"I can't believe you threw a perfectly good squirrel out the window," Kuromaru said in stunned disbelief. Then he shook his head slowly. "I suppose you're allergic to those too, huh?" He gave Asuma a critical look. "Are you sure you're virile?"

"Real men do not need meat to be virile," Asuma told him. He even sounded confident of that fact.

Kuromaru gave him a narrow, single-eyed stare. "Okaaaay," he said at last, still doubtful. "I guess this is a human thing. But anyway, you should eat something. Tori says you're supposed to pick Tsume up at the Inuzuka compound, and also you should bring flowers but I don't know why, and Tsume said don't bother with either 'cause she'll meet you here, but Tori told me that if you don't, she'll be very annoyed because Tsume hasn't had a proper date in ages, and Tsume told me not to tell you that, but I just thought maybe you should go there because Tsume took another shower after I said her hair looked funny, so she might be late if you meet her here, and they put this stuff on her face that smells funny, too, and makes her look strange, so I thought I'd warn you before you laughed at her. I don't think they'd like that." He took a breath and pondered everything he'd said, wondering if he'd left anything out. "Oh, and she can't run very well in her dress. So she really will be late if you meet here, and you're not supposed to be late to meetings with the Hokage."

Messages all delivered, he plopped down on the floor and dog-grinned cheerfully. "Are you going to go dressed like that? You smell pretty strong."