A/N: This came to me as a sort of idea, really, and I'm not sure why I wrote it like I did. (sigh)

Disclaimer: The usual. Not mine.

Ant Farm

Iruka knew he had some problem kids, but he wasn't expecting… well, this. And even as a small child, Aburame Shino was still a bit of an odd child— sunglasses a little too big for his round face, perched in a thin nose and refusing to talk to others. In fact, he didn't talk unless it was absolutely necessary. Iruka had asked Shibi about it and only received a blunt, "He's a shy one."

But Shino was there, just outside the trained grounds. How he'd gotten there was beyond Iruka. But he was squatting, hands on his knees, observing an ant pile and the small, red insects crawling across the dirt with a sort of detached air that seemed almost inhuman for an eight-year-old. The boy didn't move. Didn't shift. Didn't even seem to be breathing. Not even while storm clouds were raging in the spring sky, rumbling their discontentment across, with lightning fingers raking against them.

"This is where you've been the whole time, Shino-kun?"

'Chan' would have just seemed unnatural. Shino was the only one Iruka ever used 'kun' for. (1)

Shino nodded, vaguely, his white shirt shifting a little as he plopped down further on the ground.

Iruka sighed, scratching the back of his head as he moved closer. "Please, you shouldn't be out here—"

"Am I creepy?"

The sentence dropped as the chuunin's jaw came slightly unhinged, then lips pulled into a frown as he regarded Aburame Shino's small form.

"Huh?"

The boy finally tilted his head to look at Iruka. "Am I creepy?"

"What?" Iruka asked, feeling his chest clench up. He knelt down next to the Aburame. He would have reached out to touch his small shoulder, but the boy never did like it when people came into his breathing space much. "Is that what you're out here for?"

No reply. Iruka sighed.

"I don't think you are, Shino-kun."

"The others do."

Iruka raised his brows and shook his head. "That's no reason to wander off when it's going to rain."

But the boy didn't seem to listen, and he was simply looking at Iruka with his same expressionless manner and shaded eyes, and the rain finally broke out over them like a bucket being poured over, drenching them both within seconds. Iruka winced at the cold, reaching to pull Shino up—

The boy was slightly hunched, and was shielding the ant pile, refusing to budge, and the man ended up sitting there with him, shaking his head, wondering how it was that he ended up in situations like these. But they stayed there, protecting the ants from water, and Iruka supposed them not wandering off too far was more so Shino's doing than anything.

The shower didn't last long.

For a long moment, quiet reigned.

"I'll be back," Iruka said and poofed away with a few hand signs in between the words, and wasn't gone too long before he reappeared with a clear, plastic container and held it out.

Shino's only reaction was to raise a brow slightly.

"For the ants," the chuunin explained with a smile. "I don't have anything better. Take the ants with you. I'm sure they're thankful for you watching over them. They don't think you're weird at all."

In the end, Iruka ended up walking the boy home, explaining to Shibi what happened.

The next day, Iruka was surprised to find an ant farm on his desk before class and smiled a little. The note "they liked you, too" in scratchy, untidy handwriting was enough.

People are like ants, he decided. They needed to work together.

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(1) For those that don't know, when you're a little kid, "chan" refers to that, and the fact that Shino doesn't act like a child would make anyone refuse to add that honorific. So… yeah… whatever.