A Stimulating Conversation

Yugao

Summary: Ino's uneventful morning became otherwise after a stimulating conversation with a certain animal lover.

Author's Note: I've really never tried KibaIno before (I haven't even read any fics on that pairing, either), so I have zero idea on how to write for them. I just picked them out because 1) I like experimenting with new pairings I've never done before and 2) I had a very similarly stimulating talk with someone, and the said conversation merited a tribute fic. I hope you enjoy this, and please tell me if you have any nitpicks. Cookies to those who review and PM! (Thanks goes to said person, even if he doesn't know he's in a fic now.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. In addition, I never owned this conversation, just as Ino in the fic never owned it. Mad props to Kiba and to the person who first said these words.

Ino's mental prayer went unanswered, because her fingers fumbled at the last crucial hand seal that would have made her technique successful. She sighed in exasperation, putting a hand to her white-blond hair. She had come to the training grounds early that Friday morning, conveniently forgetting that her teammates had invited her to their every-other-Friday-breakfast at the barbeque place they frequented. She was no slouch - she knew that if she wanted to learn a new technique, she'd have to spend some extra time at it, even if it meant skipping a very fattening, carb-filled breakfast. She paused a little at that thought, and corrected herself: especially if it meant skipping a very fattening, carb-filled breakfast. But no matter how many times she tried, that last hand seal always got the better of her, and she was on the brink of giving up. She closed those blue eyes, sat down against a tree trunk, and tried to form the hand seals again.

"Lovely morning, isn't it?"

She felt herself twitch just a little at the interruption. She gave whoever it was a quick size-up and a raised eyebrow before she went back to her hand seals. It was that Inuzuka boy - there was no mistaking the unkempt brown hair, the mischievous eyes, the wide grin, and the mutt at his heels. "Oh, yes," she said, without looking at him and a little too sharply, "Quite." She flinched as she got the last hand seal wrong again, so that she barely noticed that the boy sat down against the tree, beside her.

"So... what are you doing?" he asked.

What makes him think I want his small talk? Her thoughts came out in frustrated bursts of anger, heated by the fact that someone was actually seeing her embarrass herself over and over with her failing technique. He didn't seem to want to go on until she did, not that she cared. But she would care if he stuck around for the rest of the morning, so she finally replied to his question, still in the same sardonic tone. "Wasting this lovely morning," she deadpanned.

"Wasting it?" he chuckled, as if he didn't quite catch her tone, or didn't quite care. "How are you wasting it?"

"By trying and failing to perform this goddamned technique," she mumbled, as she messed up the seals for the nth time that morning. He was really trying her almost non-existent patience.

But he took it all easily, as if her flustered mood didn't matter at all. "Wow," he said with a light laugh, "You are wasting your morning."

"You think?" she asked with a groan.

"You know, instead of trying to perform a technique you've never even done before, why don't you focus on what's in front of you?" he asked suddenly.

She paused a little in her billionth try at that seal, and raised an eyebrow at him. He laughed as he went on. "Like the cute guy you didn't quite get to know who's also wasting his lovely morning."

She gave him a glare before she attempted to complete her string of hand seals. He paid her reaction no mind as he continued, "Of course you can go back to being bitter about that technique, if that's more your style. I certainly won't stop you."

Ino let her hands drop to her sides in resignation. She gave up - there was absolutely no finishing this technique before her teammates came along. Maybe if she was lucky, Shikamaru would help her with it later. But at the moment, she didn't quite care anymore. She cast a glance at Kiba, who was still sitting down there beside her, stroking his pet's fur languidly as he waited for her answer. She shrugged. "No, never mind. I'm perfectly convinced that this technique hates me."

At this, he looked at her, a teasing quality in those strange eyes. He laughed. "No, I don't think the technique hates you. You just want the cute guy more."

She narrowed her eyes at him, all the while trying to come up with a witty retort, a sharp comeback, anything! But as it was, she was at the edge of her temper and at the end of her patience. Instead, she gave an exasperated sigh and asked, "Is this really how you spend your Friday mornings?"

