Chapter 1: A Friend in Need, Is a Friend Indeed
Once upon a time, there was a boy. A boy who just so happened to be filled with thousands, upon thousands of insects. This boy had a problem, as most people tend to. His problem was his lack of friends. Sometimes he wondered if it was the bugs, but he didn't think so. After all, he had lived with them his entire life and they had never done anything to him. Perhaps it was his abnormally deep voice? But he thought that didn't matter. It could have been his lack of happy expression. His constant frown made him rather hard to approach, but there were other children with equally frowning faces and yet people would approach them. It did not make any sense to him. He just didn't understand. But whatever the case, Shino just didn't have any friends.
Life went on, and Shino became accustomed to doing things alone. Unlike normal children with no friends, Shino did not think up an imaginary friend, because he believed that people were a bother to him. He lived in a world of his own, an uninterrupted world filled with silence, and bugs. Lots of bugs. Actually, because of the bugs, there was no silence. Instead there was buzzing. Lots of buzzing. And today that buzzing sounded suspiciously like, "Hey! Glasses man!" Shino thought of that as particularly odd, considering his bugs don't usually say things like that. "Hey! Glasses man!" they said again, and it was at that he realized that it wasn't his bugs speaking to him. It was someone else, someone outside his world of bugs and buzzing.
Shino was rather confused. No one usually talked to him, why should today be any different? Yet, he turned to at least see who it was. It was a boy, much shorter than himself, with red triangular-shaped markings on his face. Shino was not sure how to respond to this other boy; perhaps he should attack him with bugs and then make a run for it—but he thought better of it. He decided to respond like any normal person would: "Why are you speaking to me?" he said. Okay, so maybe he DIDN'T respond like a normal person, but what can I say? He's out of practice.
"I have a question," this boy said, apparently unfazed by Shino's previous comment, "Do you wear your sunglasses at night?"
"What?" said Shino at a loss for words at the moment.
"Do you wear your sunglasses at night?" he repeated.
Shino felt that he better answer the question so as to get rid of the boy so that he could get back to his fantasy world of buzzing and bugs. "Yes," said Shino.
"Wow!" said the boy, "Don't you bump into things? My mom doesn't let ME wear my sunglasses at night, because I bump into things! I remember one time that I….." at this point Shino had fazed him out and gone back to his bugs and buzzing. But unfortunately he was rudely interrupted by someone yelling in his face, "Isn't that INTERESTING!?"
"Why haven't you left yet?" asked Shino.
"YOU'RE COOL! Let's be friends!" said the boy.
"No" said Shino in self-defense. He had realized that being friends might not be such a good idea…
"Nonsense! My name's Kiba!" said the boy, who will now be known as Kiba.
"…" said Shino, for he seemed to be at a loss of words—again.
"AND YOUR NAME IS?" shouted Kiba, obnoxiously.
"...Shino" said Shino, who was still wondering why this boy was so persistent.
"Wow! We are going to be the best of friends!" said Kiba, throwing his arm around Shino's neck and nearly strangling him to death.
Shino was about to respond by saying "no" and shoving this strange boy to the ground, when the bell rang, and it was time for class. Talk about saved by the bell!
"See you in class, buddy!" Kiba said as he departed for class, waving excitedly, and Shino just stood there looking stupid. Shino was quite sure that he would never see this boy again, and that he would forever be left in peace and solitude, but oh, how wrong he was.