Author's Note: I'm back again, and with a new chapter and everything :) thank you to all who favorited/followed/reviewed. I'm very much obliged.

Beta: Kalafina94

© Anime by Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter II

Insects

It actually wasn't as strange as she had perceived it to be, but then again, that was possibly due to her relatively normal life for the time being. Nothing extraordinary going on, just living the slightly boring life of a toddler was all she had to do. Which was in fact very simple, no real danger in that—not unless, say, the village was under attack. The village had been invaded on at least one occasion after all.

She soaked up information like a sponge, she took all of this free time and used it to attempt learning more of her new language and basic motor skills. She could talk better after a while and even stand on her own eventually; if she tried to walk, Shino would hold her by the hands and assist her. It was a very cute sight, according to Shibi.

"Look at you two," he had said, patting Shino on the head. "what a good older brother you are." What a fine one he was indeed. Shinra mastered the art of walking before she even turned two all thanks to Shino; with at least minimal aid from her father. Her quick learning of it all was a little astonishing to Shibi, but it was in fact expected of her. Given her more developed mind enabled her to get a good grasp on things (motor and speech skills at least) a lot easier than Shino did at her age.

But this wasn't exactly a problem, what was he to suspect? That she was some sort of reincarnation? Not even possible for him to come to that assumption, at the most he would just think she was gifted in some sort.

Either that, or he would assume that something was wrong with her—which she also doubted. She felt no need to hold herself back that much, though she did anyway as to not rouse too much attention or suspicion. It appeared to be working out for the most part.

And that had been two things crossed off of her "Basic things I need to learn" list, now there was just reading and writing.

She would take children's books off of the large book shelf in their living room (knowing full well that was what they were, by the child-like designed covers) and trot about the house on her baby legs looking for Shibi. Even though Shino was fully capable of reading it to her also, she would've preferred Shibi to read it to her. He always read a certain character's dialogue in a funny voice, he wasn't as embarrassed to read it to her in that way as Shino was.

She mostly asked him because of that voice; she didn't know why she liked it so much. She just did.

She always found him in the same place, in his room at his little craft table. Tending to whatever it was he was always doing. She would gently tug on his pants leg, just as he would always expect to see little Shinra when he looked down. "You want me to read to you again?" he once asked, chuckling. "You just love these stories, don't you?"

He would take the book from her hands and sit up on his bed, with her in his lap as he read the story book out loud to her. He would drag his finger along every word that he spoke, so she wouldn't have trouble keeping up. But there was no need, her attention would always be on Shibi's voice and the words in front of her while such stories were being told.

But oh how complicated kanji was to understand, this must've been how all children felt. Hours at a time would be spent on Shibi's lap and the words would still seem so alien. It was frustrating, if this wasn't so important she'd have given up. But, as if magically, it was becoming easier and easier to understand as time went on. Easy to the point where it was nearly disturbing; she figured she was born just as she was when she died. Maybe being an Aburame changed certain things about her, or her developing mind mixed with her already owned intelligence was making this easy. A child's brain was like a sponge; it only made sense, she supposed.

She would try her best to recall how the kanji looked when Shino instructed her on what words to write out, correcting her if what she wrote was wrong and showing her the proper way. He would smirk at her nearly ineligible handwriting and she would even find it amusing herself. She couldn't hold a pencil properly, her tiny, chubby fingers would fumble and not remain in the place she wished for them to.

She would involuntarily stick her tongue out in concentration as she attempted to carefully craft words, simple words such as "cat" or "sun". Once all she wanted was jotted onto the paper, Shino would praise her for the good job that she'd done and she would hurriedly show Shibi; to receive the same praise and a kiss included.

She did this everyday, like a routine. She would have Shibi read a book to her when he wasn't busy, and practice writing with Shino (it wasn't like he had much else to do anyway). A routine she kept up until she finally learned it had been months after she turned two.

Now that she could read on her own, she'd been interested in the other materials around the house. More specifically she wanted to learn more about Konoha's history; even more specifically, the Kyuubi attack. It happened before she was born, so there was thankfully nothing gruesome she witnessed, but the entire ordeal still left her curious. She didn't remember finding out just how Tobi knew of Kushina's pregnancy and the exact location she was moved, and she definitely would never find any reading material on that. So it would forever be a mystery, unfortunately.

