Anko stared at Naruto. He had run into Zabusa's apprentice...and didn't fight her.
She hit him on the head lightly. She was one of the few that Shino allowed to hit Naruto.
Mostly because she only did it when he was being a true idiot.
"Why didn't you attack her?" she demanded.
"One, I had just woken up. Two, my chakra was really sluggish. Three, it was a chance to display my knowledge of medicinal plants without someone glaring at me," said Naruto.
Naruto had a small greenhouse in the apartment next to his. Since no one wanted to live next to him, Shino convinced his father to help Naruto buy the apartment next door and turn it into a greenhouse.
In exchange Naruto grew medicinal herbs for the Aburame clan.
The only downside was that the hospital refused to buy them, even if they were more effective than the ones grown in the official greenhouses.
(However that didn't stop Chouji's mother from buying the fruits Naruto grew. So long as she didn't know who grew the plants, she would buy them in bulk.)
Naruto was almost finished with his wind trick. It was a variation on the bug cloud Shino sometimes used to get above ground.
It called up strong wind currents to support his weight, but the trick was getting the wind to stay still long enough for him to fly.
Eventually, he grew frustrated enough to overpower the jutsu...and found that he had made a solid disk of pure wind. Shino paused in his training to stare. Naruto was levitating a good ten feet off the ground on a semi-corporeal disk of pure air.
"Finally figured it out?" he asked.
"Had to overpower it."
"Ah."
Shino's attention was quickly brought back to the dragon he had summoned that was roughly the size of a medium sized dog. It had taken advantage of his distraction to try and run rampant.
Hinata beat him to the flames, as she summoned up a dragon of water. The hiss of the fire could be heard for quite some time.
"Well done Hinata! I think you have that one down!" said Anko cheerfully.
"Arigato Anko-san," said Hinata.
It was something of a miracle. A few days of training exclusively with Anko had managed to do what Shino had unsuccessfully attempted over the past two months.
She had gotten rid of the stutter.
Now if only she could get rid of that twitch.
Kurenai looked at Shino with amusement. She saw Naruto and gave him a thumbs up. Now that he knew how to create the disk, he had to work on his control.
Naruto stayed up in the air for a good two hours before the distraction Anko caused made him fall flat on his ass.
If Zabusa didn't show up tomorrow, then Anko was going to use Naruto as target practice so he could get used to flying during a combat situation.
Naruto was sound asleep when Kurenai took the rest for their guard duty. Anko took night shift to prevent anyone from sabotaging the bridge during the night.
When he woke up, it was to the sounds of combat.
Inari, the rather rude and whiny grandson of Tazuna, was in trouble.
Naruto got rid of the bandits, once he was awake enough to realize what was going on. He unwittingly managed to get the brat to grow up a little in the process.
Naruto was quick to head to the bridge, where he heard the sounds of fighting.
Anko and Kurenai were giving Zabusa hell while Shino was distracting the apprentice. Hinata had been drafted into protecting the client, since she had learned how to surround him in a ball of chakra.
Naruto burst into the weird ice mirror thing that Shino was trapped in, getting a whack upside the head courtesy of Shino.
"Naruto, did it ever occur to you that maybe there was a reason why I haven't escaped the ice mirrors?"
Naruto brightened...then his face fell. He could see where Shino was going with this.
"Oops."
Shino removed his hand. Naruto could learn, if given the proper teaching.
"It's too late now... You can provide a barrier while I get the dragon to come out," Shino said tiredly.
His chakra was running rather low, as his bugs couldn't follow the shinobi into the mirrors. Something else was coiled up inside him, waiting to be unleashed. But he had no idea what it was.
Naruto created a shield, using his new wind disk to keep the senbon from hitting them. Shino was almost ready to unleash his dragon...when the secondary power erupted with no warning.
Flames stronger than any he had ever produced before flew from outside the shield actually melting the ice. The girl fell flat on the bridge, temporarily stunned.
Shino didn't waste his time, completely covering her in the chakra eating insects. He left just enough for her to breath, but she wouldn't be using her kekkei genkai anytime soon.
Naruto was quick to help Hinata, since Shino told him to let their teacher fight her own battles.
Shino was tired, but he could still fight. Even so, he was in no mood to battle anyone else at the moment.
He went to the girl, who was starting to wake up. She had suffered a nasty blow to the head when she crashed.
"How did you...?" she asked.
"I haven't the foggiest. How's your head?" he asked pleasantly.
