Chapter 1:

Shino was tired and frustrated but as usual, he kept his cheery smiling face and acted the kid he looked like. It was hard to suppress Murasame from taking control but for Sousuke he'll do it.

Sousuke will die but he'll be stuck in time, he knows and doesn't know what will happen when that happens but as long as Sousuke was with here with the rest of his friends, Shino would happily take on the pressure to keep control of Murasame.

The table quieted as the other bead holders looked at Shino who had a haunted look on his face when he stopped eating from his dinner.

"Shino, you ok?" Sousuke asked when he noticed that Shino paused from eating which almost never happened.

Shino snapped out of his trance and said with a huge smile, "Yeah! I was thinking about something. You know how Ao took your bead again? I was wondering if you could do some cool powers like command it to come to you."

The others chuckled but were a little worried about Shino. Shino returned to his meat and started to shovel it down once again. Shino was suddenly struck by a wave of pain, an after effect of suppressing Murasame.

Shino dropped his chopsticks and bowl to grip is head but this wave was worse than usual and hitting the ground was the last thing Shino felt before blacking out.

"Shino!" Shinobu shouted in worry and ran over to the boy.

Shino groaned and curled into himself breathing heavily as his grip on his head increased as the pain only got worse.

"Shino what's wrong?!" Genpachi asked but was not touching Shino afraid to make things worse for the boy in pain.

They stood hovering over the boy not knowing what to do, afraid to make things worse than it already is.

After a few minutes Shino stood up a bit unsteadily and almost fell if it wasn't for Sousuke catching him gently.

"Shino? Are you ok? What happened? Does it still hurt?" Sousuke asked worriedly.

Shino laughed weakly, "Yeah, sorry about that guys, just wondering what you'll do if I did that."

Everyone relaxed except Sousuke who had a mad look on his face and slapped Shino harshly on the cheek. Shino's eyes widened in shock and gasps were heard.

"You…slapped me…why?" Shino asked touching his cheek gently with his hand as he looked up at Sousuke.

"Don't lie to us Shino!" Sousuke said in an angry tone.

"What are you talking about; he's doing his usual pranks on us." Genpachi said in confusion.

"I known Shino longer than you have and I know his expression of pain, he wasn't faking it!" Sousuke shouted.

"It was a prank right Shino? Right?" Shinobu asked a bit fearfully for his friend.

"Of course I was! I bet I did a better job this time though, that's why Sosuke thinks that it was real." Shino said with a proud grin but on the inside he was running around shouting in his mind that they couldn't know.

Sousuke gritted his teeth; he didn't understand why Shino was lying to them about his pain. He didn't like that Shino tried to keep it as a prank of his when he was in actual pain.

"Sousuke?" Shino asked and looked up at his friend who had a frustrated face as he stared at the floor.

Sousuke looked into Shino's eyes that held sadness and worry and relaxed, "Sorry Shino, I just worried that's all, is your cheek ok? I slapped it really hard didn't I?"

The worry and sadness was washed away and was replaced with happiness.

Shino grinned, "Nah, it's fine, it hardly hurts at all. You'd have to hit harder than that Sousuke!"

Everyone relaxed, Shino got them again with another prank it seems. Shino grabbed a meat piece and ate it, at least the bowl and chopsticks landed on the table and not on the floor.

"Hey, are you going to finish eating or not?" Shino demanded.

The others laughed and went to settle down and started to eat again. Shino's eyes softened as he took in the scene, yes, he'll hold Murasame back as long as this scene stayed.