But unfortunately, she couldn't find anything on the attack itself. The more advanced books were higher up where she couldn't reach, that hindered her plans quite a lot. "Later..." she muttered to herself.

It seemed that would have to wait until she was tall enough to reach those books on her own, Shibi definitely wouldn't pull them down for her—he wouldn't even take her request seriously. He would think it silly, a young girl like her asking to read things like that.

She was only two, but then again, that probably wasn't documented in any book anyway. For secretive reasons, it would probably give away who the current vessel was. That would risk the children of Naruto's generation figuring it out and ostracizing him even more; he didn't need that.

It was a silly thought on her part; that had to have been some pretty classified information. Maybe she was just too curious.

But there had in fact been another thing that held her intrigue, being her chakra as well as the "friends" scurrying around under her skin. Chakra was something that—obviously—didn't exist in her old world, and more than half the time, she didn't even feel it. But she was very young, her reserves small, so that was very little surprise. But she found herself attempting to play with it from time to time.

At first, nothing ever really happened, but over the weeks, eventually she could make it flicker over her hands. She took note of how her Kikaichu would seemingly go into a frenzy and run around in her quicker. She knew little to nothing about those insects, but it seemed as if they reacted to her chakra. That was an interesting discovery.

She practiced this in secret, when neither Shino nor Shibi were around her. The last thing she needed was Shino witnessing her doings and telling them to Shibi.

She practiced with sheets of paper first, attempting to stick it to her hand. She wanted to get a good feel of her chakra, to grow accustomed to it's presence. She concentrated hard, and for a while, nothing happened. But then, eventually, she felt a familiar warmth run up her arm and radiate into her hand, and the paper had stuck like glue.

The chakra had felt so natural, almost like a second skin. But even then, that didn't describe the feeling completely; there was no for sure clear way of doing so. But she knew one thing: chakra could be quite complex.

It could be used in so many ways for so many things, the most common obviously being ninjutsu. To walk up and down walls and trees—as well as across something as unsolid as water—was amazing in itself, to her. The fact that something as simple as an extra energy coursing through you is what gave you this ability made it very...interesting.

Shinra knew how to walk, so furthering her chakra control early could be done by performing an abundance of chakra exercises. Like walking up the walls of the house, though that would raise many questions if she were to get caught. Not to mention she was only two, she couldn't have had enough chakra to stick her weight to a wall and walk up vertically. She would fall down, and that didn't sound like much fun. She would only end up getting hurt.

She would stick things to her hands with her chakra mostly out of boredom, ranging from simple sheets of paper to inanimate objects and everything else in between. Some things stuck while others didn't, but it was practice and it counted for something.

There were tiny differences between the amounts of chakra used in some objects and the rates at which the chakra was expelled, depending upon how thick or thin the material and how light or heavy the object. Once you had something stuck to you and it was pretty much covered in chakra, you could manipulate it at your discretion. Adjust it to keep that solid contact.

Chakra strings were a bit of an example, though much more complex in terms of concentration and control. Your chakra protruded from your fingertips and weaved through the air, there was no solid point of attachment other that your fingers on the end. Any puppeteer could easily manipulate those strings and attach them to whatever they pleased, whether it be something living or not.

What makes it hard for the puppeteer is controlling all of those strings at one time, along with just how many puppets they're using at once. Though renowned puppet masters more than likely don't have this issue, like Chiyo and Sasori.

The heavier objects and thicker fabric materials, like thin hard cover books and sweaters, were harder to stick. She simply needed more practice was all; it would eventually become easy for her since she didn't have much chakra. It would be harder if she had more of it.

The more chakra that one had, the harder it was to mold and disperse. To do this without trouble would require extensive chakra practice, until one gained the level of control that made using their chakra one of the simplest things in the entire world; until they barely had to put in the effort anymore. Which in her case would take a long time.

During her more free time, her and Shino would leave the home—not until Shibi placed shades on their eyes and stuck them in coats, of course. It was weird how the villagers found it so acceptable for their children to run around so unattended, even someone as young as she was. This place really was different, but she sure did enjoy the freedom. It was nice not being cooped up inside all the time.

While walking around the outside, she would tail behind Shino like a puppy. Even if he wasn't much older than her—meaning he couldn't have known more about this place than her—she still felt he knew more about this universe than she, maybe since he belonged here in the first place.

