A/N: Welcome back, dear readers and lurkers. Let me just say that I adore Shino's grandfather. Enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Shino and Grandfather's Scheme

Shino tried to ignore that invasive worry, but it had taken root and sprouted in the short time he'd stood watching them. Why was his grandfather strolling around with Ino's hand in his elbow crease? Tch. They looked thick as thieves. He had a strong sense that when Ino came to give him the greenhouse keys, Grandfather had spoken to her unchecked, and that must have been a major instigator for what Shino currently witnessed. He had not eliminated the suspicion that Grandfather had been scheming this week, but with the jounin exams, he hadn't been able to pay much mind to anything else. A feeling akin to urgency rushed him through dressing and his general morning routine.

"Good morning, Shino-dear," his mother greeted when he came into the dining room. "You must've been tired. You haven't slept this late since your chunin exams. Breakfast?"

"Why is Grandfather speaking with Ino?" he asked, without preamble. "I was not aware they had a familiar relationship."

Mother raised her eyebrows over the Konoha Daily News she read at the chabudai. "Your grandfather never said a word to me. Though, he has been a little...preoccupied of late. I figured it was some kind of senior melancholy."

"So you know nothing about why Ino is here?"

"No. I actually didn't know she was with him until you mentioned it," Mother responded. "Is there something wrong?"

"I will see what this is about," he said and hurried to the front entryway to lace up his boots. He needed to nip whatever this was in the bud. Grandfather meddling in his courtship ritual might throw it off track; he didn't need the help as things were moving along fine with Ino. Furthermore, she might perceive the additional pressure as a threat and scuttle away from it to safety where he would have to go through added effort to cull her forth once more.

Mother called to him before the door shut, "You're not having your breakfast?"

Where had they gone? Ah, there; a white-gold trail of hair like a beacon in the morning sunlight. Ino and Grandfather strolled on the far side of the green square, so he cut under the tall, ancient shade trees across the lush grass. As he strode toward the pair, he realized that he had forgotten to shrug into his flak jacket and his long coat before leaving his room. That awareness stopped him in his tracks; he waffled back and forth between either fetching those layers of protection or perhaps missing his opportunity to catch out his grandfather. No, he would be fine without the flak jacket or coat. He continued on a straight path and intercepted them before they could round another corner.

"Good morning," Ino said when he stepped in front of them. The power of her smile, those sparkling eyes, left him weak-kneed. It was a much more pronounced response than he anticipated; it threw him off tilt. "I'm surprised you're up and about after yesterday's exams. How are you feeling?"

He had to work a moment to get his mouth moving. "I am well, thank you. And you?"

"Good. Loving this clear weather we're having. I hope it holds for a while longer."

Grandfather harrumphed and addressed Shino. "We're lucky to even see you out of your room. What do you want, son? You're interrupting us."

"What are you discussing together?" Shino asked, immune to the grouchiness. No doubt Grandfather was upset Shino was in the middle of spoiling whatever plans he'd made.

"That's none of your doggone business! Buzz off!" Grandfather replied and shook his staff at Shino. "Can't I have a conversation with a pretty girl without some larva of a grandson sticking to me? I'm old!" He punctuated this last exclamation with a vicious stab at the ground with the staff. "I should have some enjoyment before I croak!"

Shino appealed to Ino, who looked aloof and bemused at the same time. "Ino?"

"Sorry, Master, my lips are sealed," she replied. "It's a part of my professional courtesy to the client."

Professional courtesy? Client? Was that what she was doing here or was she saying that to cover for Grandfather? It was reasonable for him to think that Yamanaka Flowers would do consulting work, unless she was abetting one of Grandfather's ridiculous schemes and using that as an excuse. Shino watched her face for any further clues to give away what she meant, but she kept her face neutral.

The old man looked askance at Ino. "Master? Why would you go around calling this pipsqueak 'master'?"

"It's a tease," Ino said to him with a flick of her hair. She gestured with her hand. "Shall we continue?"

"Wait!" Shino was incredulous that he'd been stymied in such a deft manner and was loath to let them pass without underscoring his point. "May I speak with my grandfather alone for a moment, please?"

"No. You may not," answered Grandfather. He had a look on his face that asked, What will you do now?

"Then what I say will be to both of you." Shino frowned and moved to put his hands in his coat pockets, but missed and had to settle for his trouser pockets- -a dissatisfying reminder that he did not wear his coat. "Grandfather, I do not need your assistance with whatever personal decisions I make. I am capable of implementing my own strategies and reaching my own goals without any outside assistance."

