Best Buddy
"Today is a nice day." Shino decided.
He was sitting on his own front porch step and had nothing to do. He wasn't very upset about that, mind you. You see, Shino is the type to enjoy days that he has nothing to do because he usually ends up filling that time with training.
So, as he reveled in his happiness, or at least as close Shino can get to displaying his happiness to the world, he suddenly heard the familiar sound of someone approaching. Someone whom he didn't wish to approach.
"Hey Shino!" Kiba shouted quite loudly as he bounded up the front walk and sat himself down next to Shino.
"Hi Kiba." Shino said, trying to be polite, at least.
Kiba gave a heavy sigh. His aim was to get Shino to ask him why he sighed, but Shino would rather he just go away then tell him about his despairs and Kiba should know that well by now.
"So, Shino, do you want me to tell you why I'm sighing?" Kiba asked.
"Sure." Shino said, even though he'd rather not hear.
"I'm in a fight with Akamaru!" Kiba said with another sigh.
Shino paused and waited.
"And?" he finally led, wondering why this pertained to him.
"And I figured that since we're best buddies, we can hang out and have a day for just you and me to bond! Just us guys! I mean, YOU'RE certainly not doing anything."
"Yes I am." Said Shino, standing up.
"Well what are you doing?" Kiba demanded, following after Shino as he quickly started walking away.
"Walking." Shino answered.
"Then let's walk together!" Kiba declared. "So what do you want to do, best buddy?" Shino glared at him. "We could build a tree fort and make a club that only you and me are allowed to join!"
Shino stopped walking. Kiba stopped and turned around.
"What's up, Shino?" he asked.
"Let's play hide and seek." Shino said.
"I like that game!" Kiba announced.
"I'll count and you hide." Shino offered.
"You got it, best friend ever!" said Kiba as he ran off as fast as he could.
Shino shook his head and went off to get some training done.
His training was all around fruitful. He felt as though he was making some great progress in only the short few hours he had been doing so and, with another hour or so, he was sure he'd have his newest technique mastered.
"SHINO!" came an enraged voice.
Shino turned around to see Kiba stomping over.
"Hi Kiba." He said.
"Why didn't you come find me!" Kiba demanded.
"I was looking." Shino lied. "Your hiding spot was too good."
Kiba eyed Shino suspiciously. "Let's play a different game." He said. "How about fetch? Shino, do you like playing fetch?"
Shino shook his head and whipped a shovel out from behind his back.
"Let's dig a hole to the center of the earth." Shino said.
"Wow!" said Kiba as he took the shovel from Shino. "That's such a great idea! How'd you think of that?" Shino shrugged. "Hm…how are you going to dig? We only have one shovel. We can switch off."
"No, I'll just get another one." Shino said. "You get started without me, but don't get too far."
"You got it, Shino!" said Kiba as he vigorously started digging. "Hurry back, Shino, best buddy!"
Shino stated walking away. Sure, he felt a little bad that he was ditching Kiba in such a cruel manner that shouldn't be allowed, but come on. Why should Shino be in charge of distracting Kiba from his spat with Akamaru?
So Shino went home and found that it was dinnertime. He took a pan out of the cabinet and made himself a grilled cheese sandwich. He sat down in front of the television and started watching some television.
He was almost halfway through his favorite movie when a head poked in his window. He turned turn his head quick enough to see exactly who it was as the person dodged out of view, but he had a pretty good guess on who it was when the doorbell rang.
He put down his dirty plate and opened up the door to be, once again, faced with Kiba covered in dirt.
"Shino!" said Kiba. "I thought you were getting a shovel!"
"I couldn't find one." Shino said.
"You could have came back and told me!" Kiba said.
"I did and you weren't there so I figured you went home." Shino said.
"Oh right… well, I did take a short bathroom brake." Kiba said, scratching his chin.
"That's probably when I came." Shino said.
"Well, all right." Said Kiba. "So what do you want to do instead? You're full of fun ideas today!"
"Let's play bounty hunter." Said Shino as he pulled two toy guns out from behind his back.
"Bounty Hunter?" Kiba said as Shino tossed him one of the guns. "How do you play that?"
"Mainly, we hide from each other and try to shoot each other when the other one is off guard." Shino explained.
"That sounds fun!" said Kiba.
Kiba followed Shino outside and the two of them stood back to back. "Take ten thousand steps in the direction your facing and then the game starts." Shino said.
"Got it." Kiba said with a nod.
"Ready?" said Shino. "Go."
The two of them started walking and counting. Well, only Kiba was counting. As soon as Kiba was out of earshot, Shino quickly checked behind him and went back inside to finish his movie.
It was getting pretty dark outside by the time Shino finished watching his second movie. He decided it was now time for bed and felt pretty good about how his day had gone so far. As he ascended his stairs into his room, he heard a sketchy sounding creek coming from the floor above him.
Slowly, he continued to go up and rounded the corner only to be faced with Kiba. Again.
"I am tired of you dodging me all day!" said Kiba. "Enlighten me as to what your excuse is this time!"
"Um." Said Shino.
"I thought so." Said Kiba. "Well, I'll have you know that I'm going home and I don't consider you to be my best buddy ever anymore!"
With that, Kiba stormed off.
Shino stood in the doorway for a minute, trying to decide whether or not he really needed to pursue Kiba and apologize in some way or if he should just wait five minutes for him to forget it.
Maybe he'd apologize tomorrow.
The next morning, Shino got out of bed and went to training just as scheduled.
"Good morning Shino!" said Hinata as Shino strolled in a little late.
"It's about time you showed up." Said Kurenai, looking annoyed.
"Have you seen Kiba anywhere?" Hinata asked.
"Not since yesterday." Shino replied.
"Oh." Said Hinata with a frown.
"It's unlike him to be late." Kurenai added.
As three of them waited, Shino suddenly felt that he had made a big mistake in treating Kiba so badly the day before and not apologizing when he had the chance. Perhaps Kiba had taken it seriously and jumped off a cliff somewhere because he was so overtaken by grief. Sure, it was a little far-fetched, but Kiba's crazy enough to do something stupid like that over something so small.
"Well, let's just get started without him." Said Kurenai.
"Um…I'll go see what's taking him so long." Said Shino as he turned around and walked away without waiting for any disapprovals or approvals from the other two.
He felt like he was going to learn a good lesson from all of this.
He knocked on Kiba's door and waited.
Then there was the sound of crashing and banging, as if someone had cans and rubbish tied to their legs and arms and then purposely tumbled down the stairs while trying to yell and pound as many things as they could. And Shino shook his head in disbelief because he could totally picture Kiba doing that for whatever reason.
The door swung open and Kiba was there with Akamaru on his head.
"I know I'm late!" Kiba said, coming outside. "You didn't have to send out a search party!"
Shino only stood there.
"So are we going or what?" Kiba asked.
The two of them started walking.
"Kiba, about yesterday." Said Shino suddenly. He had to muster up a lot to do this.
"What about it?" Kiba asked.
"Well, you looked pretty mad." Shino said.
Kiba looked up and appeared as though he was striving to remember.
"Um…?" he began slowly.
"Remember how you got in a fight with Akamaru and then decided that you wanted me to distract you from the fight so you decided that I was your new best friend and you wanted to play games, and I kept playing games and ditching you for a couple hours and you finally got mad about it and said that I wasn't your friend anymore and stormed out of my house?" Shino summarized.
"Oh yeah!" said Kiba. "I remember now. And?"
Shino looked at Kiba long and hard.
"Never mind." He said finally.
"Okay." Said Kiba with a shrug.
And just like that, Shino didn't learn his lesson.