This stranger had been blond like all the others. The perpetual cycle of sleeping with hot blondes was becoming ridiculously habitual. It was a painful event that just kept leading him right back to thoughts of her. But if this was the only way he could feel close to her again, so be it. He slept soundly, dreaming of feeling the brush of her hair against his cheek and hearing the sweet hum of her voice in his ear. He relived the moment again in his head.

The birds were chirping above their heads and the sun pierced through the sky with beams of light, not a cloud in the sky to interfere with its rays. Kiba had a cocky grin plastered on his face. He was taking a stroll with the most beautiful kunoichi in the village, after all. He turned to her, the sun reflecting off of her platinum blond hair, her smile mimicking its brightness. He reached out to take her hand in his. Her smile faltered as she gently pulled her hand away.

"Is something wrong?" Kiba tried to shrug off the disappointment and leave it somewhere on the path behind them.

"Just…" she bit her lower lip, her eye brows furrowed. "This isn't anything serious, Kiba. I don't want to give you the wrong idea."

He kept that smile glued to his face despite the sinking feeling in his chest. At least she was being honest. He could respect that, but he didn't have to like it. He looked ahead and nodded lightly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Does that mean we can be fuck buddies?"

Instantly, her feet planted themselves firmly on the ground and she gritted her teeth. Kiba turned to face her, an aloof look on his face. "What did you just say?"

"If you don't want anything serious, we can stop playing boyfriend and girlfriend and skip right to the good stuff, right?"

She looked as though she were ready to charge. "Screw you, Inuzuka. You're a pig."

He shrugged. "Last I checked, 'Ino' meant 'pig'-not 'Inuzuka'."

Next thing he knew, he was flat on his ass, sitting in the dirt, a red palm mark on his cheek. She stormed off, her feet kicking up dust as she went. He hated letting her go. He didn't want her to leave. But he figured he'd rather her leave angry than stay and walk with him when she didn't mean it. Why had she flirted with him and asked him to accompany her around the village if she didn't even plan on dating him?

His heart ached, watching her leave like that. The pain only worsened when he noticed her flirting with other shinobi around the village as time progressed. Maybe Shikamaru had been right all along. Maybe women were just…just…

"Troublesome," the word escaped his lips lazily as his eyes fluttered open.

"What was that?" Kiba sat up and took in his surroundings. He was in some girl's bedroom that was covered in pink and frills. It was so pink he had to blink a few times to focus enough to see the naked girl standing at the foot of the bed, searching in her dresser for some clothes. He felt his crotch stir at the sight.

"Oh, nothing."

The girl gave him a quizzical look before smiling sweetly at him and nodding towards his pile of clothes on the floor beside the bed. "Your clothes are over there."

Thank Kami she hadn't offered breakfast or some other clingy shit. Kiba rolled out of the bed, pulling the Pepto-Bismol colored comforter down with him, and landed in a heap on the floor. Maybe I do have a bit of a hangover.

"Asami!" A woman's voice called from behind her door. "Are you alright in there?"

"Yes, mother!" The girl called back. Kiba froze in the middle of standing up.

"You still live with your parents?" he hissed.

"Don't worry about it, they're cool," she whispered back.

He raised an eye brow and pushed his hand through the tangled, brown mop on his head. "You sure?"

"Of course. The only one you have to worry about is my da-"

"What the hell is going on in here?" Some guy stormed into the room and glanced from Kiba to Asami, who screamed and ripped the comforter out of Kiba's hands to cover herself, leaving Kiba completely exposed to the sudden intrusion. He never thought he could go soft so quickly.

Asami's father was enormous and, right now, resembled a big angry bear. Behind him stood Asami's mother, a spitting image of her daughter, but with a few more wrinkles. Her mother looked around her father and stared Kiba up and down.

"Good job, dear," her mother whistled.

Ignoring his wife, the furious man towering above them roared.

Kiba leapt onto his pile of clothes, throwing on his boxers as quickly as possible and curling the rest into a ball and clutching it to his chest. He turned towards the girl and shook her hand vigorously. "Nice knowin' ya'. Don't call me."

The guy let out another monstrous roar and lunged at Kiba. Kiba easily grabbed the arm of his attacker and twisted it behind his back, making a sickening cracking sound. The man cried out in pain and Kiba released him, watching him drop to the floor in agony. Winking at the bewildered mother, Kiba mouthed "call me" before sprinting through the house and out the front door, throwing on clothes as he went.

Somewhere down the road, Akamaru sat waiting, as loyal as ever. Kiba reached out a hand to pet his old friend. The dog sniffed him and turned his head away. Kiba gave him a sad smile. "You can smell the shame too, huh?"

Akamaru whimpered.

"Yeah, well that's what meaningless sex does to a man. What do ya' say we head home and take a bath?"

