of just the Inuzukas."
"Makes sense."
There was nothing left to talk about, so they wordlessly reached the Inuzuka compound once more. Upon entering the house, they were hit with the tantalizing aroma of steak.
"Just in time, guys! Food's ready!" Tsume said as they walked into the dining room. "Have a seat!"
There were four places set at the table, with a plate of steak, a small bowl of rice, a glass of water, and utensils at each place. Ino sat next to Kiba.
"I hope you like steak," Tsume said to Ino, sitting down across from her and next to Hana.
"Oh, I do," she said, cutting off a piece of it.
"Inuzukas like meat. And anything that's chewy."
"That's true," Kiba confirmed.
Hana laughed, and her knife scratched against her plate. Kiba jumped and looked around with wide eyes. Ino grabbed his hand, concerned. His mother and sister stared at him.
"What was that all about?" Tsume questioned.
"You're so nervous! Relax. He seemed pretty jumpy on the way here, so you must've startled him," Ino explained. She let go of his hand as he calmed down.
"You guys are cute! Who knew Kiba was a romantic?" Hana teased them.
"Yeah...who would've guessed?" Kiba said, recomposing himself.
They all went back to eating.
A/N: I had a snow day today, so I decided to post another chapter. I did my best to make it long and detailed. I think it's pretty good. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Please leave a review!