Riceballs, a naruto fanfic

A/N - I originally wrote this story as a part of my other InoShino fic, Symbiosis, but somehow it didn't fit. It originally didn't even occur between Ino and Shino, but between Naruto and Hinata, another pairing that I adamantly support. After writing this, however, InoShino has officially become my favourite pairing. So enjoy!

Disclaimer - I do not own the Naruto franchise or any of its original characters and plot.

---

Shino Aburame was the genius of his team. He had high scores in his Genin entrance exam, and aside from the fact that his destruction bugs were one of the creepiest forms of shinobi combat; his mysterious aura and stoic nature rivalled even his fellow genius, Sasuke Uchiha. If it weren't for his intimidating insects, he probably would have had a larger fan girl following at the academy.

Nonetheless, his awesome abilities would eventually be realized, and his relationship with his kikaichu would be understood and even appreciated by a certain flower-loving girl. Perhaps the mutual understanding of the relationships between plants and insects was what made Ino Yamanaka appreciate this quiet Aburame prodigy.

Perhaps this was what aroused Tsunade's scheming side, and made her to send the two on a completely harmless D-class mission to help save an endangered ladybug species, and put them in a situation where it would be impossible for the two to get together. Regardless of the intentions of the Godaime, the two eagerly learned to see common passions that the other possessed, and grew to not take them for granted. A year later, and still together, Ino and Shino's relationship was as natural and as the bug-user could expect it to be. Despite having the appearance of an introvert, Shino was actually pretty good with people, girls particularly, Ino especially. Shino had become a relationship genius.

Despite conquering the world of being a shinobi, and singleness, Shino was only human; he had his share of faults, but was masterfully able to hide them from his friends, and keep his image of flawlessness in the things that mattered most to a shinobi. However, today was a particular day for him to put his image on the line and try his hand at something he was the most incompetent at.

Cooking.

Ino was to leave for a mission in Wave Country with her team. It was a mission that would have her be away from Konoha for a few days. It would have her be away from Shino as well. Of course, this brought an unsettling feeling in Shino's stomach, not being able to be near the one he loved quite dearly. He decided the night after his girlfriend broke the news to him that he would do something sweet, something unexpected, something completely unlike him. He would make a bento for her trip.

But where would Shino start? He decided first and foremost that his teammates would not be involved in his endeavour. Kiba Inuzuka would think that he had gone soft, and appear weaker in the eyes of his friends. Hinata Hyuuga would probably try to help too much. She was indeed a hospitable girl, acting much like a mom to the two boys while their leader, Kurenai Yuhi, was supposedly away on "missions" (meaning that she was on a secret date with Ino's team leader, Asuma Sarutobi). She might end up doing most of the work for Shino, leaving him with a sense of lessening the value of his gesture because he didn't do it himself.

"Ugh, troublesome." Shino groaned, as he stood in front of a row of street merchants. He almost sounded like his friend Shikamaru Nara, who was notorious for his pessimistic outlook on problematic tasks. He viewed the booths one by one as he walked down the dirt road.

Seeing lavish arrays of fruits, vegetables, and questionable cuts of meat, the possibilities were endless for Shino, and as such, made his decision on what to make extremely difficult. The sun began to set. It was 5:30, and he budgeted time for himself to actually prepare the food for Ino, deliver it to her before she would leave, early the next day. He purchased as much as he could with the remaining money he had made from his last mission.

"That will be fifty-three dollars." The vendor said.

Shino took out a ladybug-shaped coin pouch. It was horrendously cute, and it reminded him of Ino because it was a gift from her early on in the relationship. He took out a small wad of cash, counted it, and handed it over to the merchant.

"You're a dollar short." The vendor said regretfully.

Shino stood in intense thought as he looked at the food he had tried to buy, carefully eyeing out the different items and evaluating the likelihood of him using them, or even using them properly at all. The vendor stood in disbelief as he watched a grown man with a ludicrously shaped coin pouch. He had seen weirder pouches before, such as one shaped as a frog's head that another certain ninja with which he would use to buy ramen.

"You know what," the vendor said, "forget about it. You're a shinobi. You deserve special treatment from this town. We are indebted to you. And besides, you need to worry more about the food that you'll be making for your girlfriend, ne?" The vendor shot a shoddy wink at Shino.

"Ah," Shino said as he began to blush a tiny bit, "thank you very much, sir. I am very grateful."

