As it turned out, at least five others had magic.

Hinata, Haku, Sasuke, Anko, and Kakashi all had more than a small spark of the stuff. Shino was thanking every deity he knew that Haruno wasn't among those with magic.

Shino really didn't want to go to Hogwarts. The village could easily hire tutors and create a secondary Academy for those with magic.

Which was what the Hokage and Shibi were going to bring up during the next clan meeting. Chances were very good that the council would either create a new Academy or add to existing classes.

Shino worked with Remus and Snape to develop the magic he could already access. Snape had a good idea where to start.

Remus had absolutely no idea that Snape was a Wind Elementalist.


Shino was unamused by the fact that Sasuke was late. Then again, he was probably still with Kakashi, the Man of a Thousand Excuses. Shino had spent some time under Kakashi once his element was discovered, but had developed the unique use of his Spark Fly technique on his own.

Kakashi was still cursing about that.

Shino waited until the tournament began, and then prepared to fight Temari. Since working with Snape for two weeks (the man was a hard task master like Anko, who was very pleased that Shino never once complained about how hard he was pushing him) Shino had finally figured out why he had gotten a response for the wind chakra.

It wasn't because he was a Wind user like Naruto. It was because he was a Wind elemental. His magic worked naturally around winds, which was why the paper had been shredded.

It also explained why any wind technique he used blew up in his face. His chakra nature was fire and lightning.

Temari wasn't too happy to be facing the bug boy. The second the battle started, she took to the air.

Shino grinned under his collar. Time to put his new magic trick to the test!

Using a variation of the wind disk Naruto loved to use (he had figured out how to make it move, and used it to zoom around the village at high speeds to the annoyance of the ANBU) Shino took to the skies.

Shino couldn't maintain one large disk, so he settled for two small ones directly under his feet.

Temari's eyebrows rose, impressed.

Soon it deteriorated into a game of cat and mouse, with Temari avoiding every wave of bug sent at her. It didn't help that a majority of Shino's hive had wings.

Shino had her in the crosshairs. His moths were about to strike, using the powders he had coated on their wings.

Temari was sneezing, big time, but she refused to let Shino beat her. Eventually the allergies she didn't realize she had made themselves known, and she forfeited while she could still breathe.

She was taken directly to the Medic Nin to get some medicine.

(She wouldn't stop sneezing for a good fifteen minutes, and even then she had to get medication.)


The Hokage had pushed Naruto's match to the end, because he knew the boy very well. He was a bit...enthusiastic with his jutsu.

Hinata beat Ino by combining her newly discovered magic with the Gentle Fist, Sasuke nearly got disqualified by arriving far too late but ended up beating Lee after stealing a good majority of his tricks, and everyone was awaiting Naruto and Gaara's match. Shino passed the time by talking to Naruto.

"There's something that's been bugging me. How did this aunt of yours get into the village and leave without an infant?"

"Actually, I've wondered that myself. You would think that after the Kyuubi attack, the village sentries would be more observant for the next five years. According to the logs, she entered under the guise of visiting her cousin, and left within a few hours. I suppose they assumed she left the infant with the cousin or something," said Shino.

He had checked, after finally getting a name for the person who had abandoned him.

What Shino wanted to know was why this Petunia Dursley was going to a woman named Kushina.

He was going to ask the Hokage for a blood test once this test was over with. The woman's last name had been Uzamaki.


Gaara was not in a good mood. On one hand, he was somewhat loyal to his village.

On the other hand, he had actually made friends that wouldn't abandon him in a village he was ordered to destroy.

He didn't know why his father decided to join up with a village that was relatively new. Something was off about that.

If his father really wanted to improve village relations, he should have signed a peace treaty with the Leaf or Mist. The Sound village was so new that very few people had even heard of them, let alone trusted them to get the job done right.

And then there was the way his father had been acting for the past few weeks. Something was very off about him.

Unfortunately, unless he could prove it, he still had to go on with the plan. Shino and Naruto at least had kept him company during the night, when they were taking a few hours off of training. They had made the lack of sleep much more bearable.


Naruto started off with a bang, and Gaara didn't even have to sweat to keep up with him.

It wasn't until Naruto used the same teleport trick Shino had learned that things grew nasty. Naruto had yet to figure out how to do it silently, but that really didn't matter too much.

It got him past Gaara's Ultimate Defense long enough to land a solid blow.

Startled by the sudden contact, Gaara felt something wet coming from his nose. Touching it, he was absolutely shocked to see the same shade of red as his hair coming from his nose.

He was...bleeding?

Unable to comprehend such an occurrence, Gaara's mind snapped. His perfect defense enveloped him, and he began to lose control of Shukaku.

This set off a chain reaction in the stands.

The Kazekage's hands slipped into the seal of the Ram, and feathers descended into the seats. Only those who could recognize a genjutsu escaped.

Shino was the only one to notice one of the ANBU acting oddly. So it was only natural that he reacted accordingly.