"That's all well and good for you to make declarations, but that has nothing to do with what Miss Yamanaka and I are discussing," Grandfather said. "Because you are presumptuous, I'll tell you I've contracted Yamanaka Flowers to completely re-landscape my back garden. Currently, we're discussing some preliminary plans before we make up the sketches. And because you aggravate me to no end, you've volunteered yourself for any manual labor that she may require."

Flummoxed, Shino stared at the old man. He did not see how he had gotten so entangled. Under those enormous white eyebrows, Grandfather stared back as Shino considered how he should respond to this new development. He could twist out of it because it most certainly was one of Grandfather's manipulations, and he did not care to be manipulated. On the other hand, providing Ino support sounded like a good way to get to know her better, so perhaps if this was a manipulation, he could stand it this once.

"In that case, I'll require lots," Ino said to fill the space, and Shino could tell she laughed at them in her head.

"Why not tell me this when I asked the first time?" asked Shino to his elder.

Grandfather sighed. "I didn't see a reason to, and I don't have to tell you everything I do. Now come on. Daylight's wasting."

He and Ino started forward again. As they strafed Shino, who stood in the middle of the path, Ino glanced at him with a coy tilt to her chin and said, "Are you coming along?"

He felt the revolutions of some machination and didn't quite believe that his grandfather was being honest. This landscaping idea seemed like a good cover for another underlying plan, but what that plan should entail, Shino would have to find out. The best he could do was to observe them, so he followed behind them to listen.

"As I was saying before we were interrupted," said Grandfather with a glare over his shoulder at Shino, "I'd like there to be mostly perennials so I don't have to do so much replanting. My back can't take it, you know."

"I understand. Did you want the garden to be entirely self-sufficient, or will you be able to do some work in it?"

"My daughter insists I need to spend more time outside, so I would like to use 'puttering around the garden' to satisfy her. In other words, yes, some maintenance would be fine."

"A little bit is doable," said Ino. "With perennials, you'll need to dead-head them and water occasionally. Depending on the dimensions of the garden, we can even put in raised beds so you don't have to bend down so far to the ground."

"Pretty, polite, and comes with a brain. I think I'm in love with you!"

His grandfather's sudden announcement disrupted Shino's calm. On some level, he knew Grandfather was teasing her and was not in a position to woo her anyway. He knew all that, but a dark cloud passed across his soul- -an outside threat, weak and feeble though it was, was still a threat. To his further perturbation, Ino seemed to go along with it, as she had with Kiba.

"I also have straight teeth, clean hair, and good hips," she said. "Don't forget those."

"Heh, you're right. Then make that definitely in love with you."

She angled another amused glance at Shino. "Maybe I should marry you instead of Shino."

Shino's heart did a very strange dance in his chest, and that, combined with a flip his stomach did, provoked the insects into feverish movement inside him. What was going on here? Was Ino thinking of marrying him? Or had she figured out somehow that he wanted to marry her? He had told Kiba that he was in love with her, not that he had planned on getting her to marry him. Perhaps when he'd stayed for dinner at the Yamanaka household, the thought had slipped and one of the more perceptive of the family picked up on it. In that case, his secret courtship of her was blown and he'd have to do damage control. However, he did not have enough evidence to support any of these conclusions.

"You should marry me," replied Grandfather. "I'd appreciate you and make you laugh, unlike someone else who is serious all the time and doesn't speak and is generally difficult to be around." Points conceded, thought Shino, while the old man paused a moment. "And you'd get my money when I'm dead."

"Aren't you the sweetest thing," she told him with a laugh. "But I don't need money to make me happy."

"What does make you happy?" said Grandfather. His tone had turned more serious; even Shino perked up as he soothed the insects.

"You haven't figured it out yet?

Grandfather's mustache and eyebrows twitched. "No."

"It's flirting with elderly gentlemen and talking about flowers."

The old man cackled with laughter. Behind them, Shino, ill-humored, felt the stirrings of impatience. Was everything a joke or a tease to her? By this time, they had walked around the square to Grandfather's house. Instead of leading them up the steps to the front door, he brought them along a neat gravel path to a wooden side gate overgrown with long tendrils of ivy.

"You'll want to use this gate for your work. It's never locked, so you'll be able to come and go as you please." Grandfather untucked Ino's hand from his elbow. "Go look around. When you're through, come up on the back porch. Shino and I'll get some tea started."

"Thanks. It'll be a few minutes," she said.