He laughed, not expecting her question. Those amber eyes seemed to have glimmered with even more knowing mischief. "You really want to know how I spend my other Friday mornings?"

"Oh yes, please. I'm dying to know," she answered, coating her tone with sarcasm.

He ignored it, as he ignored much of her annoyance before. "Well... usually, I'm stuck in a training area fighting my teammates, which gets pretty boring once you know their weaknesses. But today Kurenai-sensei gave us the day off, which is why it's such a lovely morning." He laughed again at his own joke.

She raised an eyebrow. "But now you're wasting a lovely morning talking to someone you don't even know that well," she pointed out.

He laughed again. "No," he said, "I'm using my Friday morning helping someone I don't know very well meet a cute guy and make her happy."

"Hah," his teasing vanity certainly wasn't making her happy. Still, she humored him. "Well, I appreciate your help, so thanks. But then again what you said was completely opinionated and to your benefit. So I couldn't really be the judge of whether I should be grateful or not."

"To my benefit?" he asked with a smirk. "Well... yeah. Helping people, of course, you get back what you give tenfold. In your case, you got ten times the cuteness."

There was an awkward silence before she asked again, "Is this how your generic conversation with a stranger goes? Because if it is I'm sure you've scared several strangers into hiding by now."

"Does it sound so generic? I'm sorry, I should make this more interesting then..." he said, "But really, if you're scared, you should go into hiding. I don't mind. There's got to be a lot of other strangers in the world."

Ino started laughing despite herself, making him add: "Glad to hear you're not scared. And I'm pretty sure you like my generic conversation with strangers. Maybe that's really why it's generic - because I use it on everyone and they all like it."

"So how's your technique going?" he asked.

"I'm not trying anymore."

"Good. You're coming together now, embracing the lovely morning," he said with a chipper tone, "... Before it turns into a lovely afternoon in about ten minutes."

"Lovely mornings like this one, which are spent talking to strangers," she said in monotone, "Oh yes. Lovely."

He looked up at the treetops, and at the sunlight spilling in from the breaks in the trees. "Love is unpredictable, and irrational. It turns the most mundane things into something pretty, which is why we're inclined to have it when it makes no sense at all."

"How poetic."

"Glad to know I am," he said. But then he seemed to rethink his words, and said instead: "I mean, glad to know you know I am."

"Are you usually this self-confident?" she asked.

He smirked. "Don't you mean cocky?"

"I was going for the milder term, but if you like, sure, are you usually this cocky?" she asked, "And vain? And self-centered? And arrogant?"

He laughed. "Keep going."

"No thanks," she replied, "I'll just be wasting more of this lovely morning. I don't even think I understand what I feel about this conversation."

"You're not meant to. It's lovely, and love is irrational," he said with another laugh.

She couldn't think of what to say, and so she just leaned back against the tree trunk. When she didn't reply, she heard his voice again. "Hmm. Magic seems to be gone. Lovely morning fading... I'm getting bored."

"It's all right," she told him, "Boredom is a state of mind."

"I think I'll just hope for a lovely night," he said as he stood up, "Nice talking to you, Ino. Bye." And just as quickly as he and his dog came, they were gone.

Ino lifted her hands up again, in one last try to form those hand seals. She reached the last one, expecting to get it wrong again, but realized she had completed them without a single mistake. She grinned a little, her eyes fixed on the hand seal she had tried so hard to perfect.

"Ino!" Chouji huffed as he appeared beside her, "I'm sorry Shikamaru and I are late. We lost track of the time."

"What have you been doing here the whole time, Ino?" Shikamaru asked.

She grinned wider. "Oh, it's no problem. I've just been having a stimulating conversation."

Author's Note: If this seemed dominated by dialogue, it was meant to be that way. Hahaha. Anyway, this was my first try at KibaIno, and I'm pretty sure they're more than just a little OOC, so your constructive criticism is very, very important to me at this point. Please review!