Kabuto really wasn't expecting someone to see through his disguise so quickly. Especially when that someone had one of the creepiest attacks he had ever seen.

He dodged the wave of insects Shino sent at him, inwardly sweating. It was pretty obvious to him what Shino planned to do.

He was going to drain his chakra and help the Hokage, who was currently stuck under the barrier.

Suddenly one of the beetles latched onto his skin, and he could feel his chakra being drained.

He tried to crush it, only to see Shino coming at him with Kakashi's signature technique.

He honestly didn't know that Shino had learned that particular trick. He had thought the current animosity towards the Aburame heir would have kept Kakashi from showing him.

(Actually, Shino had seen Sasuke practice with it without either of them knowing, and once he had the basic gist of the Chidori he had tried it himself. It took him a full week to be able to pull it off. It would have been a few days, but Shino didn't want Kakashi to know that he could spy using his Spark Flies.)

Kabuto quickly found himself on the wrong end of an Aburame, and narrowly avoided the blow. Only to discover Kakashi behind him, somewhat amused at Shino.

"When did you steal my jutsu?" he asked mildly.

"Roughly two weeks ago. Why?"

"Just curious."

Kabuto felt like swearing, as Kakashi effectively pinned him long enough for Shino to absorb nearly all his chakra.

He was so in for it if the invasion didn't succeed.


Remus was already next to the Hokage when Shino arrived. Remus had been talking to Kakashi about his dog summons when the genjutsu hit.

Kakashi had been nice enough to lift it from the werewolf, who was eager to help.

Remus rather liked Konoha. When informed of his condition, the Hokage had him stay in the forest of death with the large snakes to keep him from leaving until sunrise. (Also to keep the tigers from making a snack of him, lol.)

Finding such easy acceptance after living in the magical communities where he was shunned was rather refreshing. He was seriously considering moving here to teach the students magic. The Hokage had certainly hinted that they were planning on extra classes.

Since Remus was already past the barrier (chakra and magic didn't mix that well unless the person was trained with both) Shino went to help Naruto, who had run after Gaara.

Something told him this would be a battle worth remembering.


Snape was actually grinning as he used the levicorpus spell to immobilize the shinobi coming at him. Anko was more than happy to take advantage of the flying targets. The two of them made a rather formidable tag team.

While he made sure the shinobi would be easy pickings, Shibi was making sure the man didn't get hit with a kunai or shuriken. It wouldn't do to have one of Shino's magical instructors killed while helping defend the village.

One would think that the shinobi would duck if they saw a spell coming at them, but there were a few that were invisible to the naked eye. Snape was making very good use of those.


Shino glared at Orochimaru, who had brought the dead forms of the first, second and fourth Hokage out. Out of the three, the fourth seemed the most surprised to be back among the living.

Orochimaru went to place the special kunai into the former Hokages...only to find that Shino had beat him to the Fourth.

"I'm not letting you use him against us," he growled.

Shino didn't miss the look of relief on the Third's face. Clearly he didn't fancy going against the Fourth either.

Soon it was a clash between Remus, the two Hokages and Shino. Shino and the Fourth tag teamed against the second Hokage, while Remus dealt with the first. Sarutobi was currently reminding Orochimaru why it wasn't a good idea to anger the Professor.

A stray shuriken knocked the sunglasses off Shino, and the Fourth got a good look at his eyes. Recognition came into his own.

"It can't be... James's son?"

Shino looked at him with surprise. How the hell did the Fourth Hokage know his birth father's name?

"Enough of this bullshit..." growled Shino.

Shino unleashed nearly his entire hive on the Second Hokage, draining him of whatever foul chakra kept his body on this side of death. The corpse Orochimaru had used fell to the ground along with the kunai the snake had implanted.

Shino turned his attention to the First Hokage, and the Fourth helped Remus pin the man down long enough for Shino to repeat what he had done.

While Remus made sure that Orochimaru didn't get near the Fourth, Shino went to assist the Third.

And found that Sarutobi was preparing to use a forbidden seal to take out Orochimaru.

He couldn't have that!

Shino cast his hand out, as if drawing something from his sleeve. A long thin sword appeared, as if it had fallen out.

In reality Shino had summoned it from the place he had stored it. A couple of years ago, when he had first discovered that he could snake speak, Shino had discovered a cave within the forest of death.

Inside that cave was a sword. An old sword which had drawn his interest.

He had called it Tsukiyomi, mostly because he had found it on a full moon near a nest of the larger snakes. A nest that had had eight of the largest snakes in the forest sleeping.

It had seemed fitting at the time.

Metal clashed with metal as Shino met swords with Orochimaru. The snake Sannin looked surprised to see the Aburame heir with a sword.

Particularly when Shino showed skill in using the blade.

It soon deteriorated into a sword battle, with neither side giving way.

Eventually Shino landed a blow against the sannin, and he hissed in fury.

