Post time-skip, might contain spoilers in later chapters.
Rain.
Something they had not accounted for in this mission, though they probably should have.
The tiny little apartment they shared wasn't wholly waterproof, as was testified by the various buckets and teacups scattered about the one and only room.
Had it been only one day of rain, they would have been perfectly fine. But the first day of steady downpour had melted neatly into the second and third and forth—as the dreary, wet hours ticked by at an agonizing rate—and after a week and a half they were both seriously considering returning empty-handed.
The rain irritated her specialized contact lenses, as well as the dark hair dye she had applied to her pale tresses upon arrival. It limited visibility, created mud for them to leave tracks in, and was generally a nuisance on these sorts of missions.
Not to mention the fact that it made her normally calm and stoic comrade a little antsy (no pun intended).
Circumstances beyond their control (aka, the rain) left them trapped together in that drafty, leaky apartment, complaining and pacing, respectively.
She could hear the buzzing beneath his coat grow louder and louder with each passing day, and it didn't so much disgust her as it annoyed her. Sure, he himself was quiet and nondescript (something she had gotten used to over the years, her teammates being how they were), but those blasted bugs…
And the pacing—oh gods, the pacing—was on the verge of driving her mad.
Stupid rain. Stupid, stupid rain.
And bugs.
And men who played host to aforementioned bugs.
Stupid rain, and bugs, and men.
And missions.
And whoever invented these goddamn contact lenses…
"Stupid rain," she grumbled to herself, curled uncomfortably in one of the rickety chairs that had come with the room. She had placed it by the window earlier—under guise of doing some surveillance on the village they were stationed in—perfectly unhappy with staring out at the waterlogged streets. Ino combed a hand distractedly through her unfamiliarly dark hair and groaned.
Shino, of course, ignored her and continued to pace.
"I mean, Grass Country, right? Shouldn't be so much damn rain…"
Ignore, ignore.
"…Damn rain…"
He threw her a loathsome glare, but the effect was somewhat lost on her, given that she couldn't see it from behind his dark sunglasses. Silently deciding that the drone of his insects was a more intelligent noise than her brand of droning, Shino concentrated on blocking her out.
Shikamaru and Chouji could both attest to the fact that trying to block out Ino was like trying to block out a raging boar (again, no pun intended). Out of her earshot, of course.
"So, I mean, what was the point of sending us out here? Can't even accomplish our freaking mission with all this stupid rain…"
Shino groaned very quietly, and Ino pretended not to hear it.
"It's one thing for you, of course, with all that heavy clothing protecting you from the water, and all, but me?" she snorted, tossing her temporarily brunette head. "I mean, a girl can't be covered head to toe and still look cute. Totally unfair."
This statement, of course, only served to make him more deadpan than usual. "You're a kunoichi," he stated blithely, "Does it matter?"
She spared him a very brief glance, flicking her blue eyes (now with pupils, thanks to those goddamn contact lenses) over him in what appeared to be consideration. After a moment, however, she only huffed disgustedly and muttered in a low, fuming sort of voice, "Men."
Perhaps it was the rain. Perhaps it was the combination of two very distinct, very different sorts of buzzing. Perhaps it was the fact that he had been more or less trapped in this one room with this… woman for over a week.
In any case, Shino suddenly felt an uncharacteristic urge to defend all mankind—particularly, those of the shinobi variety.
"Your clothes," he began, settling in for what would probably turn out to be the longest speech he'd ever made ever, "are indeed very attractive."
She beamed at him, momentarily forgetting her discomfort with men, bugs, and rain (in no particular order).
"But," Shino continued, "they leave very little to the imagination, and they seem to be rather uncomfortable and impractical. You expose a great deal of skin, and that makes you both vulnerable to the elements, and to element-based attacks."
Ino's mouth dropped open slightly, surprised that the Aburame Shino—normally near-silent aside from all the insect-related noise of late—was actually telling her off because of her clothes, of all things.
He ignored her stunned expression, and plowed forward. "I am sure that there are certain advantages that come with wearing such revealing garments, but were you to wear them only when on information-gathering missions of that," he stressed the last word with the slightest hint of distaste, "particular variety, I believe you would be much more comfortable overall. And possibly more respected as a result."
And there it was: the longest stream of words any Aburame had ever strung together. Ino was in such awe, she almost forgot to be irritated by what he was implying.
"So," she said, eyes glittering with the sort of dangerous emotion that would have sent her teammates running for cover, "You don't think I'm respectable, just because of the way I dress?"
Shino shook his head slowly, wondering if what they said about blondes was really true. "Hardly. I am merely pointing out that anyone who did not know you were a good kunoichi, would think badly of you because of the way you dress yourself." He paused for a moment, wondering briefly whether or not he should divulge the information he had. "When you were promoted… There were several less-than-flattering rumors about the means with which you gained your ANBU mask."
She looked stunned, and a little hurt. "I… I earned my mask!" Ino uncurled herself and sat up slowly.
"I know. We all know, Ino-san."
There was a long stretch of silence, wherein neither of them said anything. Even the insects seemed to buzz more softly.
Then, Shino spoke up once more.
"Stupid rain."
I haven't decided whether or not this is going to be a short series, so...
And, oh yeah, I don't own Naruto.