A/N: Here's chapter 9! Thank you to all who reviewed, followed, and favorited!

Stallion6 of Deviantart - Tsume actually is an odd character. She's literally described as having an odd sense of humor, and I enjoy showing that side of her when I can. I had fun writing that bit about Shino, to be honest. He just doesn't get it, does he? Shino wearing orange, just...no. XD Thank you!

amiser2 - It seems like such an obvious, yet perfect, joke! Thank you!

MyHikari - Thanks! Yeah, you were right. Shino was the perfect touch! Kiba and Ino were cute, yes.

Quirkista - No problem! Many thanks!

koolkidSwaggy - It was nice to write about everyone finding out and Kiba seeing all his friends again. Thank you!

DarkMoon2017 - Thanks! That's fine, you can read it whenever you have time. They are starting to warm up to each other, yes.

OreoLover13 - The update is here! Thank you!

Guest - My apologies on the wait, but here it is! Thank you dearly.

Kiba turned to head home, but stopped. Instead, he looked back at Ino's house and strode up to it, knocking on her door. Ino, who was slumped against the other side of it, answered.

"Kiba? Why did you come back?" she asked, slightly confused. She considered all of the possible reasons he had for returning, even romantic ones. She quickly brushed off the way her heart seemed to beat faster at the thought of him showing a romantic interest in her. It was both unlikely of him and unprofessional of her.

"I was just going to ask if you could unblock my memories of the barrier. I'll probably regret it when I have a hell of a time trying to sleep, but at least we'll have some material for our next session, whenever that is."

"Oh. Yeah, sure," Ino said, feeling slightly disappointed. She unblocked his memories regardless, watching as he blinked a few times when they all came rushing back to him.

"Will you be okay?"

"Yeah, I should be fine. I think," Kiba said, turning to go home and waving over his shoulder. "See you around."

"Bye," she said quietly. She closed the door and leaned back against, sinking to the floor with a sigh.

"Did you have a good time?" Ino's mother asked. She'd been reading in her room, but went out into the living area when she heard Ino come in.

"Yeah. It was really fun," she said.

"Why are you on the floor?"

"I guess I'm just kind of sad to see it end. It's not often that all of us can get together and have fun like that, especially these days."

"I see," Ino's mother said, nodding understandingly. She offered a hand to her daughter and helped her up. "Why don't you go get ready for bed, dear? You look kind of tired."

"Alright. Goodnight, mom," Ino said, heading to her room for the night with a yawn. She was a little tired.

Meanwhile, Kiba entered his home to be greeted by an enthusiastic and very large white dog.

"Hey, boy! I know, I was gone for so long without you!" Kiba said, scratching him behind the ears. Akamaru licked his face. "I missed you, too! Yes, I did! Yes, I did!" He practically cooed to the canine, who barked in response. "I know you wanted to go, but I couldn't bring you because that lazyass Nara would've been a piss pot if I did."

"You do know that you just called Shikamaru a toilet, right?" Hana asked from the couch, her own three dogs flopped about on the floor around her feet.

"Did I? Whatever," Kiba said nonchalantly with a shrug before heading up to his room, Akamaru following close behind.

Once he reached the top of the stairs and entered his room, he stared at his bed hesitantly, knowing that falling asleep would be difficult. Eventually, he climbed into bed, Akamaru following suit and curling up beside him. He reluctantly closed his eyes, knowing what he would see instead of blackness. Just as he expected, he was faced with unpleasant pictures of the war behind his eyelids. Snapping his eyes open, he stared up at the ceiling.

"Tonight is going to be a long night..." he said to himself with a quiet sigh, resigning himself to the sleepless nights to come.

A few days later, Kiba made his way to the hospital, hoping he would find Ino at work there. There were bags under his eyes and he kept his head down as he walked; the past few nights had been bad. Akamaru walked by his side, ever the loyal companion.

Kiba pushed the glass doors of the hospital open and stepped inside, met with a rush of cool air that made him shudder. Having been there before because of injuries from past missions, he knew the basic layout of the place. Knowing where the offices would be, he headed in that direction, and the receptionist called after him.

"Sir, wait! You can't go back there!"

"He's a therapy dog," he replied gruffly and gestured to Akamaru. Not waiting for a response, he continued on his way, set on finding Ino as soon as possible. He needed to see her, he was exhausted and frustrated. It wasn't a good combination for him. He was almost to the offices when he bumped into someone.

"Sorry," he muttered halfheartedly, still not looking up.

"Kiba?" he heard a familiar voice say, stopping him in his tracks before he could get away.

"Sakura?" he asked, looking up to face her.

"What are you doing here? Oh, wait! Are you here for an appointment?" she asked, taking in his poor appearance.

"No, no. I'm here to see Ino."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we have...dinner plans," he said, thinking up an excuse.

"Oh, that's nice! But...how did you get back here?" she asked, squinting at him.

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I've gotta go, but it was nice seeing you," he said quickly, trying to get away from her before she caught him. He'd seen her hit Naruto before, and that wasn't a fate he wanted to meet with. He preferred his bones unbroken.

"Ah, okay..." she said, slightly confused.

Kiba jogged down the hallway, glancing into offices as he went. He spotted one with Ino's name next to it and ducked inside. She wasn't in there, so he decided to wait at her desk until she came back.

Boredom took over after just a few minutes, and he started poking around at the papers on her desk.