"Aren't you supposed to kill me?"
"Our only orders were to protect the bridgebuilder. Besides, men like Gato aren't very good at keeping their word," he said bluntly.
His case was proven when, fifteen minutes later Gato arrived with a large army of bandits. He planned to kill the ninja and Tazuna.
Too bad Zabusa had other plans.
Anko cheerfully tossed him a kunai, which he used to kill Gato.
Haku, who would have joined him in a heartbeat if she hadn't lost so much strength, watched in mute silence as Zabusa killed the man.
The injuries he received from the run into the mass of bandits were fatal. Even Hinata would have trouble treating them. Only a professional medic nin could have healed him at that point.
Which was why everyone was shocked when after Shino helped Haku to her master, a bright light hit the man. When they could see again, Zabusa was healed...though his chakra was so depleted it would take him some time to be able to use his techniques again.
Shino, on the other hand, finally succumbed to chakra exhaustion.
Shino opened his eyes...and found himself back at Tazuna's house.
Naruto and Hinata were rather worried, and were thrilled to see him awake.
"How long have I been out?" he asked tiredly.
"Long enough for me to clear these two," said Anko cheerfully.
Shino stared. Zabusa and Haku were in Tazuna's kitchen, drinking tea.
Zabusa was looking better than he had before he passed out, and Haku was quietly reading a scroll that Hinata had brought with her. They seemed rather amused that he was finally awake.
A quick look at the calender revealed he had been out for nearly two days.
"I thought the Aburame clan died if they used too much chakra?" asked Zabusa.
"Haku-chan killed a good third of my hive, otherwise I might have," admitted Shino.
Several of his hive had died from the temperature drop. They weren't suited to freezing cold.
"This coming from the kid who holds three times the normal amount of insects?" said Naruto grinning.
The two Mist nin stared at him.
"I am...rather unusual, in my clan," said Shino bluntly.
Shino blinked, and realized something was off. Then he realized.
"Where are my sunglasses?" he asked.
Naruto handed them over, after he had cleaned them. He had wondered when Shino would ask that.
"I wasn't aware Konoha had so many people with jewel colored eyes," said Zabusa.
"They don't. This team has the few people who do," said Shino bluntly.
He really didn't like revealing his emerald green eyes to strangers. Even if very few ever saw an Aburame without the traditional sunglasses and cloak.
A few days later, the bridge was finally finished...and they were ready to leave with two extra. Shino was rather amused to hear that the name was the Great Naruto Bridge.
Hinata, on the other hand, was rather amused at the fact that Shino was oblivious to Haku's stares. Once she realized that yes, Haku suffered a similar problem when it came to admitting her crush, they had struck up a fast friendship.
Both Naruto and Shino were unaware that they had somehow gained stalkers of the female variety. Kurenai and Anko thought it was hilarious. As did Zabusa, when Kurenai happened to point it out to the man.
"Sasuke."
"Aburame. Are you aware you have a fan girl?" he asked bored.
Shino turned, but he saw no one there. However his bugs weren't reacting, which meant it was someone familiar.
"Who?"
"I don't know who she is, but she's been following you for the past three blocks," said Sasuke. He was hyperaware of his surroundings in Konoha.
He had to be, with his large fan base going to practically any lengths to date/molest him. Outside of Konoha, he let his guard down.
"Can you describe her?"
"Long black hair and brown eyes. That's all I could see," said Sasuke.
Shino blinked, and realized that description fit the newest Chunin of the village.
Zabusa had headed back to the Mist village, once he heard about the new Mizukage. Since it was unlikely his apprentice would ever find peace in her home village, she had reluctantly stayed behind.
She was currently apprenticed to Anko, who was teaching her more ways to inflict damage with her senbon. Zabusa had been a fair teacher.
Haku had almost immediately been given the rank of chunin, after passing a relatively mild test by Iruka. Ever since then she had been taking on some of the more interesting C rank missions.
She had also been banned from capturing Tora after the cat was brought back paralyzed for four hours. (It had scratched her rather deeply, and she had used one of her senbon in retaliation. It survived but she was never allowed near it again.)
The only complaint Shino had was that he had the strangest tendency to run into her at odd moments. If he didn't know any better he would swear the girl was taking lessons from Hinata in stalking people.
(She was.)
"Have you heard about the Chunin Exams?" asked Shino.
"Where are they being held this year?"
"Konoha."
