It did not start off hard.
Just one bug chosen from thousands upon thousands and just one child chosen from just
one wife.
He placed the single Destruction Bug upon the child's skin late one night as he wife slept,
unaware that her son would soon receive the true skill unique to the Aburame clan. The
tiny bug flittered about on warm flesh, wings fluttering, causing the child to murmur in
his sleep. Finally, it found a soft spot on the child's chest, folded its wings against its
back and burrowed into pale skin.
He smiled and retreated back to his bedroom.
It did not start off hard.
Aburame Shino looked to his father, face flushed and eyes glassy.
"I don't feel so good," the five-year-old whimpered.
His father frowned, kneeling down to press their foreheads together, feeling the heat
radiate off the child. Cupping Shino's face in his hands, he extended a tendril of chakra to
the Destruction Bugs he could feel moving under the child's flesh.
Mere maggots were not enough to fight off disease.
"Rest," he told Shino as he stood once more.
The fevered boy nodded, stumbling off to find his mother to put him to bed.
Shino reached up to scratch his arm, pouting when his nails met only cloth. "Why do I
have to wear this? I'm itchy…"
His father didn't say a word but continued to fasten the high-collared gray jacket that
covered up to his nose and trailed past his fingertips and knees.
"Does it have something to do with my itching?"
"Yes," came the stoic reply.
"Why am I itching?"
"Clan ability."
"My skin moves – does that have anything to do with the itching?"
"Yes. Quite."
Shino pressed his lips together in a pout, felling the itchy crawling sensation strong under
his flesh. He was about to lift his hand to scratch his arm when it was smacked away.
Once the jacket was set tight against his body, his father once more cupped his cheeks
and a slight jolt ran though his body.
The crawling intensified.
Shino's father nodded and stood, saying, "Academy classes begin tomorrow. Be there at
eight.
He quietly stepped into the classroom, which bubbled with the noise of happy children
ready to become ninja. His emerald eyes, so like his mother's, peered about the room as
the sound of his father's footsteps faded away. Picking out an isolated seat near the door,
he patiently waited for the Chuunin teacher to arrive, glancing about as discreetly as a
child could.
A young boy with shaggy brown hair, eyes like oval-shaped coals and wearing a light
blue jacket with faux fur about the bottom hem and sleeves looked up at Shino and titled
his head like a curious puppy. Breaking away from his one-sided conversation with the
white-eyed Hinata (who seemed more interested in blushing and reading her book than
socializing), he walked up to the new boy and grinned broadly.
"Hi!" he yipped, causing Shino to look curiously at him. "My name is Inuzuka Kiba, who
are you?"
"I'm Aburame Shino."
Kiba scrunched up his nose and asked, "'Aburame'? Like with all those bugs?
Shino nodded and Kiba returned to his grin and told him, "My clan works with doggies. I
don't have my own yet, but mommy and daddy say that when I'm old enough I'll be able
to make a friend with one myself. What about you? When do you get your bugs,
Aburame-kun?"
Shino blinked in amazement. Never before had anyone taken such an interest in his clan's
ability before; normally people just muttered, "Bugs," and left with a sneer.
Kiba continued to grin and Shino replied quietly, "I already got my bugs."
"That's neat," Kiba yipped happily. He opened his mouth to say more, but the door slid
open and in stepped an eighteen-year-old man, dark brown hair brushed up into a high
ponytail. His oaken eyes sparkled as he commanded the children to their seats and he
rubbed the scar across the bridge of his nose as he introduced himself as Umino Iruka.
Shino looked to the seat next to him, where Kiba had sat himself down and smiled,
receiving a grin in response.
Shino whimpered and pushed his bowl away, pain filling his cheeks and electrocuting his
brain. His mother frowned and bowed down so that she was eye-level with her son and
asked, "What's wrong, sweetling?"
"Hurt," he whimpered, the single syllable increasing his pain tenfold.
His mother frowned and placed a hand on his cheek, feeling something crawling and
pressing against the flesh. "Go lay down on the couch and I'll go get your father."
The child nodded and stumbled to the sofa, collapsing upon it as his mother ran from the
house and out to the garden. A quick explanation passed her lips and the man stepped
inside the house. Approaching Shino, he asked, "Where does it hurt?"
"M… my face…"
"Eyes."
"Cheeks."
Shino's father placed a finger on the boy's left cheek, gently tracing over the flesh until he
felt a point that made Shino squirm. A jolt of chakra was sent through the child's skin and
the sensation of movement halted for a moment and the pain ebbed with it.