His hands in his pockets with her hands clutched tight onto his looped arm, she glanced around at everything; the things and people that they'd passed up. When they'd first exited their home, they saw nothing but the faces of their fellow clansmen; those faces became fewer and fewer the closer they got into the main town until they eventually weren't there.

"Where are we going, Shino-nii?" Shinra questioned.

He turned his head only a little, in her direction. "You'll see, I wanted to show you something." was all he replied with. That was enough for her she supposed, even though she would've rathered a straighter answer than that.

Once they'd actually reached their destination, she saw that he'd led them both out to a grassy field. She finally released his arm—for the first time since they left—and glanced around. What were they doing here?

"Look at this." Shino said as he lifted his arms out. She watched, then her mouth fell open when she saw a bunch of insects crawl out of his sleeves. She could never understand how the Aburame could control those bugs. Were they mind readers?

"How are you doing that?" she asked.

"It's easy, once you learn." he said, then had only a few fly towards her. Not too many, as he didn't want to risk freaking her out. She sometimes seemed to have a bit of a problem with bugs, he thought it was odd. But, hopefully something she would grow out of. He always tried to help her see how harmless they were, especially to someone like her.

She tensed up when she felt three of them land onto her skin and crawl. "Relax." her brother said. "They won't harm you." She was aware by now that they wouldn't, but that only eased her a little. In her past life, she was never a fan of bugs; hell, she killed them most of the time. They were kind of gross, and the fact that they were touching her made her a little uncomfortable. But only a bit.

She blew on them to make them fly off, and each one retreated back to Shino while the others were stationed in the grass. Her next question she hated to ask, "How...How'd they come out?" She had an idea of what his answer would be already.

He pulled up one of his sleeves, to show her the numerous holes in the skin of his arm. The sight made her shudder. "They burrowed out, that's the only way they can leave."

"But nii-san, didn't that hurt?!" she asked in concern. His mouth turned up into a tiny smile.

"No, it was like a little tickle, it doesn't hurt at all." That was because when Kikaichu were in the process of leaving their host, they released a fluid from their mouths to numb that small area of the skin before digging their way out. It was just a mechanism used as a way to avoid hurting their vessel. "Do you wanna learn how to do it?"

Well, that was something to think about. She would have to eventually, now wouldn't she? Best to start early she supposed, no matter how...creepy it may have seemed. She nodded her head. "Yeah, sure."

In a way, Kikaichu sort of were mind readers. In your very own way, you spoke to these bugs for them to understand your orders. It wasn't very hard for her to do. They listened to her on her first try, surprisingly. When questioning Shino about it, he informed her that Shibi had told him of how simple it actually was. As soon as they were placed into your body, they fed off of your chakra and in return, they listened to your every word. It was a win-win situation. They would never disobey you unless you stopped giving them chakra.

Not only that, Shino had been right about the burrowing not hurting. She watched them as she told them to come out; it was extremely weird to look at, but she barely felt a thing. She even decided to have fun with it, and have them make shapes on the ground. It made her giggle and show Shino, who seemed amused by it himself.

＼(゜ロ＼)(／ロ゜)／

Shibi had left the house with them again, though this time not for a simple walk. They went to another funeral, though this time Shinra was surprised to see it was for Shibi's friend, Shikuro. Neither her nor Shino had seen the man since Kao's funeral, so she didn't exactly know him. But it still came as a shock. Their mother died nearly two years ago and he seemed fine back then. She wondered what happened to him.

After the little ceremony was over, the other clan members approached a crying boy to give their condolence. It was then that Shibi stepped in front of both her and Shino, squatting to down look at them face-to-face. "Do you see that boy over there?" he asked them, pointing over at the boy. "His name is Torune, he's Shikuro's only son. And he's the only family Torune had left," he explained. "I wanted to introduce you both to him, but I also want to make it very very clear that you cannotmake any form of skin contact with him."

Shinra blinked while Shino nodded in understanding. "How come daddy?" she asked.

"Because...he'll hurt you very badly." He rested a hand on her head. "He won't do it on purpose, it's out of his control. But he'll still do it all the same." That made her eyes widen, hurt her how? She leaned over to glance at the boy in a T-shirt, he was sniffling and wiping his eyes. The people talked to him, seemingly trying to ease his sorrows. But she also took notice to how not one of them made a move to hug him. "So please just head my warning." He didn't want them harmed in any way.