"Kakashi hasn't said anything, but after that nightmare mission in Swamp country I wouldn't be surprised."
"What happened?"
"The lazy bastard allowed Haruno to be hurt to prove a point. If our guide hadn't had the anti venom on hand, she would have died."
"Should I send my lightning bugs after him?"
"Send your fire bugs."
"I'll burn his masks then," said Shino.
Sasuke grinned. They had unsuccessfully tried to see under the mask before, but Kakashi always had another one on him.
"Alright brats, you three have been selected to go through the Chunin exams," announced Anko.
Shino looked at Naruto, and held out his hand. Naruto grumbled, but handed over a hundred ryo.
"Told you," he said simply.
"Yeah yeah," grumbled Naruto.
Next up...to get Hinata to admit her crush on Naruto!
Once Shibi learned his son was going to be in the upcoming Chunin exams, he discreetly began laying bets that Shino would make it to the finals.
Shibi had learned early on that if his son was participating in anything, he tended to come out on top.
Shino was at the gates when he saw them arrive. His father had heard rumors that the Kazekage's children would be participating this year, and had shown Shino what they looked like.
Temari, the oldest and only girl. Kankuro, the middle child and puppet user. And then there was Gaara, the youngest and most feared.
Why that was, Shino had no idea, but he intended to find out.
So he discreetly followed them, knowing full well Haku was always nearby. Once Sasuke had pointed it out to him, he realized she suffered from the same problem Hinata had around Naruto. He was just polite in ignoring that fact, though he usually struck up a conversation with the girl.
It was more than Naruto ever did outside of training.
Because he was following the Sand three, he was there to witness Kankuro start a fight with the Third's grandson Konohamaru.
Shino was quick to stop the punch.
"It's considered rude to start a fight in another village...and you must be particularly dense to try and harm the Hokage's grandson," said Shino calmly.
Kankuro went to bring out his puppet...until Shino brought out his rather small (but still rather effective) clan of termites. Kankuro blanched, and backed off.
It didn't hurt that the boy's boxers were abruptly turning to ice.
"I think he's learned his lesson, Haku-chan," said Shino.
"Are you sure? He looks even more dense than Naruto when it comes to girls. No offense Fox Boy," said Haku.
"None taken Ice Queen!" said Naruto with a grin.
Once it was clear that Haku was here to stay, Naruto took it upon himself to befriend the girl. As a result, the two often shared lighthearted insults. Naruto would call her Ice Queen and she called him Fox Boy.
Their relationship was almost like a brother and sister.
Shino's attention was quickly drawn to the silent and rather stoic red head.
"Is this yours?" he asked, gesturing to Kankuro.
"Unfortunately. I can tolerate my sister but I fear he is a lost cause," replied Gaara in the same bland tone.
"I would ask if you are new here, but I believe the Sand headband merely confirms that. Would you like to know where the best place to eat is?" asked Shino.
Naruto picked up at that, and grinned even more. Shino had recently stolen the wallets of several ANBU (he would give them to Anko later once he had used up their cash) so he could afford to take Naruto to Ichiraku's.
Gaara looked interested at the idea of someone offering to buy them lunch, so he accepted. His older siblings had little choice but to follow his lead.
As they walked, Shino held out his hand.
"Shino Aburame."
"Subaku no Gaara," said the red head, taking the hand. When Shino actually shook it without flinching, Gaara took it as a good sign.
Very few people were willing to associate with him. Especially if they knew about his Tanuki problem.
By the time they reached the stand, Gaara was actually comfortable talking with Shino. The boy was silent yes, but he made up for his lack of speech with his observation skills. When he offered to turn Kankuro's puppets into termite ridden pieces of wood, he realized he had actually made a friend in the boy.
Later that night...
Gaara never slept. He couldn't sleep unless he wanted the raccoon inside him to destroy everything.
So when the boy he had unexpectedly befriended appeared beside him with the loudmouth blond, he brought up his defense.
"Relax. I would no more attack you than I would Naruto. Unless he does something spectacularly stupid."
"Oi!"
"Why are you here?"
"To talk. I know of your problem Gaara of the Desert...and you are not as alone as you might believe."
Gaara stared at him in disbelief.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I bear the Nine Tailed Fox," said Naruto, holding out his hand.
"Sabaku no Gaara, I bear the One Tailed Tanuki known as Shukaku."
And with that, Gaara found himself with something he had never hoped to have.
Actual friends who wouldn't run away screaming.