She tried opening the gate, and when she couldn't get it to budge after a couple tugs, Shino reached down, placing his hand over hers on the latch, and added his strength to her efforts. As with most moments around her, he stole a glance at her nape and thought about what her skin tasted like. Indescribable heat lanced along his spine and tightened every muscle in his body, and the suddenness of that heat frightened him.

And, oh, how his kikaichu reacted, chattering and slipping from the open channels they had long since burrowed into his body. Not all of them escaped his lax control, but enough that their lovely song vibrated along his skin, lifting each of his fine hairs. Again they performed a swooping dance around him and Ino, a tangible, circling cloud that tasted the air for the reason his aura changed.

The gate hauled open with a whingy creak. Ino drew her bangs behind her ear and gazed up at him under thick lashes. He felt her send a sort of nonverbal signal, but he was at a loss as to what it meant since he quibbled for control inside himself. He only wanted to caress her throat and press his lips under her jaw.

"Thank you," she said.

"You are welcome," he told the top of her head, his throat closed and mouth dry, and dropped his hand from hers. Then she ducked under the ivy and disappeared around a curve in the path, her hips sashaying so that the purple skirt rippled around her thighs. Had she always walked like that? The song heightened, rising in intensity and volume, and a fresh pulse of heat resounded inside him.

"Son? Something the matter?" asked Grandfather from a distance.

Shino didn't have an answer, and instead spent time exerting control over his wild senses, forcing himself to relax and breathe and ignore a dull, throbbing ache, while at the same time, commanding the kikaichu to return to their nests. They complied. Even then, they were upset about being stirred up, and so scurried around, uncomfortably, to show their anxiety. They knew how much he was shaken.

"Shino," Grandfather said. He'd come to stand beside him. "Shino, you don't look well. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," but the word was too quiet to be believable.

After another moment, Shino managed to pull himself together enough to think. The kikaichu were back where they belonged. It would be awhile before he could convince them to settle, but at least they weren't outside doing strange things. Now that he had Grandfather alone, he could address some pertinent concerns- -anything to get past this…troubling episode.

At last, Shino found his voice. "Is she really here for the garden or is there something else going on?"

"What're you so worried about?" asked Grandfather, turning. The old man's voice had weakened, or rather, gentled. He was no longer spitfire and granite.

Confused, Shino fell in step beside him, taking careful note of the other's profile. "I do not want her scared into a retreat because of undue pressure."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. She's here professionally," said the old man. "Besides, I think you've got the wrong idea. She's not some skittish little colony queen! She's got guts. She won't fly into a retreat because you pay her some attention. She's the kind of girl who'll instigate and push and drive you nuts!"

Yes, she is driving me nuts, Shino realized. She does instigate and push me.

He and Grandfather went up the front steps, Grandfather hobbling up each stair one at a time, and Shino hovering off his elbow to offer a firm shoulder should he need it. "And you should pay her attention!" he continued, panting. "It should be you who flirts with her! Not some grouchy half-deaf old fool."

"I do not think I need to flirt with her to make my feelings clear."

Grandfather's home was for a smaller family- -a master bedroom, a smaller guest bedroom, and two bathrooms on one floor. The living room, dining room, and kitchen were combined in an open floor plan. Lots of wood flooring and beloved furniture and family heirlooms decorated the space. Everything was in its place. Shino could close his eyes and from memory dictate each color, texture, and item in every room, and that offered him comfort after this most recent episode with Ino. In the entryway, they removed their shoes and Grandfather led Shino to the dining room.

"That's where you're wrong! Flirting is fun." He paused for breath. "And it's what you're supposed to do with pretty girls! If you tore yourself away from your insects from time to time, you'd know that by now!"

Shino refrained from a reply as it was clear Grandfather swung back into an argumentative mood. Instead, Shino slid open the door to the back porch which overlooked the garden and peered from his vantage point into the wild bushes, shrubs, and trees, but the density of the green blocked Ino from view. Defeated by the vegetation, he turned to the kitchen where Grandfather filled a kettle with water.

"I am doing the best I can," said Shino to Grandfather's back. Grandfather set the kettle on the stove to heat.

"I know, son." Grandfather sighed and turned around. His face was flush and shiny, and he still breathed in short huffs. "If you really care about her like you say you do, don't wait around forever to take action. She's the kind of woman every man wants. She may slip through your fingers."

"I am well aware of her attractive qualities. I will move as fast as I deem necessary."

"Hopefully that means you'll go faster than an inchworm," was Grandfather's caustic reply. "And for heaven's sake, get the girl some flowers!"

