Voila, the second of my series of presents for my wifey Cara. But even if you're not Cara, feel free to stay and read it.
This was inspired by Episode 33 of Shippudden. ShinoNaru is now my OTP. Damn you, overactive inmagination.
When I was younger, I never told anyone I was gay. When you're 13 you don't really understand that kind of thing, I just always felt more of an affinity to boys. And in any case, I was already weird. It was bad enough being the freaky bug guy without with the freaky bug guy who kisses boys.
The first guy I liked was actually Sasuke. I hated myself for being so predictable, but you can't help who you fall for. So when the girls would gather together and squeal over his cold demeanour and dark mysterious past, I would eavesdrop, smiling to myself and joining in their half-formed fantasies. After I realised that Sasuke's front of cold apathy wasn't a front at all, I moved on quickly. I always felt an affection for Kiba, and after a while I plucked up the courage to tell him my secret. He was fine with it, excited even, to find that one of his friends was gay as well. He was my first kiss, my first boyfriend, but after a while we decided that the team was more important than a fleeting liason. After that first relationship, I must have transferred my affections to every male member of the Rookie Nine around me in the two and a half years Naruto was away. But I always felt as if something was missing, like the knucklehead's absence meant more than just that. It niggled away at my mind for months untill I worked it out.
Naruto was what was missing.
I had to admit, if I could have chosen I'd have picked a better person to pine after. Naruto had always been and probably still was completely unpredictable in anything except insanity, he was unskilled and immature. But something about him kept drawing my mind back to him, and before I knew where I was I had fallen for him. When I heard he was back in Konoha I was ecstatic, and I made it my mission to meet him again. I hung around all the places he used to frequent, but I always seemed to arrive a minute too late, or I would arrive on time, but lose my bottle and stay in the shadows.
The first time I spoke to him again was a complete fluke. Waiting for the rest of Team Kurenai, I heard a familiar voice muttering to itself, as an energetic orange and black smudge made its way down the street in my direction. My first thought, and I hated myself for it, was to hide, but I stood my ground, in the shadows as he passed me. He seemed troubled... It troubled me.
He was getting further and further away, if we took another step I'd have lost him...
"Long time no see, Naruto," I heard my voice say as I felt my body step out into the sunlight. I was mortified at myself at first, but at least he had stopped. He stared at me, his thin eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. I held my breath, waited for him to react, to remember me...
"Who are you?" Three words. That's all he said, just three simple words, but they cut deeper than any knife could. How could he not even remember me? True, I had changed, but not so much as to be unrecognisable...
"It's me," I muttered, trying to make my voice apathetic. He stared at me, came right up to me, his face inches from my own. I silently blessed the fact I wore a high collar- my cheeks were probably flaming. His piercing cerulean gaze met mine, locking through the smoked lenses of my glasses, heating my skin even more. This was unbearable, how could he not remember me? Then again... My face was covered, my voice deeper than it had been those years ago... Maybe he would remember my friends. One of my beetles, a new flying breed I'd been cultivating, buzzed out from under my hood, past his face. His eyes finally broke away from mine, following the insect. You could have heard the click inside his mind as his memories were triggered, and he flew backwards, pointing and waving at me madly.
"Oh yeah! You're, uh... uh..." The hope that had flared in my chest deflated just as quickly. He couldn't even remember my name.
"I know it's been a while," I began, turning my back and fighting to keep the tremor out of my voice. "But you should at least try to remember your friends. Or else it just hurts the other person's feelings..." This was great, just great. I'd spent a year and a half pining for him to come back and when he did he couldn't even remember my name.
"Wait..." I lifted my head slightly, half-turned my head to face him. "That voice, and that weird way of talking... Could it be..." Hope flickered again, along with another prayer of thanks for my tall collar. "Yeah! Shino, right?"
"It finally came to you, huh?" My tone was sullen, despite myself. He took his time in understanding, same as always.
"How am I supposed to recognise you with your face covered up like that?" he fumed, flailing in one of those characteristic fits of rage. I was saved having to reply by a showy arrival by Kiba and Akamaru- cloaked by their dust cloud, I dodged behind the tree, half-grateful to be out of that situation. Kiba shot a barbed comment my way, making fun of my habit of punctuality, but I ignored it goodnaturedly, used to them by now. My heart sank as I listened to their conversation. He remembered Kiba in a heartbeat, of course he would. I tried to tell myself they had been friends since practically before the Academy, brothers in truancy with Shikamaru, but it still hurt a little that I was so easily forgotten. And Hinata... He remembered Hinata even more quickly. You tend to remember the girl who faints on you.
It was hell to share a team with Hinata. She loved Naruto so much, it was agony to know that whoever ended up winning him, at least one of us would end up heartbroken. And in all likelyhood, that one would be me. Part of me imagined that she faked her fainting spells, that she did it just to get attention from her Prince. Still, I picked her up and leaned her softly against the tree, stepping back again to let Kiba and Naruto fuss around her till they were sure she was okay.
