He wasn't really so cold, was he?

That was the question that had occupied Shino's mind since he had shared sake with Kiba nights before. Normally he would have chalked it up to being something stupid that Kiba said; heaven knows every other thing out of the fleabag's mouth could be considered inane. Instead it had stuck with him like it was the lone piece of mysterious and valuable knowledge that eluded his mind's every attempt to fathom it.

In short, Kiba was making him look like an idiot. And Shino hated when Kiba showed him up. It didn't help that in the past few days both Kiba and Hinata had been showing more affection towards one another during training, and spent more time off by themselves during the rest of the day. It only made Shino look even less like a human being and more like some kind of robot. He couldn't understand what they were doing, or why they were doing it. He simply couldn't comprehend the idea that the tow of them were attracted to one another in a romantic sense... and that they were actually showing it.

Shino kicked a rock down the street in frustration as he walked around alone after his training session with the two lovebirds. This whole situation stunk, but he wasn't going to ruin the happiness of his teammates to make himself feel better. A worker bee couldn't do something that hurt the rest of the hive to make itself feel better.

He had considered asking his parents about how to proceed before scrapping that idea. More than likely they would just have told him to ask his insects. Not that they were any help; their only concern was his well being, not his happiness or his intellectual conundrums. They could no more help him with this than they could with advanced spatial mathematics.

Enough was enough. Shino refused to let anything said by that flea-bitten fool get to him. He was above that! Besides, anything Kiba could do besides being an idiot and smelling like a dog, Shino could do better. He could prove that he wasn't cold and distant! All he needed to do was woo some woman and prove himself just as sensual and deep as Kiba.

Did he just call Kiba, the man who occasionally scratched behind his ears with his feet, deep? Clearly he would have to make this a priority before he starting considering Kiba to be some kind of Casanova. There was no way he would accept that and live.

Now, he had to figure out his options. It had to be a kunoichi; a normal woman would probably be turned off by the fact that he was basically a walking bug jar, even if they were at his beck and call.

There was Ino Yamanaka, that blond woman who was more competitive than his understanding of her skill level allowed. She was loud, obnoxious, and far too clingy for Shino's tastes. And then there was the fact that she hated bugs. She'd never do.

There was Sakura Haruno, the protégé of Tsunade and the rival of Ino. Of course, she was always working with Naruto Uzumaki, a man who Shino respected... but was almost as annoying as Kiba. That was a major problem, because Shino would have to spend more time around him in order to get closer to her. Then again, she was strong, intelligent, and didn't have a problem with getting her hands dirty. Of course like Ino, she possessed a temper, and with her strength made her dangerous. He'd consider her a possible maybe.

There was that Sand kunoichi named Temari, but the fact that she was from another village would make things difficult. And she was also rumored to be in some form of relationship with that Nara guy. And she was related to a guy who spent too much time working with puppets. Kind of odd. And she was the sister of the Kazekage who manipulated sand and had no concept of forgiving his enemies. He was better off not trying to woo her, he could only imagine it ending with him trapped in sand while he was turned into a puppet by her creepy face paint wearing brother.

He was starting to run out of options. That woman who wore mesh was probably too old and gave him a bad vibes. He couldn't try to woo the Hokage or her assistant. Kurenai-sensai was out of bounds. Kiba had a sister, but putting the moves on her would probably get him fed to Akamaru.

Shino sat down on a bench and covered his face with one of his hands. Oh, this was going to be a disaster. All of his options were either crazy or so far out of his league that trying would only make him a laughing stock. He wasn't going to try and break into the Hokage's office to get a list of all the kunoichi's in the village, that would just be creepy. There had to be a logical way to go about this that wouldn't ruin him in the process. There just had to be.

The sudden buzzing of his bugs told him that something was above him right before it hit him in the head. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his skull, and the buzzing of his bugs didn't help matters. Shino grunted, pushing himself to his feet so that he could see what had hit him. What he saw was a crude form of weights contained in wood. It looked like they'd be perfect to wear around the arms or legs in fact. They almost seemed familiar, like he had seen them a years before and only barely remembered it. Where had he seen them again?

"Hey! Are you alright?"

Shino looked up to see a brown-haired kunoichi with brown eyes jumping off the roof of the building behind him. She wore a surprising plain white and burgundy outfit that seemed completely utilitarian rather than stylish. Across her back was a large scroll, and in her arms were bags of what seemed to be weapons, even though they were mostly obscured to Shino's eyes. Her hair was done up in two buns, which was strange due to the fact that it wasn't a style that any other ninja wore. Like everything else about her, it screamed utilitarian.

"I am fine."

"Oh good, I was worried that I had seriously hurt someone." The girl breathed a sigh of relief before picking up the weights and placing them into one of her bags. "Wait, haven't I seen you somewhere?"

"We participated in the chuunin exams three years ago together."

"Oh yeah! You were the guy who blew that boy from Otogakure's arms off with your insects. That was pretty impressive. I never would have thought to do something like that in your place."

"It was nothing. I saw an opportunity and I took it. You didn't do too bad yourself."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I nearly got my spine broken by a fan."

"Aside from that I mean."

The girl nodded slowly. "Uh huh. Alright well nice meeting you...?"

"Shino Aburame."

"Shino. Got it. I'm Tenten."

Now it was time for Shino to break his stoic expression and raise an eyebrow. "Do you have a last name?"

Tenten only laughed in response. "It's not important." Suddenly she looked at the sun. "Oh crap! I'm late. Sorry Shino, I got to go. It was nice meeting you again!" And without another word the kunoichi jumped back onto the roof and took off.

Now he was back at square one, with no idea of what he was going to do, or how he was going to show Kiba up. Wait a second, didn't he just meet a new kunoichi? And he didn't even ask where she was going! Great, Shino was starting to turn into Kiba. If he got any more forgetful or dim-witted he'd probably start attracting flees... again.

Shino looked down at his hand where a few bugs were crawling. Well, it's not like he had to be the one to follow here to find out where she was going. At the very least, he could find out if she was single...