He mumbled silently before snugling closer into the warm embrace of his pillow. This was one of those days where Shino, of the honourable Aburame clan, saw no reason to "rise and shine".
First of; he wasn't really into this whole "shining" thing. He couldn't emit waves like Uchiha's "I'm-so-much-better-than-you" aura or Naruto's occasional joy explosions – mostly caused by ramen – and he definitely couldn't shine like Sakura or Ino did, mostly caused by Uchiha, though it was far beyond his comprehension how they managed to live with – sometimes even worship – his "I'm-so-much-better-than-you" attitude. Of course he would be able to shine in a Rock Lee kind of way, with teeth, thumb and hair.
Shino's, somewhat amused, train of thoughts was brought to halt by a very horrible image of him looking like Rock Lee suddenly haunting his mind.
It was in fact so horrible and terrifying that it could never be described in a low budget fanfiction like this.
Shino quickly moved on with the second, and far more important, reason for staying in bed:
Today was the day of the midsummerfest, and Shino, being Aburame, saw no reason whatsoever for participating in something that required you to show your feelings so openly.
Alas, he had promised Kiba and Hinata he would be there, so in the end it didn't matter whether he felt like going, he had no choice.
He raised himself from the bed. His kikai slowly began to stir as he moved. They hadn't slept – they never did – but they had been working on minimum activity to avoid disturbing their sleeping host.
Shino shook his limbs, weak from sleeping, before heading for the bathroom. He grabbed his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth while his bugs started closing the pores in his skin so that he could freely bathe without fearing of flooding their tunnels. He shook his head at the thought of the midsummerfest that was still circulating his mind. Without further delay, he stepped into the shower, allowing it to wash away his worries.
Shino scratched himself on the… errr… shoulder; it always itched when the Kikai would reopen his pores. He walked silently through their compound, every now and then greeting a member of the clan as they stoically walked by, with their eyes hidden by sunglasses. On his way out he grabbed a couple of apples and stuffed them into his pockets, supplies for later. As he opened the front door, a blinding sunlight greeted him, luckily he was wearing his glasses and the only time the sun could annoy him was when it was absent.
Outside the citizens of Konoha went on with their everyday lives, occupying the streets as they went from one place to another in whatever errand they had. The shops were starting to open and soon the air was filled with the sound of the merchants, loudly telling everybody who cared to listen, just why their cabbage were worth buying.
Children ran up and down the streets, laughing and yelling in their little games. Shino watched as a quite tall, blond boy chased a girl with her green her, waving behind her in the wind like a tail. The older boy slowly gained on her, and Shino watched them as they ventured closer and closer to where he stood. He calculated approximately when the girl was going to get caught, when she suddenly turned and ducked while knocking the boys arm upwards before running under it. The boy turned, confused, only to catch a glimpse of the girl as she disappeared around a corner.
Shino raised an eyebrow. That girl would've made a great ninja. Of course she couldn't, she was a civilian and didn't have enough chakra, but the move had been performed expertly never the less.
The smell of the training grounds greeted him like a wave as he entered. It was mainly the stench of sweat which had integrated itself into the ground on which generations of ninjas had trained. Shino grabbed his kunai from the pouch and got ready for an afternoon, spent as only a ninja can.
Later that afternoon, Shino entered through the door o his room, throwing his jacket at the bed. His muscles were all worn out and his clothes soaked in sweat. For the second time that day he entered the bathroom, wating for his pores to close so that he might be able to shower off the weariness.
The Konohan market was lit with hundreds of red ricepaper lamps, seemingly floating in midair because the wires that held them aloft had been painted dark to match the endlss sky on which the first starts had begun to pop forth. If you were to walk down the mainstreet that particualry night, you would've plenty to look at. Everywhere there was people, their voices blending into a gentle buzzing with some outbursts every now and then, to remind everyone that people like Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba were to be found somewhere in he vast crowd. Of course Naruto would be the easiest to trace, apart from him being the loudest of them all, he was also the most predictable, you see, his voice came from the ramen bar. If you listened closely though, you would notice some other voices that also raised themselves above the common noise. There was Ebisu, yelling for Konohamaru as vigorously as always. One would think that he might've cut the young ninja some slack as he grew older but it seemed that after the thirds death, he had started to consider it his personal duty to look after the boy, often against Konohamarus will.