This time only Shinra nodded, and the three of them were the next one's to stop in front of Torune. The seven year old looked at the two children first before looking up at the towering Shibi. "Sh-Shibi-san?" He recognized him as his late father's friend. He quickly wiping his eyes of any remaining tears, hiccuping a little.

"Hello, Torune. How are you doing?"

Torune frowned. "Alright...I guess..." He looked at the two of them. "Who are they?" Shibi placed his hands on top of Shino and Shinra's heads.

"These are my children, Shino and Shinra." he answered, ruffling the hair of the respective child's head. "Say hello." He instructed them both.

"Hello." Shino said a bit flatly, his hands in his coat pockets as usual. Shinra took a tiny step back, one Torune noticed and frowned at. She kept her arms as far behind her back as she could and timidly gave him a "hello" just as Shino had. What Shibi had just told him psyched her out a bit; he made it sound as if Torune had some sort of problem. She had to be cautious if he did, because she still had no knowledge of what it was.

"Hi..." Torune replied, wiping a tear that slipped down his cheek. Shinra frowned, he reminded her of herself when Kao died.

"Your father was a very good man Torune, one who died honorably." So he died on a mission or something? That must have been it, it had to be. "In spite of your saddening loss, you should feel proud because of it—"

"Well I don't!" he snapped suddenly, making Shinra jump a little while Shino and Shibi didn't move a muscle. She then narrowed her eyes, Shibi was only being nice. She had half a nerve to tell this kid not to yell at her dad like that. "It isn't fair..." His tears started again. "...he was all I had." He bit his lip and tilted his head down. "I have nowhere to go now, I'm all alone."

"Not exactly," Shibi said, making Torune look up at him. "that was another reason why I wanted to speak with you." he explained. "After my wife died, me and Shikuro had a talk. Death is something that is very uncertain, it could happen at any time to anyone. I'm the only family these two have, just as he was to you." He placed his hands on their shoulders. "We came to agree that should one of us die, the other would take in his children." Shino and Shinra looked up at their father, then back at Torune.

The boy's eyes widened. "What are you saying...?"

"I'm saying, the outcome of this tragedy is not what you think it is. You do have somewhere to go, and it's with us." Shibi answered, and Torune gasped a little.

"With...you?" he repeated, and Shibi nodded.

"You'll always have a family, Torune. We may not be any direct family, but we are still one and all the same." the older man said. A small smile formed onto Torune's face and he lifted his arms to give Shibi a hug, but remembered his condition and retracted them quickly. Instead, he only nodded his head gratefully.

"Thank you, Shibi-san."

＼(゜ロ＼)(／ロ゜)／

She eventually did learn of what Torune's "condition" was, he told both her and Shino about it once her brother questioned him. Apparently there was more than one type of Kikachu, it was just that the ones her family had were the most common.

Torune, as well as Shikuro, had a rarer kind—even within the standards of their clan. His Kikaichu were nano-sized insects that were very venomous but non-harmful to him, as he contained antibodies within his blood that repelled their poison. Not only that, but he had the knowings of an antidote that could also neutralize it.

Unlike normal Kikaichu, these did not drain and consume their opponent's chakra. Instead, they used their poison to attack their enemy's cells, quickly killing them at a cellular level. If the vessel had good control over them, this would be very beneficial in battle; Torune, however, did not. His control was very bad in fact, which showed that their loyalty operated much differently from the standard Kikaichu.

Torune could accidentally kill them if they touched his skin and vice versa, that's why Shibi had instructed them not to; also telling Torune to be careful as well. He couldn't even be enrolled in the Ninja Academy because of this, as he would also be risking the well-being of all those other kids; that meant civilian school was also out of the question. He learned at home instead.

He and Shino clicked after a while, forming a brother-like bond despite their opposing friendship views. Shino treated him nearly the same as he treated Shinra, and sometimes it made her feel a little jealous. She felt like Shino preferred to be around him more than her now-a-days, but she was probably only being silly. As in reality, he was around her just as much; he could never ignore his younger sibling. Such an impossibility.

As soon as Shino had turned four, Shibi began to teach him a few chakra exercises. He was going to start at the Academy in two years, and there was no such thing as starting things too early. It left for Shinra and Torune to spend more time together, something possibly necessary since she still felt a bit uncomfortable around him. When Shino wasn't around that is, only because of the danger his bugs held. Not exactly Torune himself.

They were outside of the house, in the forest to be exact, playing hide and seek. Torune was the one hiding and Shinra checked around and inside trees looking for him. She pouted when she didn't see one sign of him.