"I wonder if she has notes on me in here somewhere..." he thought aloud. He lifted up a manila folder and knocked over a little bowl of mints that had been sitting on the corner of her desk.

"Ah! Damn it," he said, getting up to collect them from the floor. He heard Akamaru hop up into the desk chair behind him and sit in it. Too distracted by the mints all over the place, he let the dog be.

"Kiba? What are you doing?" Ino asked, stepping into her office and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Um...candy?" He looked up and offered her a floor mint.

"I'll pass, thanks."

"Sorry, I just came to see you and accidentally knocked over that bowl when I was..." he paused, not wanting to admit that he'd been snooping.

"When you were what?"

"When I was waiting for you." It wasn't technically a lie, because he was waiting for her. He just didn't happen to say what he was doing during that time.

"Alright." Ino made her way past him and and sat on the edge of her desk, looking over her shoulder at the large canine sitting pretty in her chair. "Aka, down," she said with a snap of her fingers, and the dog hopped down with a disgruntled whine. "Anyway, you look like hell."

"I know, that's why I came to see you."

"The dreams are back, then?"

"Yep. They're worse, too," Kiba said, sighing. At that moment, Sakura walked past the office.

"Have fun at dinner, guys!" she said in passing.

"Dinner? What dinner?" Ino asked.

"That's what I told her when she caught me trying to get to your office."

"Oh, okay. Wait, how did you get back here?"

"That's not important. What is important is that I'm actually pretty hungry, so I think it would be wise to keep up public appearances," Kiba hinted.

"Well, you caught me at a good time. My shift just ended."

"Awesome! Let's get outta here."

After some protests on Ino's part and 'I think they have salad' on Kiba's part, they ended up at the barbecue restaurant not far from where the Akimichi clan lived.

"It's really crowded in here..." Ino said upon entering the establishment.

"Wait here, I'll get us takeout." Several minutes later, Kiba returned with a couple of plastic bags in hand and walked past her. She shot him a questioning look, to which he only gestured that she follow him in response. Curious, she did so.

"The training field?" she asked.

"Yeah, I like coming here around this time of day," he said with a shrug, setting their food down and taking a seat on the ground. Akamaru ran off to frolick.

"Why's that?"

"You'll see soon enough."

"Alright." Sitting down beside him, Ino reached out to take her boxed salad. Instead, she only touched Kiba's hand, which was already holding the salad so he could pass it to her.

Her eyes darted between their hands and his eyes before awkwardly meeting his gaze for a few seconds. Then, they both withdrew their hands at the same time, resulting in said salad being dropped. Of course, they both reached for it again.

"S-sorry," Ino stuttered, immediately removing her hand so as to avoid a repeat of the awkwardness that had just gone down. She looked away and put a hand to her cheek, feeling the heat of a slight blush beneath her skin.

What was wrong with them?

"Ah, it's okay..." he replied, handing her the food. Trying to act casual and failing. "That was a fun party a few nights back."

"It really was," Ino said, a small smile on her face. Kiba thought of when she had placed a kiss to his cheek at the end of that night and opened his mouth to say something about it.

"But you know we're not here to talk about the party. You know why we're really here, why you came to me today. Let's talk about the nightmares," she said, cutting him off before anything about it could be mentioned.

"Alright. You're right. The dreams are back. I haven't been sleeping again lately. I don't know if it's because they'd been blocked for a while or because of what you told me about the barrier. It could be both, I don't really know. I just know that they're worse. To be honest, it wasn't exactly easy to be in the restaurant earlier, either. Even if it was just for that short amount of time. There were so many people, so much noise. I'm glad we didn't stay," he rambled, drawing in a breath at the end.

"Okay. Tell me about them," she said, nodding her head as she mulled over the information. So Kiba did, not entirely easily, but he did. At the end of it, he stretched out on the grass and stared off into the distance.

"Did you hear me?" Ino asked him suddenly, moving into his line of sight.

"Huh? Did you say something?" he asked.

"I said...never mind. What are you staring at?"

"That." Kiba pointed at something past her shoulder, and she turned her head to see the sun setting beautifully on the horizon.

"Oh." She slowly sat back on the grass, awed by the lovely view. "It's so pretty. That's why you like coming here, isn't it?"

"Mmhm," he mumbled quietly. Ino looked down at him to find him with his eyes closed, half asleep. Seemingly lulled by the setting around him. He always did love nature. "I don't wanna be alone right now..." Another sleepy mumble.

She scooted closer and pulled his head into her lap. "You're not alone. I'm right here," she whispered, running her fingers through his unruly hair a few times as he drifted off to sleep. Akamaru came over and settled down beside them, thumping his tail contentedly.

"I'll be right here."

A/N: *shows up fifteen minutes late with Starbucks* I'm sorry for such a long wait, guys. I'm alive, I promise. I wanted to wait until the end of Naruto to see what happened, and then I kind of lost my mojo for a while. I'm sure most of you have seen the ending by now. While it's discouraging that Ino ended up with Sai and had a child with him, I don't really care. If you're reading this story, then it's likely that you don't care, either. The chances of KibaIno happening were quite slim, to be honest. That's never stopped me before, and it certainly isn't going to stop me now! KibaIno is my OTP! I'd just like to pretend that 698 was the last chapter and it was left open-ended. I'm not mad, Kishi. I'm just disappointed.

Just kidding. I'm pissed.