"No. Your dog is just too noisy." Shino coldly said while walking off down the street of Konoha's busy market.
Kiba glared after him. They had just been having some fun and Akamaru had been barking loudly when Shino had talked and ruined all of their fun. "Oh, he makes me so mad some times. I know." Kiba cruelly laughed.
"What are y-you going t-to d-do?" Hinata stuttered out. She was trying to avoid some conflict in their team.
Kiba bought a couple of tomatoes and ran off down the street. "Follow and see." he called. He quickly ran to where Shino lived. He turned around and saw Hinata trying to keep up with him.
She panted after she caught up with Kiba. "Ki-Kiba, what a-are y-you do-doing?" she asked as he climbed up a tall tree near the Aburame house.
Kiba didn't answer her. He was staring at the open window.
There was a beautiful girl laying on the bed. Unlike Shino's hair, her hair was a dirty blond. She had a slight smile on her sleeping face. She was beautiful.
Kiba shook his head and looked around for Shino. He was just starting to walk inside when Kiba threw the tomatoes. He laughed before jumping out of the tree and walking away with Hinata.
Shino reached up and pulled some of the tomato out of his hair. He knew that Kiba had done that. He sighed and walked inside. "Mother, I'm back." he called while slipping out of his shoes.
His mother walked out of the kitchen. "Welcome home. She's back again." his mother sadly said.
Shino paused. "What did the doctors say?" he asked, concern creeping into his voice.
His mother hung her head. "Even though its been years, the doctors say that her regaining sight in that eye is impossible. They were able to partially save her left eye, though."
He gave his mom a disbelieving look.
His mom sighed. "There is a doctor that can help her but we wouldn't be able to pay his rates."
"Is she resting?" he asked.
His mother gave him a sad look. She put her hand on his shoulder. "She wishes to be alone. We put her in your room until we can clear out hers."
Shino nodded and walked away. He slipped into the bathroom to take a shower to get all of the tomato out of his hair. He got back out and walked to just outside his door. He lightly knocked on the door.
"Go away." a miserable voice said from inside.
"Its me." he quietly said. He knew that she would let him in. He went in after he heard the lock on his door click. He sat down next to her.
"They won't tell me." she quietly said, not looking up at him. Her long dirty blond hair was spread out all around her.
"They don't want to see you hurt anymore." he said.
She flew up into a sitting position. "They don't want to hurt me anymore? I don't think that I can be hurt anymore. I already know what's happening." her hazel eye that was showing was brimming with unshed tears.
Shino was surprised. Did she really know. "What do you think?" he softly asked.
"We can't pay for the one guy who can help. I had my bugs spy on them." she broke down into tears.
Shino wrapped his arms around her and let her sob into his shoulder. Soon, he felt her body go limp in his arms. She had fainted out of exhaustion. She must have been crying all day. He leaned back against the wall and fell asleep as well.
Arden slowly open her free eye. She blearily blinked the sleep out of her uncovered eye and tried to figure out where she was. All she saw was a gray color.
A small sighed met her ears and she felt something shifting at her back. She slowly turned her head up and saw Shino, fast asleep with his arms around her. There wasn't much light so it was probably around five am.
She sighed and leaned onto his shoulder again. She couldn't believe that this was happening.
"Why don't you just ask Tsunade-sama?" Shino asked, surprising her. He had been woken up by her moving a bit and sighing. He was a light sleeper.
"You know what our father thinks." she whispered.
It was true. Their father may be totally for protecting Konoha at all measures but he didn't really agree with everyone on having a woman as a hokage. He didn't agree with having Tsunade in charge.
"Does it look like I care?" Shino pulled his arms back to his sides and she got off of him and sat down next to him.
"It doesn't look like it." she said while leaning on him. She was still dead tired.
"I'm taking you to her. Get dressed." he said while standing.
She flopped over on his bed. Her tired eye stared at him. She really didn't want to go anywhere right now. Right now, she just wanting to sleep and be miserable all by herself.
"Get dressed." Shino said. He looked at her. There was a torn up tee shirt on the ground and she was wearing a short camisole shirt and black pants. He grabbed one of his jackets and tossed it at her.