"Run along now," the vendor said, "bentos of love don't make themselves!"

---

It was already 6:30 by the time Shino had arrived in his solitary apartment near the Hokage cliffs. It was a noticeably long walk from the market, which made Shino wonder why he even visited that area in the first place.

No time to waste, I guess. The hard part has just begun.

Shino laid out all of the groceries on his kitchen countertop. It was a plain kitchen for a normal villager's standards, but the sturdiness of its design withstood countless instances of culinary disasters that Shino had attempted prior to tonight. There was enough elbowroom for Shino to do the required preparations, while at the same time having every ingredient available to his disposal.

Maybe I'll make some rice first.

He plugged in his rice cooker, and added a few cups of rice to it, and unknowingly, one too many cups of water. He closed the lid down, pressed the "on" button, and prayed.

He tried his hand at the vegetables first.

This should be simple. I'm skilled with kunai; chopping vegetables shouldn't be too hard.

Being used to ordering out with Kiba, who was also his neighbour, it was quite a while since Shino had last made a home-prepared meal. Salad wasn't too hard to make in theory, since minimal chopping was involved. It was only the tomatoes that were a bit tricky.

Shino was careful with his knife. He was perhaps, a bit too careful, taking his sweet time delicately slicing away the tomato in front of him.

Not bad. The slices all came out straight. Now how do I turn them into those blocky shapes?

Shino experimented a little with a slice of his tomato, and settled for slicing the tomato again with a different orientation, such that the slices would come out as rectangular pieces. Unlike the first run through, this turned out to be a more difficult endeavour than Shino initially realized. The thin slices were now sliding in different directions as Shino struggled to hold them together. He ended up holding the tomato slices a little to tightly, and the juices began to ooze out from the cracks between slices.

Dammit. This is pretty tough. Let's try something else for now.

He grabbed a head of lettuce and began to rinse it out. As the water from his sink trickled down his fingers as he prodded through the leafy greens, he had realized a serious error.

Crap. I didn't buy dressing for this. CRAP. I didn't buy croutons or bacon bits either.

Shino panicked for a second, and gave up rather easily on his attempt at a basic salad. It was 7:00, and he had wasted half an hour on his entrée that he didn't even end up using. Things were off to a grim start. He remained steadfast, however, since he still had a few more hours for the rest of the lunch.

He then turned to a sealed bag of pork, which took up almost half of the area of the countertop.

Now why did I have to buy so much pork to begin with?

He mustered the strength to open the bag, only to notice a disturbing smell coming from inside the bag. He had not noticed that the meat might have gone bad. Why merchants would still sell products at this quality was a mystery. Nonetheless, Shino began to question the sincerity of the vendor that had sold him his food. Either way, He resolved himself to at least try to confirm that the meat was no longer fresh.

He sent a single bug to test out the content of the meat. It crawled into the bag, and died before even touching the meat.

Crap.

Shino was an excellent tactician as a ninja, planning moves multiple steps ahead of his opponents, much like his genius friend Shikamaru. It was a mystery that Shino couldn't even plan out a meal properly. He had no meat. His tomatoes were questionable, he had an unused head of lettuce, and a bunch of randomly picked out vegetables that would have gone to waste.

Hmmm…maybe stir-fry might be the solution.

This would be Shino's first time using a wok in what he internally calculated to be a year. His determination to impress the girl he appreciated so much gave him the courage to try using it. He opened up the container of cooking oil, and readied a serving spoon over the wok in an attempt to properly portion out the oil for his attempt at oriental cuisine. He even recalled a recipe that his mother used for his Genin excursions with Kurenai and the others, and desperately attempted to repeat it, as to not forget the ingredients.

Bell pepper. Tomato. Onion. String Bean. Soy Sauce.

Crap.

Crap wasn't actually an ingredient to his desired dish. It was his reaction to not paying attention to what was in front of him. While trying to think of the ingredients to his dish for Ino, he had continuously let the oil overflow from his serving spoon. As a result, a little bit less than half of the wok was already filled with oil.

Ok, um, I guess I'll empty this out over the sink.

He positioned the wok over the sink, and tried to empty the contents over the drain. He stopped pouring at regular intervals to visually estimate how much oil he would probably want remaining for his stir-fry. By doing so, however, he did not notice how oil would run down the side of the wok as he stopped pouring.