"You will pay for that brat!" he hissed.

Shino smirked, and hissed in snake tongue "Wanna bet?"

Suddenly tongues of flames blew past him, and hit Orochimaru. The fight had given the third his second wind, and he was going in for the kill.

Orochimaru attempted to summon his snakes, but his chakra was too low for it to succeed.

Shino abruptly sank his sword into the sannin's side, dealing a mortal blow. Orochimaru's eyes widened at the sight of his own blood spilling out.

Shino's attention was on his sword. It had started to glow the minute he sank it into Orochimaru.

He jumped back, allowing Sarutobi to deal with Orochimaru. He was starting to tire.

He was almost too late to block the last ditch effort from the sannin to kill him.

Shino didn't think, he just reacted.

The sound of apparition echoed across the now silent battlefield. Shino's sword took off Orochimaru's right arm.

"If you're Orochi...then call me Susanoo," Shino said to the sannin.

He wondered if the snake caught the reference.

The barrier came undone, as Orochimaru's lackeys took him away. One of them cauterized the now bleeding limb. He wouldn't be using any jutsu for a while.

Shino blacked out, having worn himself out.

He woke up in his room a few hours later.


"So let me get this straight. Because of the fact Shino managed to heavily wound the snake, he gets to become a chunin along with Sasuke and Naruto?" asked Remus.

"The Elders were very impressed with their actions. It didn't hurt that they displayed several traits needed to become a chunin," said Anko.

"So what happens to that man who appeared in that coffin?" asked Remus. That had been rather odd, particularly the way Shino and the Third had reacted.

Sarutobi would be able to return to desk duty in two days. He was suffering from chakra exhaustion.

Anko looked annoyed.

"Because we have absolutely no idea how to kill him without setting off a riot, he'll have to stay at my apartment. Luckily Haku has recently been allowed to buy her own place, so she and Kinuko have moved out."

"Shino took out the other two by draining them..." said Remus.

Anko shook her head.

"The Fourth Hokage was the hero of the village, since he took out the Kyuubi no Yoko. People would react rather badly if we killed him twice."

"So does this mean that the Fourth will take back his post?" asked Shino, trying not to yawn.

"Unfortunately no. Since he was brought back using that foul jutsu, we can't trust him just yet. We can't risk him being taken over by Orochimaru."

"By the way, I cut his arm off for you," said Shino.

Anko brightened up.

"Did you use that sword?"

"What did you say to him before he fled?" asked Remus. He had seen Shino say something, but he was too far away to hear what.

"'If you're Orochi, then call me Susanoo'," Shino said amused.

Anko couldn't hold her straight face for longer than five seconds. She bust a gut laughing her ass off.

"That is priceless!" she cackled.

"Am I the only one not getting the joke?" asked Remus. He was rather confused by her reaction.

"It's Japanese mythology. Susanoo killed the eight headed snake Orochi using the sword Tsukiyomi."

"And?"

"I named the sword I used in the fight Tsukiyomi because of where I found it. Considering the man I fought with was named Orochimaru, it seemed appropriate."

"It appears I'll have to look that one up..." said Remus.

Anko grinned at her apprentice.

"Which reminds me... Hokage-sama wants to see you."

"I'll see you two later then."


Shino was allowed into the room, after seeing the ANBU first. Several people wanted to see how the Hokage was doing, so the old man had posted ANBU outside his room to keep the nosy civilians out.

Well, that and to protect him, but mostly to keep the civilians out.

"You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?"

"Come in Shino-kun. It appears that you actually do have family here in Konoha..."

Shino paused. If he had family, then there was a chance they might want to take him from the Aburame clan. It was a small chance, but he really didn't like it.

"You apparently have a cousin here. He's the same age as you are, and he's a shinobi."

"Who is it?" asked Shino, trying to mask his emotions.

"Oh, you know who it is..." the Hokage was outright grinning at him. This was going to be funny as hell.

He gave the Hokage a look.

"Let me put it this way. Petunia Dursley came here twelve years ago with an infant, intending to leave the son of her step sister with her cousin. That woman was Kushina Uzumaki..."

"You mean..."

"Naruto is your first cousin on your mother's side. Yuri Uzumaki brought you here once to visit her cousin. Petunia must have gotten the address from Yuri."

"Naruto...is my cousin?" said Shino, floored.

The Hokage was grinning outright. It wasn't often one could shock an Aburame into showing their emotions.

"So what happens now?" Shino finally asked. It was a lot to process.

"Now you and your team will recover. Once the mission roster is back up, you'll continue on as you have."

Shino left the room, deciding to visit the monument to clear his head. It was one of the few places that had been spared from the destruction.


Alright folks, since everyone seems to like the idea for Shino's animagi form, I am going to post an actual poll on my profile. I am going to warn you now, Shino will NOT be turning into a spider of any shape or form. Shino has issues with spiders, bats and frogs. (He barely tolerates toads because Naruto has them for a summon animal.)