Fucking Neji.

Kiba watches Sakura climb down the ladder and his heart doesn't feel so good right now.

Neji's back.

Does Tenten know?

Kiba's not an idiot.

Not a fucking idiot, he'd say.

There's no doubt in his mind that now that Neji's back, Tenten's going to drop him like a bad habit. Probably because he is a bad habit. His sister tells him it all the time. As much as he'd like to call her a bitter old hag, she's doing better than him and he actually respects her opinion. His sister knows him better than he knows himself, and if she says he's just another dumb man, he believes it.

But so is Neji, right? So what makes him so much better than him?

Suddenly, he wants to ditch out on his watchtower duty. Maybe he could rope someone else into covering him under the guise of a medical emergency.

"Hanabi!" Kiba shouts without actually being able to see her, just able to detect her scent.

"Huh?" He swings his leg over the side of the watchtower and lets himself fall halfway, grab on, then fall the rest of the way with Akamaru on his tail, whining.

"Hey, hey pretty lady." He finds her spinning around under the watch tower, coming to a halt when she hears him. She glares her little glare at him, probably because she knows what he's here for.

"I'm not covering your watch tower duty." Hanabi folds her arm and sticks one foot out to tap dramatically. Kiba itches the back of his head.

"Ahh, c'mon Hanabi. What'll it take? I got something kinda…pressing."

"Pressing?" She swings her hair over her shoulder, raises her eyebrow. "Gimme a little more detail than that and I'll consider it."

Kiba's face falls because he doesn't want to admit he's about to be a creep and go stalking around for Tenten. When he takes too long, Hanabi snorts and turns on her heel. He reaches out. "Hey! C'mon, what do you want? Whatever it is, just let me know."

Hanabi stops in place and reaches her finger up to tap her chin. She looks over her shoulder, this mischievous smile on her lips. "I want you to come to my party!"

"What? No!" He protests immediately. "I'm too old to do shit like that."

"Too old? Give me a break!" She whines, turning to face him now. "You're barely 25! Mid-twenties! People party into their 30's!"

"Okay," he huffs, rolling his eyes, "I mean I'm too old to party with babies. It'd be weird for me to go to your little party of kids."

"I resent that," she snaps back, squinting at him. "We're all legal adults."

"Baby adults."

"How about this." She holds out a hand towards the tower. "I'll cover this shift and I'll get you back for that prank, one that'll piss you off so bad because you'll be downright impressed."

Kiba crinkles his nose when he catches a whiff of Tenten's scent, not fully registering what Hanabi's saying, just knowing that he needs to find her now. "Yeah, yeah, fine little Hyūga, whatever. Can you please just?" He gestures to the tower while trying to hold onto the scent.

"And you come to my party!" she shouts before he can get too far. "It's a deal! And you know what happens when you break a deal!"

"Right," he calls over his shoulder, "break a deal, break a bone, got it!"

Kiba curses under his breath when the scent starts to get dimmer, but Akamaru makes a sudden turn, and he's compelled to follow after him. Akamaru's always been smarter than him anyway. Her scent gets stronger, and he scans the plaza filled with vendors and street performers until he lands on a jewelry stand. In front of it, an odd sight: Ino, Shino, and Tenten.

He stops in his tracks, trying to pull back to his mother and sister. Trying to channel all of their bitching and complaining about men and their terrible ways into making himself not one of those men. Inhales a deep breath.

At least pretend to be interested in a woman for gods sakes!

Even better, actually be interested in her!

Ratty men check out, cheat, and leave.

When's the last time you actually cared about a woman's thoughts on politics?

Don't you fucking tell me you made a face when she said she was on her period.

Look her in the eyes, but not too much. Don't be weird.

Make it about her, not you.

Both his mom and sisters voices yell at him in his head, even when he's not with them. It's a cursed life, living in a house of women, but it's prepared him to be better than some stupid guy like Neji. Or at least, he thinks it has. Years of watching his sister cry over dumb men, his mother be cold to any man that even thinks of looking her way. Kiba's better than them.

"Hey –" he interrupts whatever conversation that had been going on, and curses himself again. This is the exact behavior they had encouraged him against. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Are you sorry?" Ino asks in that snippy tone and Kiba makes a face at her because she's not the one he's interested in. "If you weren't so rude, maybe you'd know your friend has a dilemma."

Kiba blinks, looks at Tenten, who gives him this annoyed look. "Your friend Kiba? Shino?!"

"Oh!" Kiba shakes his head, then looks at Shino, who isn't paying attention to anyone, just simply staring down at the jewelry. "Uhh, I'd love to help buddy, if it could just wait a second – "

"I'm looking for something for Sakura," Shino tells him without looking up. "I want to get her something nice."

"Err – " Kiba looks helplessly as Tenten rolls her eyes and turns on her heel. "I'd really like to help, but am I really the guy to ask about jewelry?"

Tenten's already walking away when Ino leans in towards Kiba. "He won't believe us when we tell him to get her a nice anklet, so maybe hearing it from another guy will help."

"Uhm, okay?" Kiba feels himself becoming increasingly exasperated as Tenten gets further and further away. "Shino, get the anklet, it's the only answer! I gotta go!"

Ino huffs irritably when Kiba bolts after Tenten, leaving her with Shino.

Shino's fine, Kiba thinks. At least he has a loyal girlfriend. Kiba's just trying to hang on to what he has.

Shino doesn't seem to notice, anyway.