She stared at it for a bit. It was too big and she was skinny. It was also a little too long, considering that Shino was about two inches taller than her. She looked up when Shino put a pair of scissors in front of her eyes. "You know me well." she said while taking them.
Shino smirked as he pulled off his dirty and scratched up coat and put another one on. "The reason could be that we lived together for, oh I don't know, forever?" he jokingly said.
She stuck her tongue out at him before starting to cut the jacket. She cut about half of the bottom off so it ended just below her breasts. She made the long sleeves short and cut the front part off of the neck so her face was showing.
Shino smirked under the high neck that hid his face. She looked interesting in that.
Arden looked over at the window and saw a familiar picture. She grabbed it and stared. It was a picture of Kotetsu, Izumo, herself, and their teacher. Both Kotetsu and Izumo had their arms over her shoulders and she was loosing her balance. Their teacher was laughing.
She had went to the academy early because she was able to control her bugs very early on. She had been on a team with Kotetsu and Izumo and they were best friends. Well, for a while anyway.
Arden glanced over at Shino, who was waiting by the door. "Why do you have that?" she asked while following him out the door after they pulled their shoes on again.
Shino shrugged but didn't answer her. He grabbed Arden before she walked into a vendor's cart. "We need to work on your depth perception." he said while holding onto her arm.
Arden punched his shoulder. "Thanks a lot." was her sarcastic answer. Even so, she didn't let go of his arm until they were at the large hokage's office building.
Shino walked up to Tsunade's office and knocked on the door. He heard a faint and groggy 'come in' and he opened the door with Arden shyly following him.
Tsunade glared at him. "What do you what Aburame?" She had yet to see Arden hiding behind Shino.
"Which one?" they said at the same time. Arden poked her head out from behind Shino a bit to say that.
Tsunade stared at both of them. They looked a lot alike but you could tell Arden apart because she wasn't wearing sunglasses and the fact that she was a girl. "Shino, who is this?" Tsunade asked in a teasing voice.
Arden's face turning red and she stepped out from behind Shino. "I am his twin, Aburame Arden." she said proudly.
Tsunade nodded. "Well, what is that you two want?" she asked.
Arden stepped back again and Shino sighed. "We have something to ask you. Do you think that you might be able to save Arden's eyes?" Shino asked.
Tsunade's attention was immediately on Arden. She stood and walked towards her. "Take off the bandages." she ordered.
Arden did and her blank and half blank eyes stared at Tsunade. "I need to be able to truly see with my eyes if I want to let the kikkai bugs into my eyes, which is tradition for all of the Aburame's. If I cannot see with my true eyes, then the kikkai would not be able to see either." she explained.
Tsunade nodded and quickly glanced over at Shino. She was surprised to see that he had taken off his sunglasses. She saw him looking at her with blank and black eyes. "May I touch your eyes?" she asked Arden.
Arden nodded and stayed still while Tsunade lightly placed her hands over her eyes. She felt Tsunade suddenly jerk her hands backwards.
Tsunade was alarmed. The girl's eyes were rapidly declining and if they were left for about another two weeks, maybe less, she would loss complete sight in both her eyes and it would be irreversible. She looked at the girl's worried face. "We need to operate on your eyes immediately if you wish to keep your sight." Tsunade quietly said.
Arden looked at Tsunade's face with the little sight that she had. "Would it be able to wait a day or two?" she quietly asked.
"Possibly. What reason would it have to be held up for?" Tsunade asked as she walked back to her desk.
"The kikkai. They wouldn't let you operate on her without attacking, so we need to remove them from her body and for that, we need to have a container to hold them in." Shino stepped up and explained. He had put the glasses back on.
Tsunade nodded. "Where do you find these containers?"
Shino and Arden both looked a little nervous. "Our cousin that makes them lives a day away. It only takes him a few hours to make one if he doesn't have one ready, though." Shino said. Arden nodded.
Tsunade looked at both of them. She could tell that they were both scared that Arden would loose her sight. "Alright. You two have two days to be back in the hospital for the operation. If you take any longer than that, I'm afraid that we may not be able to do the operation."