"Where are you?" she asked aloud to herself. Then she felt the tickle of a leaf on her cheek, as leaves fell from the tree above her. Curious, she glanced up and saw Torune dropping them on her from above. She smiled. "I found you!" she exclaimed as she pointed up at him.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "No," He leaped down from the tree, Shina stepping back to give him some landing room. "I let you find me."

She stuck out her tongue as she fixed her shades. "Whatever, I still found you."

"You may see it however you wish," he said. "let's take a break from playing." He looked off at the forest path. "I want to take a walk." He looked down at her again. "Is that alright with you, Shinra-chan?" She nodded her head and they began their walk, in silence at first.

"I see Shibi isn't teaching you along with Shino?"

Shinra shook her head, sticking her hands into the pockets of her red coat and looking at the ground. "No, daddy thinks I'm too young..." She looked up at Torune. "Am I?"

"You're never too young to start, so no. I don't believe so." he said. "Have you ever thought of talking to him about it?"

"No," Shinra stated as she shook her head. "I don't think I would change his mind." Shibi probably started Shino's training because he was older than her, not to mention a boy. Not saying being a girl meant he thought she was incapable, he would probably just hold it off for another year or two.

"You'll never know until you try." Torune said, and Shinra looked up at him again. He wore more than just a shirt now. He wore longer sleeves to cover his arms and a pair of gloves, he also wore a mask that shielded his eyes and most of his head; his spiky brown hair sticking out of the top. "If you learn enough, you and Shino could possibly start Ninja Academy the same year."

They could? "Really?"

He nodded. "Possibly, that's why it's so worth talking it out. That's one more friend you would have." Shinra pressed her lips into a fine line, if Torune didn't have the two of them to interact with...he'd be a bit of a lonely child. He even said so.

Growing up with no siblings and other children being scared to approach him, he had little interaction with anyone other than his father. He craved friendship, and this was where he and Shino differed. Shino felt he didn't need friends outside of Torune and Shinra, and the older boy would always tell Shino how wrong he was. "How do you feel about friendship, Shinra-chan?"

She'd had a feeling their conversation would lead to a question like that.

"Well..." she trailed, thinking about her answer. "I think friendship's a nice thing, something that's pretty important sometimes." Torune smiled a little, then her old friends flashed into her mind and she grimaced. "But I think it's something I don't really need anyway."

"Oh...so you're siding with Shino then?" he asked. She rolled her eyes, though he couldn't see it because of her shades.

"I'm not siding with anybody, that's just how I feel about it."

Torune frowned. "I don't think you should feel that way." He stopped walking, which prompted Shinra to stop as well.

"Why?" she questioned.

"Because," he began. "unlike me it would be simple for you. You're saying you don't want something that's easy for you to get, and that makes me feel like you're taking it for granted."

"I'm not." she quickly defended. "Besides, me and Shino are your friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, but you and Shino don't exactly have a choice, do you?" he asked. "Besides, I can feel how uneasy you are around me, Shinra-chan."

"Who cares if I am? I'll get over it."

"I care," he said, "because that only further proves my point." He looked at one of his hands. "People are afraid of me, because of something that's out of my control." He removed his glove and Shinra tensed up. What was he doing? He turned around and touched a bird that'd rested on a large rock behind him, and Shinra gasped as his hand turned purple, followed by the bird.

It squawked loudly, falling onto it's back and kicking it's legs around. The bird flapped it's wings wildly as it's body convulsed and jolted, obviously in serious pain until it all finally stopped. Torune sighed, putting his glove back on as he turned to a shocked Shinra. "It isn't fair, I didn't choose to be this way..." he said, clearly upset.

Shinra frowned, looking between him and the now dead bird.

Author's Note: The whole "Shinra sort of not liking bugs thing" she'll grow out of, she kind of doesn't have a choice otherwise. Am I right?

I ended up finding out about Torune when I was researching about Shino and Shibi, when I searched up Torune there was absolutely nothing about his personality as a child. Just about how he acted after joining ROOT (basically personality-less) and I couldn't find anything about his childhood other than a few small things, so I'm not gonna have any choice but to just wing it with him.

All I managed to find was how he felt about friendship and whatnot, so hopefully I do him justice.

Don't ghost read, and yeah ... your opinions give me love. Negative(constructive) or not. :D