Another voice penetrated the background noise, though not as demanding as Ebisu's, it was definitely above the average decibel.
Sitting in a restaurant, a young man was to be found. He was average of looks, with his brown hair caught in a spiky ponytail. Opposite of him sat his contrast –as he liked to call her –; gracious in a tomboy-ish kind of way, while his hair was dark, hers was light and tied in a rather curious way that framed her face in a manner that made her look mysterious in compliment to her beauty.
All of this added up to one of Shikamaru's reason for her being his opposite. The other one was slightly less romantic but, as he'd put it' just as important: She was a girl.
When she had been about to hit him, he had defended himself by claiming that had she not been his opposite on that matter, they wouldn't've been together. That had saved him some trouble, but now he had it coming to him again.
Temari had travelled to Konoha in order to be with him on their third year anniversary and she had been really disappointed that he hadn't even prepared anything for her, not that she had expected him to. She was so enfuriated that she didn't notice the smug smirk on his face or the bump of jewellerybox in his pocket, though not quite a weddingring, it didn't look cheap either.
Shino tugged his eyes from the scene in order to trace a certain noisemaker. He had been standing in the spot they'd decided to meet at, but his friends were late. Though it didn't surprise him that Kiba couldn't show up on time, he found the lack of Hinata quite puzzling.
Suddenly he heard footsteps from behind him and turned to see Hinata and Kiba, shyly holding hands. As soon as they saw him they let go of each other, Kiba with a sheepish grin, and Hinata with a shy blush. Something stirred inside Shino as he saw his two friends holding hands. Quickly his eyes fell upon Hinata though neither Kiba nor Hinata ever knew whereto his gaze went. He knew now what the feeling, clutching in his stomach, was. He had felt it before, when seeing Naruto, Neji or Uchiha fight; the shot of jealousy. He could've pretended he didn't know what caused these feelings but he did. Even though he might've ignored it, he had had feelings for Hinata for a long time, feelings beyond those of a team mate. He had surpressed them though telling himself that they were merely distractions; bad for the morale.
And now, his two best friends stood there in front of him, doing exactly what he had been wishing to do for a very long time.
"I'm glad to see that you two have found each other" he told hem while thinking to himself that his voice sounded awfully fake. Hinata and Kiba seemed rather relieved though, as if they had been waiting for his permission.
Later, as they walked through the crowd, Shino began to realize that the only reason for him to be there was in order to satisfy their ethics. They might not have said it out loud –and he just stood passively in the background as always –but this time it was different. He saw it in their eyes, the stolen looks to each other every now and then, and the way their hands "accidentally" touched frequently. This became more and more obvious as time passed, and after an hour with Shino tailing the couple, Kiba actually forgot that he was there.
"Look, it's Hana-neechan" Kiba said, turning to point. His arm swung out wide –because Kiba was that kind of person with wide movements –and the arm hit Shino squarely in the face, knowkcing him backwards before he suddenly tripped over a dozing Akamaru. He fell, landing on the butt, and it took him a couple of seconds before he gathered himselv enough to reach up to his face in order to check for the damages.
But what he found was much worse than any bloody nose or swollen lip, his glasses were broke, and in public too. Hastily he reached into his inner pocket for the spare pair but he was wearing his gala jacket (The same as usual, but midnight blue and without the hood) and the pocket was empty.
Some might think that the Aburmae eyes were onyx black pr even just bugs crawling in the empty sockets, and the Aburame said nothing in disagreement, because if people feared what might be behind the glasses, they would be less likely to ask about it.
The truth was actually a lot more horrifying, though in another way;
Because the Aburame was yet another clan whose bloodline was located in the eyes.
Their eyes were extremely beautiful. In fact they were so beautiful that anyone who saw them would instantly fall in love with the owner. These eyes were more or less a taboo in the clan because they were only to be used in emergencies where finding a mate was necessary for continuing the clan. Of course it only worked on people of opposite gender, and since the Aburame was a clan of ninjas, it worked better the larger the targets chakra was. If the target had feelings for the user from the beginning, it worked even better though.
Shino knew all of this and he rose, just to find that the fall had rendered him unable to do anything faster than walking.
Suddenly it was a very long way to the complex from where he stood.