Hopping onto the dog's back, Kiba headed home in a rush, wanting to get this dirty feeling off of him as soon as possible. Upon reaching his house, Kiba couldn't help but be appreciative that he didn't live with Tsume and Hana anymore. They would've smelled him coming from a mile away and known what he had been up to last night. He couldn't shake the feeling that they would be disappointed in him. Hell, he was disappointed with himself.

Walking through his empty home and into the bathroom, Kiba let the shower run until hot water flowed from the shower head. He stepped in and began to wash his body. As he washed, he was painfully aware of the empty space around him. His heart sank as he ran shampoo through his intractable hair. I miss her.

He heaved a sigh. Blond hair, blue eyes, as beautiful as a flower in bloom…. He shut the water off and stood there for a moment, staring blankly at the wall. He never deserved her anyways.

"Kiba! Hey, come on in!" Choji ushered Kiba into the apartment, which by now was overflowing with people. Some were the familiar faces of their old friends from the academy days, some looked to be fresh, new faces that Kiba had never seen before.

"Don't mind if I do."

Kiba strode through the sea of people and into the dining room, grabbing a bottle of beer from the fridge. A couple girls stood by the counter, whispering and giggling to each other as they looked his way. He took a swig from the bottle before giving them his signature cocky grin accompanied by a seductive wink. They squealed and whispered furiously.

Personal goal: take them both home tonight.

Pretending to ignore their squeals of excitement, he turned away and shoved through more people, trying to find the living room, wherever the hell that was. It was only until he ran into a sofa that he realized this was the living room.

"Geez…"

"Kiba!" Kiba whipped his head around until he caught the blue eyes of an old friend, waving excitedly at him.

"Naruto!" he chuckled. He made his way to his friend and clapped him lightly on the back. "How ya' been?"

Naruto grinned. "Great! How about yourself?"

Oh, you know, just whoring around, acting like I don't care about things that haunt me in my dreams. The usual. "Great. Been scoring a lot of babes lately."

Naruto winked at him mischievously. "Same here."

Kiba snorted. Naruto? With babes? Ha! "Oh, really?"

The blond nodded and jerked a thumb in the direction of a pretty girl with short, pink hair. "I actually asked Sakura to come here with me. And she didn't say no!"

"So, it's a date?"

"Well…" Naruto frowned slightly. "Not exactly…but I'm hoping by the end of tonight it will be!"

Kiba smiled and shook his head. He'd been there before. Why couldn't girls just be straight forward? Just a yes or no, or black and white. Why must there always be maybes and greys? Still, he couldn't help but feel a little pride for his friend. While Kiba was busy sleeping around and boozing it up to run away from the girl of his dreams, Naruto was out chasing the girl of his. And, by the way Sakura kept glancing over at them, he guessed Naruto was succeeding.

"I wish you luck then. Knowing Sakura, it won't be easy."

The orange shinobi beamed. "You know I never pass up a challenge."

Kiba watched Naruto's retreating figure until he reached Sakura. The two began speaking and the conversation almost immediately escalated into an argument fit for a married couple. The longing in Kiba's chest gnawed at his heart. He looked away quickly. Hurrying over to the sofa, Kiba sat on one of the chair's arms and chugged the rest of his beer, casting the bottle aside.

Couples were scattered throughout the crowd, dancing against each other, sharing drinks, and chatting it up. Kiba felt like a loser seated on the couch with a bunch of other rejects: some guy with braces, a scrawny weakling with acne, and a pudgy guy who was breathing heavily, as if sitting on the couch was the most exercise he had gotten in a long time.

Somewhere between the time Fatty was picking his nose and Acne was telling Brace Face about some new dandruff shampoo, Kiba noticed a flicker of long, blond hair in the crowd.

It can't be… He craned his neck to see above the heads bobbing around him, but couldn't make out anything that would prove he had seen her. Perhaps it had been someone else? There were a hundred other blond girls in the world, after all.

He shot up and off of the couch when he heard Naruto call out: "Shikamaru!"

Shit! He growled, a low rumble in his throat. He knew she had married Shikamaru, but had since become a housewife for no apparent reason. This meant that she had hardly left the house, so the chances of her being here were slim to none, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. A path soon appeared in the crowd, and Kiba made out the spiky ponytail that belonged to none other than Shikamaru Nara. He was smoking a cigarette and had the same bored expression that he'd been carrying around for the past 17 years. He calmly walked up to Naruto and grumbled something under his breath causing Naruto to laugh.

But, is she here?

Suddenly, Kiba's breathing stopped. His heart leapt into his throat and pounded frantically. He felt his mind melt into a pile of mashed potatoes as all thought seemed to disappear. His stomach wilted and folded in on itself as though someone had just delivered a right hook to his gut. The only thing that mattered in the world-in that moment-was the blond standing right behind Shikamaru, smiling and talking to Sakura.

"Ino," Kiba's gruff voice came out breathlessly.

"Hey, buddy, are you alright?" Brace Face squeaked at him.

Kiba shook his head, his eyes locked on the curvaceous blond. "No. I don't think so."