Between all those flowers, bouquets and potted plants Kiba felt a little lost. Even though he had come here to see her, he had not really expected to meet Ino behind the counter. Far less to be greeted with a cheerful hello and the question, if he was buying flowers for Sakura.
"I thought she'd left the village to run some errands for Kakashi."
"She what – ?", Kiba's eyes widened in surprise.
"Tenten told me. But shouldn't you know this stuff? I mean, she's your girlfriend, right?"
Kiba shifted his weight uncomfortably, scratched his head.
"Can I ask you something?"
Ino nodded. Her fine, plugged eyebrows already raised in anticipation for what ever gossip she might learn.
"You, uhm... I mean, you're her best friend, so you probably would know..."
"Know what?", Ino leaned further in Kiba's direction, who looked around to make sure that they were alone.
"Do you... think she's having an affair with Kakashi?"
For a moment Ino was stunned. Then she blinked a few times before she finally burst into laughter.
"Seriously?"
Kiba shrugged – he wondered what had possessed him to even think about asking Ino for advice – turned to leave, but before he reached the shop's exit, Ino had rushed past him and blocked his way.
"You're coming with me", she announced. With one swift movement she turned the shops sign to closed, locked the door and placed one arm around Kiba to push him out of the store and into the living house.

"Where's Shikamaru?", Kiba asked while Ino pushed him into the living room and onto a sofa.
"With Choji"
"Choji's back?", this information made Kiba momentarily forget about the original reason for his visit – instead he let Ino tell him everything she knew about Choji's time away from the village and his return.
"Hey, then your team's the only one that's still complete!", he said when she had finished.
"Right", Ino glared at him "Except for Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru's brains"
Kiba didn't know what to answer, mumbled an apology, but Ino seemingly forgot about his remark within seconds.
"Now, what on earth makes you think Sakura and Kakashi...?"
Again Kiba shrugged.
"I saw her at his place the other day."
"So?", Ino shrugged "She's his assistant."
"In the morning."
"Maybe she had to get some super-important documents. I mean, you know how likely it is for Kakashi to show up early.."
"That's what she said", Kiba sighed.
There was something deeply fascinating about boys, about young men, when they were fighting back their tears, Ino thought. And while one part of her wanted to slap Kiba in the face and tell him to man up, another part of her actually enjoyed the intimate weirdness of the situation.
"His smell was all over her", he said, his voice hardly more than a whisper.
Ino shook her head. Sakura would have told her. And even if she had decided to keep her liaison with the Hokage a secret – Ino would have known! There was no way she could have missed this!
"Besides", she concluded "He's like twice her age!"
"So?", Kiba didn't seem to find much comfort in this.
"He's the fucking Hokage. And he's got that whole... I don't know … too cool to care thing going on. He's like a grown up Sasuke. Of course Sakura'd be all over him."
"He's not like a grown up Sasuke", Ino laughed nervously.
"And - If he was one to maintain love-affairs he wouldn't have to read his porn all the time. Ever thought about that?"
"No", Kiba shook his head "Actually I never gave much thought to his sex life."
"Neither did I", Ino quickly replied, her cheeks turning a delicate pink.
"Obviously", she added.
"I guess I'm just that kind of guy...", Kiba slumped back into the sofa's cushions and sighed. Ino wrapped one arm around his shoulders, placed her other hand on his knee.
"That perfect-boyfriend kind of guy?", she asked.
Kiba looked at her, his brows furrowed, then brushed her arms and hands aside and got up.
"Sure you don't want to stay?", Ino called after him.
"No", Kiba let her lead him to the door where they said good bye.
"If you need someone to -", she started but got interrupted as Choji came running down the street and towards them – pale and out of breath and his lower lip trembling.
"I-", he stammered.
"I lost – I lost Shikamaru."