After spending a considerable amount of timing doing this, he eventually settled on an amount that he was content with, and repositioned himself to the gas stove behind him. As he turned around, he didn't make note of the oil dripping down the side of the wok onto the floor. He placed the vegetables into the wok first, all at the same time, before even heating up the oil. He lit the spark to his stove, and the flame burst out underneath, spreading out through the trail of oil that trickled down the side, over the rim of the wok, and into the inside where all the vegetables were. The wok erupted in a large pillar of flame in such a sudden fashion that Shino almost singed himself in the face, thankful that he didn't get caught in the eyes

Whew. I guess there's a reason why I wear these shades even at night…

Naturally, having watched his mother prepare this certain style of stir-fry before, he was able to judge for himself when he was done. It didn't even turn out half-bad, either. Content for the very first time in a long while, he reached up for the cupboards behind him for his bento box, and placed it carefully down in front of him. He took the stir-fry from the wok, and gingerly held it from the handles.

He turned around and began to carefully position himself in front of the lunch box. He was caught unaware of the puddle of oil that had spilt earlier, and accidentally placed a significant amount of weight on his foot as he stepped on that certain spot.

He slipped and fell. The wok was sent flying. The vegetables splattered all over the floor.

crap…

Facing up towards the ceiling, the bright light hitting his face, he felt such bitter defeat. He wasn't sad for himself, but for Ino instead. Although he had not promised her that he would make such an elaborate meal, she was still missing out on a rare gesture of kindness from her special guy. He tilted his head back to look at the clock behind him.

"hEll." it read. He was looking at it upside-down after all; it was 11:34. It didn't really matter, though, since Shino felt like he had been sent to hell due to a string of intensely bad luck. He wasn't going to give up though. For Ino, he'd claw his way from the grip of the oni himself to be with her. He stood up, and began to clean, and start over again with whatever he had.

Screw elaborate cuisine. I'll just make it simple.

It would take him all night to make that decision, but it would be the best decision he had made up to that point.

---

The sun rose, and it was already 7:30 the next morning. Ino and her team met at the front gate of the village in preparation for embarking on their mission. They were about to leave, when a ninja was running towards them. He was quite awkward-looking in his stride, but paid no heed to it, since it seemed as if he was in a hurry. He also held a lunch box in his hand.

"Ino!" He panted.

"Shino! What are you doing here?" Ino looked somewhat confused.

"I…made…something…for…your…" Shino continued to pant.

"Shino! Calm down! We're not in a hurry!"

Ino stared as she watched her special person regain his composure after a long sprint from his apartment at the other side of the village. She saw him reach into his backpack, and take out a blue plastic container, wrapped with a calm violet ribbon. He took the box and handed it to her.

"Shino," Ino asked curiously, "what is this?"

"Your lunch. I spent all night making it."

Ino's cheeks reddened suddenly, as her two team mates, as well as Asuma, began to give incredulous stares at her boyfriend.

"Shino?" Asuma smirked. "Since when did you cook?"

"Um. Never."

"How awkard," Shikamaru toted, "that a tough-ass like you would stoop to such a low level of manhood to impress a woman."

Ino shot a freakishly sharp glare at her friend.

"Shika you punk! I wouldn't say those kinds of things if I were you! Temari likes to talk to me about you, after all!"

Shikamaru stood silent, obviously defeated.

"Troublesome."

Ino opened the box out of her curiosity. She wanted to see what Shino had gone through intense lengths to prepare. She opened the lid slightly, and saw something unexpected.

"Rice balls?"

"Uh, yes."

"You made rice balls."

"Yes."

"You spent the whole night making these rice balls."

"Pretty much."

There was a silence between the two. Ino took that moment to look at her special person, and saw a mess. A stained shirt. Greasy hands. Burned sunglasses. A questionable smell of expired pork. She could only smile when she heard some unexpected words come out of Shino's mouth.

"I squeezed the rice extra hard, just for you."

Ino smiled, then burst into laughter. She then turned even more red as she realized the fruits of Shino's labour. She walked up to him and gave him the tightest hug that she could muster at that moment. For the first time, she didn't care about her clothes, since they had become stained from Shino's shirt. For the first time, she didn't care about her smell, since she had picked up Shino's scent of raw meat. She finally let go of her hug, and for the first time, she was able to see through his sunglasses, and saw his rich hazel eyes. She smiled.

"There," Ino said, "I squeezed extra hard. Just for you."