Shino sighed, glad the pain was over with.
The movement filled his left cheek and there was a ripping sensation.
The scent of acidic gasses wafted across his nose.
A single, blood-drenched Destruction Bug crawled from one of the three new holes in
Shino's cheek to the tip of his nose where the boy focused on it with tear-filled eyes
before he blacked out.
Shino reached into his jacket collar, gently fingering the three holes in his flesh, wincing
at the pain that shot through his mouth. It had been three days before he grew used to
speaking as little as possible as the movement of his jaws pained him terribly. It had
taken another two days after that to learn to control the Destruction Bugs enough so that
they weren't constantly buzzing about his head in their newfound freedom. And another
two days had to be allowed for the wounds in Shino's cheek to fully cauterize.
So there Shino sat, over a week's worth of absences racked up in his first three months of
the Academy. The door slid open and he saw Kiba step inside, head cast down and
looking upset. It was only when the brunette happened to glance up and catch sight of his
friend that his usual beam lit up his face.
"Shino-kun!" he cried, all but throwing himself upon Shino's desk, looking for all the
world like and ecstatic puppy. Shino attempted to smile, but the movement of drilled-
through muscles triggered the pain and he winced instead. Thankfully, Kiba didn't notice
and continued with, "Where were you? I missed you!"
"Sick," Shino mumbles, moving his mouth as little as possible.
"'Sick'?" Kiba parroted. Leaning over, he pressed his forehead to Shino's. "Not any more!
All nice and cool."
Shino looked into Kiba's sparkling eyes and felt his heart give a little flip-flop.
He was glad he was back.
Shino rubbed his temple, looking at the six-year-old reflected in the mirror before him.
Groaning, he pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes and bowed his head. Refusing to
miss anymore days, he zipped up his coat and made his way to the breakfast room where
his parents were already seated.
Even though he attempted to hide it, Shino's father noticed the vague signs of discomfort
that flittered over the boy's face.
"What hurts?" he asked.
Shino shook his head, but his father pressed, covered eyes peering down at him and
Shino finally murmured, "Eyes…"
His father reached over, pressing one hand to Shino's cheek and sent a tendril of chakra
through to the Destruction Bugs within him. There was a pause before he said, "Go rest."
The child looked up quickly, but didn't protest. Instead, he turned his gaze to the table
and retreated to his room, rubbing his eyes. Laying himself down upon his bed, he felt a
sharp pain behind his eyes causing him to flinch and whimper.
It was a few minutes later when his father stepped into the room, a pair of sunglasses in
one hand. Approaching Shino, who was curled up on his side, back to the door, he gently
pressed his palm upon the child's head. Shino turned to face him slowly, eyes clenched
shut.
"It hurts…"
Blood dripped from his eyelashes in a mocking semblance of tears.
Shino adjusted his sunglasses as he sat under the large oak. A Destruction Bug crawled
from the empty socket that had once been his eyes and the boy saw the world through the
many facets, each small reflection showing different ends of the earth. The creature
fluttered its wings on his cheek and crawled across his flesh to disappear back within his
body, rendering him virtually blind.
The sensation of movement outside his body caught his attention and he pleaded with the
bugs under his skin until one crawled from his eye socket. He saw Kiba sit before him
through the creature's vision. The brunette beamed and happily yipped a greeting. As
Shino smiled in return, Kiba peered closely at him and asked suddenly, "Why do you
have sunglasses on? It's cloudy."
Shino pressed a hand to the shiny black frames and frowned. He didn't want to scare off
the only friend he had made. "I… nothing – I like them."
Kiba pouted, feeling that there was a deeper truth he was being left out of, but accepted
the excuse. Suddenly, he brightened once more, crying out, "Let's go play tag!"
Shino smiled and stood, lightly tapping the other boy on the forehead and running off,
Kiba laughing and following closely behind.
Shino looked through the bug's eyes at his teammates across the clearing, taking in the
sight of Kiba gently grooming Akamaru's fur free of burrs and stickers. Hinata sat off to
one side, nose buried in a leather-bound edition of Romeo and Juliet, white eyes flicking
upwards every so often, hoping to catch sight of their instructor. Gently he reached up
and caressed the reflective black lenses covering the blank sockets.
One day he would tell them why he wore sunglasses every hour of every day. One day…
It would not start off hard.