"Hey!" Ino called from the back porch as she slipped off her shoes. "I'm done back here. You've got a beautiful property, Gramps. I think I'll enjoy doing up the garden."

"Gramps?" Shino repeated. How very…familiar.

"Shush, pipsqueak. I told her to call me that," said Grandfather. He began rustling at some shelving against the wall. "Sit at the table, you two. I want to get these plans drawn up and the finances settled."

Ino came up to Grandfather's side and in a deft pivot, maneuvered him to sit at the cozy chabudai instead. "Tch! You're out of breath! It's you who will sit down and get off your feet. Shino can get the materials you want, and I'll take care of the tea."

"Damned nuisance, young people these days," grumbled Grandfather, but there was no venom to the complaint.

After Shino found some parchment and pencils- -heckled by his elder the entire time he searched for being a slowpoke- -he proffered them to Grandfather, who accepted everything with a murmur of gratitude and unrolled a blank parchment across the tabletop. Then before the kettle shrieked, Shino came into the kitchen to assist Ino in finding and arranging the tea things on a tray. He stood near her, close enough that he smelled her shampoo mingling with the outdoors on her, and again he fought against a sudden compulsion to touch her shining hair which fell like a waterfall down her back. From next to his bones, the insects chattered at him in concern, and he grappled for control over his feelings.

The kettle shrieked then, and without thinking, he went to pull it from the stove. His hand collided with Ino's. Surprise froze both of them, so the kettle continued to shriek. Her eyes caught him up and he found he'd lost his brain and muscle functions. He stared at her, trying to figure out these signals that seemed to jump from her to him; with a demure smile, Ino removed the kettle and poured the water into the teapot to steep the tea.

"Do you want to carry this out or should I?" she asked.

"I'll take it," he told her, coming back to himself and lifting the tray from the countertop. He had escaped without having had another troubling episode he seemed susceptible to when in her presence. She followed him out of the kitchen, and they took their seats at the now cluttered chabudai. "Here is the tea, Grandfather."

"Excellent."

"Our plans will be better if we draw them to scale," said Ino. While Shino poured the tea into cups, she picked up a pencil and used the space between first and second knuckle of her forefinger to count along the side of the paper, using a small mark every five measurements. "I have the dimensions of the back garden already in my head. This parchment is large enough that we can equate half-an-inch to a foot. You have a lot of extraneous foliage growing over everything, but also a lot of beautiful old shrubs and things that might be worthwhile to keep."

Grandfather's back garden grew into existence on the paper under Ino's efficient sketches. Shino had not known, and he watched, in awe, as she filled in the blank space with notations and measurements and symbols. She explained that the land sloped downwards toward the back, so drainage there was an issue. Some of the soil needed enriching along the outer edges and of course, should he want those raised beds, she could do an interesting leveled arrangement in the middle of the garden to divide interest and focal points.

"I want you to have complete license to design this garden as you wish," said Grandfather, resting his hand on her delicate wrist. To Shino's ears, he sounded full of warm emotion. "Cost is no object."

Ino laughed. "That's very generous, but I promise I'll keep it within reason. Now, Shino," she continued, gazing at him, "one of your primary jobs will be to move the insect nests to less…populated areas. There were several, uh, dwellings growing in the trees and under rotting debris." She marked them on the sketch. "You think you can handle that?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful." She looked at Grandfather, "When can I start?"

"No time like the present."

"Then I'll begin. Do you keep gardening and pruning tools on the premise? Otherwise, I'll have to make a trip over to the flower shop to get some necessary tools."

"Yes, we do," answered Grandfather. "Shino, after we drink our tea, take her out and show her where the family's gardening shed is. Then help her with what she needs, you hear?"

"I will do so."

Then Grandfather and Ino returned their attention to the sketches to discuss in more detail what should be included. As they did, Shino faced the strange, yet unquestionable, excitement of spending an entire day with Ino. Furthermore, there would be no one else to interfere. They would be alone outside in the tranquil day. Here might be his chance to steal nearer to her, open her closed petals, and discover her secrets uninterrupted. The thought sent a delicious tremble through him and roused the insects a little from their semi-calmed state.

A/N: Let me end by saying this story probably will not last as a T rating for much longer. As you can tell, I've cranked up the volume on Shino's physical and emotional response to Ino because he's, you know, repressed, and to me, it's hilarious to watch him squirm. Those of you who've been with me through all my Kiba/Ino stories know I can't write a romance without some bedroom action. So, yeah. Be prepared.