Shino sat underneath a tree as he tried to figure out where his two teammates were. Kiba, with his usual brash attitude, had challenged Hinata and Shino to a game of tag. Of course it was never a simple game whenever Kiba was involved. The dog-loving boy had a habit of going overboard whenever contests were involved.

Shino sat as stiff as a statue as his insects flew all over the surrounding area. Sure they could hide from one man, but it was doubtful that they could hide from millions of tiny insects. Shino jumped to his feet and began moving north, towards two chakra signatures that his bugs had recognized. One was defiantly Akamaru, while the other was… Hinata?

Stopping a few meters away, it appeared that Hinata and Akamaru were together, but where was Kiba? It wasn't like him to just leave Akamaru alone, nor was it like Hinata to be in a contest like this without her Byakugan activated. The entire situation felt… wrong.

"Gatsuuga!"

Shino had barely a second to react before the tree he was hiding behind splintered into thousands of deadly wooden needles while the Human drill that was Kiba kept moving forward before landing on a branch as gently as a butterfly landed on a flower.

"That's game Shino," Kiba said as he turned around smirking as if he had just won the lottery. At first Shino couldn't figure out what the flea-infested shinobi was talking about. Hundreds of angry buzzing insects suddenly made Shino look at his left arm with disapproval.

"It appears that you're wrong this time Kiba," Shino said in his drawling monotone of a voice. "I believe you said that you had to hit me."

"And what do you call that cut?" Kiba howled with his trademark bestial anger.

"All you managed to do was slice my clothing. I don't think that counts as a hit." Shino swayed back, anticipating his teammate's inevitable attack. Sometimes it was too easy to goad the guy into a fight.

"C-cut it out you two," Came Hinata's quiet voice from behind Shino. "Please it's getting late… Can't you just settle this later like you always do?"

"Well if four-eyes would just admit that I am capable of beating him we would never have to fight again…" It was beyond obvious that Kiba really wanted to continue. Shino respected him as a teammate, even as a friend in most cases. Years of fighting together had forged a brutal cycle of one-upmanship between the two of them, a cycle that Shino regarded as being more trouble than it was worth.

"As fun as it would be to give you fleas, it is getting dark. There will be time to kick your butt all over Konoha later."

Kiba fumed, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, and acting like the beast he was trying to be. Shino never understood why his teammate wanted to be so similar to his bestial counterpart. Sure the Inuzuka were known for the skill in handling the animals, but it didn't mean they had to be so similar to them. It wasn't like he was pollinating flowers in his free time or anything.

"Kiba-kun please calm down…" Hinata ran over to her now enraged comrade, trying as best as she could to stop him from flying into frenzy. Right as he thought his comrade was going to attack in a fit of rage, Kiba shook his head and sighed.

"Alright… But this isn't over Shino!" Kiba took Hinata's arm and began walking towards Konoha with Akamaru following in step.

"Like a dog with its tail between its legs," Shino muttered before moving to catch up with his teammates. Shino had noticed that Hinata had been getting rather close to Kiba as of late. Not being to one to cause problems, he silently observed the pair from afar. Gathering information was always important when it came to being a shinobi regardless of what that information entailed.

With any luck his teammates would keep the drama to a medium and leave him out of it. The last thing he needed was an angry Hyuuga and a flea-infested psychopath taking out their anger, frustration, and rage upon him. As he walked he silently prayed that nothing horrible would come of these recent developments.

Somehow Hinata had managed to convince Shino that he needed to share a few drinks with the man that had been attacking him not ten hours before. Unfortunately Hinata had been convinced to go home early by Kiba. Not wanting to seem rude or impolite he sipped idly at his sake, waiting for whatever Kiba wanted to talk about.

A loud sigh came from the seat next to him at the bar as Kiba set his drink down. "So figured out what I wanted to talk about yet?" For once Kiba sounded slightly distant, like his head was somewhere else. And for once it wasn't because of what he was drinking.

"I assume it has something to do with Hinata. Why else would you have asked her to leave?"

Another long sigh came from Kiba before he had another sip of his drink. "Man I can't pull one over on you can I? You have to be psychic or something."

"No I'm just observant to the world around me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what Hinata's attempting to do based on her recent actions."

"I really hate how you can turn something emotional into a completely logical situation."

"Relax it isn't like I'm saying anything that you didn't already know."

"That doesn't mean that you have to be so cold about it."

"If I was warmer you'd probably try to kill me thinking I was someone else."

"Would be too hard with how much you cover yourself up," Kiba chuckled. "Well do you want to know why I asked you to come here or not?"

"That would be the only reason I'm still here. But whatever it is, you and Hinata obviously planned this ahead of time."

Kiba paled for a second before taking another drink. "I didn't think we were being that obvious about it. Still Hinata seems to want to be a little closer than teammates you know? She wanted me to make sure you weren't going to flip out about it."

"As long as you both remain capable shinobi, I don't really care about your personal lives."

"Man, Shino you need to lighten up. Maybe you should consider getting yourself a girlfriend or something."

Shino glared through his dark glasses. "That serves no practical purpose for me, so why bother with it?"

"One day I hope someone is able to peel off your shell, because I don't think that you're getting too much oxygen to that brain of yours."

"You're one to talk, considering you had to drink a bottle of sake before talking to me about this."

Kiba glared at him as he took another drink. "Even bugs need each other Shino." Kiba set his cup down and stood up. "Still I'm glad you're ok with all this. I'll try to keep you out of everything if I can." Without another word Kiba walked off, leaving Shino alone at the bar. No matter how many times he replayed the conversation in his head, Shino couldn't help but feel like he had come off on the losing end of it.