DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. But Shino owns me.

O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~

Promise

Plop, plop, plop.

Sigh.

Plop, plop, plop.

Breathe deeply. In, out. In, out. Good. Control yourself. You can handle this. Breathe. That's all you have to do. Breathe. Figure the rest out later.

I looked down at my clothes. Torn to pieces, they are.

'The blood stains make a great fashion statement don't they.'

No. They don't. Get your head out of the clouds, Shino. You're on a mission.

'I'm thinking of her again.'

Well, stop! We are in the middle of a mission, standing in the rain, bleeding to death. Do you want to die?

'No. I promised her. I promised her I would come back alright. I won't let her down.'

Yeah. You just keep telling yourself that has we find a place to rest.

I remember hardly being able to walk, holding my wounds, bracing myself for whatever would come next. As I found a stream, I tried cleaning my wounds. My little friends helped me, but would it be enough this time?

I saw a shape in the dark, it was coming closer and closer. I told my friends to investigate the intruder and heard a scream that would put my mom to shame.

Mom... She wouldn't care if I came back or not. She never loved me. One less Aburame near her. I wish my father would have married someone else, but it was an arranged marriage.

Father... He wouldn't care either. He never bothered with me. He had Antry, my older brother, and that was enough for him.

But her. Her. That was why I was coming back. Not for anything else in the world but for her. My kunoichi.

The only one who listened. The only one who understood. The only one who held me day, after day as the comments and rumors spread through the village about the Aburame. The freaks. The human hives.

She was the only one who cared. The only one I loved.

And so, I was coming back.

I kept her in my mind as my world faded to a darker black then the stom could create. The pool of blood around me was getting bigger and deeper. My bugs swirled around me, to be with their master as he took his last breathe. Or was it his last...

Plop, plop, plop.