FearTear88: thank you for the reviews again! I could get used to reading all these hehe. There's so much space to work with Naruto characters because they have big outlines and characteristics and yet so many of them have next to no screen time whatsoever :c

Puberty

Puberty hit all of them hard.

Kiba's voice cracked thirty different ways on each vowel. Ino had whiteheads.

Ino became shrill and angry. Kiba got tired.

Neither Hinata's gentle encouragement nor Shino's stoic abstractions managed to get more than half-hearted, temporary responses out of him. Not even Kurenai could manage to motivate him to put in more of an effort.

"We all have our slumps," she said soothingly. "Take some time for yourself."

He took her advice and began to walk Akamaru more in the forest than in the village, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Konoha, where he could hear himself think. He was somewhere around the Nara woods when a wild boar attacked him and Akamaru.

Rather than being surprised, Akamaru wagged his tail and ran toward Ino, barking, as she pulled twigs and vines out of her hair and off her body. She was spectacularly scratched but looked unconcerned, even as she flicked a bug off her arm.

"Akamaru!" she shouted when she spotted him, and immediately crouched to give him pets. She looked up expectantly and smiled at Kiba, who stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, nodding at the enormous pack on her back.

"I'm looking for some ingredients for an antidote Sakura's making. You?" she replied.

He shrugged.

"Hey, if you don't have anything going on right now, I could use a nose like yours and Akamaru's. How 'bout it?" she asked, grinning. He shrugged again, and motioned to Akamaru, who was still staring expectantly at Ino as she stood up.

"He's ready to follow you home," he sighed, and followed Ino off the trail.

"I'm looking for a special type of mushrooms that live beneath logs. They should be in season, but I can't seem to find that many," Ino explained, and held up a sample for both boys to sniff.

Akamaru immediately set off at a steady trot, and soon led them to an entanglement of about four logs that had fallen atop one another, half buried in undergrowth.

"No wonder I didn't find any," Ino muttered as she waded into the brush.

"Here," Kiba said, and lifted her onto Akamaru's shoulders. She giggled and rode him clumsily toward the logs. Kiba fought through the brush and found her inspecting the logs, her nose and hair in the dirt, alongside Akamaru. He smiled at the sight – prim, glamorous Ino, sticking her nose into a rotting log to find some mushrooms.

"Akamaru, good boy!" she laughed, and Akamaru's tail wagged hard enough to lift him into the air. "We need to lift the log – think you can help?" Ino asked, standing up beside Kiba.

"Sure, just watch – Akamaru," he called, and performed the jutsu to turn Akamaru into his double. The two of them overturned the logs, unearthing the smell of death and rot, and a delighted squeal from Ino.

"Oh, thank you, you're a godsend," she breathed as she harvested the mushrooms, Akamaru following her around diligently.

"What's the antidote for?" Kiba asked, watching her movements to copy on his own batch of mushrooms.

"I'm not sure – I think it actually has something to do with Shino, though. You haven't heard anything from him?" she asked.

"Maybe. I haven't really… listened to him a lot lately," he admitted. Ino reached across him.

"Don't harvest the small ones – we need those to continue to grow," she said gently. "These ones are good, here, look."

She showed him and watched as he gave it a go.

"Maybe you should go ask him later," she suggested a little later.

"I should," he grunted. "This enough?"

"That's perfect," she said, grinning. "Thanks for helping! I should buy you boys something to eat. Would you like that, boy, hmm?"

Akamaru would like that a lot, and it turned out, so would Kiba.

Continuing on with Kiba and Akamaru, and of course Ino, who I love, God bless.

Thank you for reading!