If Naruto couldn't even remember my name, he certainly wouldn't care if I left. We had an hour till Kurenai-sensei showed up anyway, I could hide out at the training grounds till we had to leave. I waited untill they were deep in conversation before slipping away, my hands thrust deep into my pockets. I barely looked up from the floor untill I reached the wide clearing, when I had to raise my eyes to find somewhere to sit, deciding on a spot nestled deep in the roots of one of the older trees around the border of the clearing. I wasn't sulking. Definitely not. I was just killing time by reflecting on memories. I tugged my jackets off, bundling them behind me to protect my back from the knotted roots. Insects soon started to creep over my hands- usually I would let them, watch them crawl and scurry, but some impulse of anger made me shake them off, and I wasn't visited again.
After a while, I heard footsteps, and pressed myself back into the shadows again. But they got louder and louder, leading their owner right to my hiding spot. Glancing up through the dark glass in front of my eyes, I swore silently. Naruto. He grinned happily, sitting down next to me without an invitation. I tried to ignore him, but Naruto Uzumaki is hard to ignore.
"What're you doing sulking all the way out here?" he asked, folding his hands behind his head and turning his face towards the sun. I took a deep breath to calm down.
"We don't leave on our mission for another hour," I supplied calmly. We sat in silence for another minute. "I see you recognised Hinata straight away too."
"Oh, come on, Shino, don't be all sulky," he begged. I huffed slightly. Sighing, he unhooked his hands and rested them on his knees, shuffling around to look at me. "Come on, there's something else going on here, I might be a knucklehead but I'm not stupid." I shook my head lightly, sighing at his blindness.
"You just don't get it, do you?" I demanded. Before he had time to respond, or I had time to have second thoughts, I did what I'd wanted to do for one and a half long years. I grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled him towards me. His lips landed on mine, and his eyes went wide for a moment, and I released him before he could push away from me. I couldn't handle that. My eyes met his through the smoked glass, holding the sapphire gaze. "Naruto, I realised a long time ago that I love you, for the last eighteen months all I've been able to think of is you. When you forgot my name back there it was like you drove a knife into me. I don't care what you do now, I've done what I've wanted to do for what seems like forever." I stood up, grabbing my jackets and swinging them onto my shoulders. "I've got a mission to go on."
"Shino..." The tone of Naruto's voice made me stop. Wait... A moemnt passed in silence, neither one of us wan ting to break it.
"It was hell for me when you were in Suna," I told him eventually, my voice blank as I kept my back to him. "I didn't know if you were coming back alive." I chose not to tell him the whole truth, that there had been times I could have run to Suna alone just to make sure he was safe. Footsteps came up behind me, soft and feline. Naruto's hand touched my shoulder, and I half shrugged it off out of habit, realising my mistake as I felt the touch disappear. I caught his hand with one of my own, turning my head to look at him. His eyes were full of that determination that had made me fall in love with him, and an intent curiosity.
"I came back, though, didn't I?" he murmured. I nodded slowly, barely blinking behind my glasses. His eyebrows furrowed again, and he raised one hand to my face, his fingers closing around them. I instinctively raised my hand to push him away. "Shino, you can trust me enough to come back alive from the Akatsuki, why can't you trust me enough to take these off?" After a moment, I sighed silently and brushed his hand away, removing the glasses slowly and blinking against the bright sunlight as I folded them and slid them into my pocket. Naruto's hand gripped my chin softly, pulling my gaze into his. "That's better..."
"Why is it so important to you I take my glasses off?" I demanded. He smirked slightly, his pointed canines drawing my eyes like magnets.
"I wanted to see your eyes when I did this." His hand moved from my chin to the back of my neck, pulling me towards him without warning. In a heartbeat he was kissing me, soft and tender and demanding all at once, with his brilliant eyes still trapping mine, wickedness and hunger glittering in the bright blue. After a moment I was kissing him back, our lips moving in synch as my eyes finally flickered closed, and I felt his lips curve upwards in that damn smirk. My arms slipped around him, pulling him into my body tightly as I felt him do the same, the hand that wasn't on my neck at the small of my back. Pulling away from the kiss only to breathe, our foreheads rested together as our ragged breaths slowed, our eyes never parting.
"I should go... Kurenai-sensei is probably waiting..." I murmured, brushing my knuckles softly over the three marks that scarred his cheek. He nodded reluctantly, his eyes full of an unreadable dark intensity. "What is it?"
"Say it..." My eyebrows raised slightly as I looked at him, puzzled.
"Say what?" The look in his eyes darkened and his fingers tightened in my hair, his lips pulling back over his fangs.
"Tell me you love me, Shino... Tell me and mean it." A small smirk of realisation crossed my face, and I murmured the words with all of my heart before reclaiming his lips.
"I love you, Naruto Uzumaki."
I hate that the ending sucks, but I like endings to happen on notes like that.
Anyhows. Happy birthday, Cara. You can have your other presents now.