You stretched and peered at the brilliant full moon above you. You smiled with joy and thought about your recent elevation to Jounin rank. Hokage-sama gave you your exam mission this morning and you passed with flying colours. Basking in the light from the moon, you continued to walk to your house. With a light skip to your step and humming softly to yourself, you walked down the street and approached your door. Just before your hand reached the knob, you paused. Something didn't feel right.
Before you had time to further asses what was amiss, the door swung open and a chorus of congratulations broke out. "Huh?" Was all you could muster. "Congratulations on passing your Jounin exam." Sakura happily pulled you through your own door. "Oh, thanks…" You were still flustered by the group. Once you got into your home, you looked around at the group gathered in the house. Everyone was there. Your friends from the leaf village, the sand siblings, and even Sasuke lounged in your living room.
"Now that everyone's here, we should play this game I read about." Ino announced.
"Great, this'll be troublesome." Shikamaru sighed and you couldn't help but agree with him.
"What's the game?" Naruto asked full of curiosity.
"Well it's called 'Seven Minutes in Heaven'." Ino smiled.
"How do you play?" Tenten asked.
"When you have a party with guys and girls together you have the guys write their names, favorite animals, favorite colours, or something on a sheet of paper and put it in a bowl. The girls then draw the slips of paper out of the bowl and have to stay in a closet for seven minutes with the guy who wrote on the paper." Ino explained.
"What happens in the closet?" Kankuro asked.
"Ummm…the thing I read said the guy gets to do whatever he wanted with the girl." Ino answered. You looked around at everyone's faces and saw some people were excited while others looked like they dreaded the game
"I knew this would be troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.
"Let's play!" Naruto excitedly shouted. After some cheers mixed with a small amount of grumbling, you retrieved the materials needed to play. Ino passed the paper and pencils to the guys and told them to write the name of their favorite flower. Sakura passed the bowl around and the guys put their paper in it. "Since this party is for ______, she gets to draw the first name." Sakura smiled and handed you the bowl. You reached your hand into the bowl and pulled out a slip of paper with Heather written on it.
"Heather." You read off the slip and looked around the group. Shino silently stood up and walked to the closet. The other girls shot some sympathetic looks to you, and you followed Shino into the closet. Sakura shut the door, and you leaned against it. You didn't have any aversions toward Shino, just his bugs. How a person could let a colony of bugs live in their body was the creepiest thing you could think of.
"So…what do you do in a closet?" You asked Shino for lack of anything else to say.
"You put stuff in it." He replied matter of factly.
"Funny." Your voice replied with heavy sarcasm. "Though I guess I should be thankful you aren't trying to introduce me to each of your bugs." You teased. Shino looked at you, or at least you thought he looked at you. With the glasses on it was hard to tell. "It was a joke. You were supposed to ask why so I could say I'd never remember all of them." You explained disappointment slightly in your voice. He still hadn't responded to you and you couldn't read his expression with the high collar and glasses. You decided to take off his glasses and walked the short space to him.
"What?" He finally said something when you approached.
"I want to see your expression, so I'm taking off your glasses." You explained and reached up. Just before your hand reached the rims, you caught sight of one of Shino's bugs crawling across the lens. You jumped back and barely contained your squeak of shock. You stared at the little thing and it had the audacity to flutter its back wings and look cute. The creepy, accursed bug was looking at you, and it was acting cute. "Uhhh…that bug…" You stammered and pointed to the little thing.
"He says you're funny." Shino replied.
You had no response to that. After all, what do you say to a bug that says you're funny? "Okay, and what am I supposed to say to that?" You asked with a very slight edge. To your chagrin, Shino had the nerve to shrug. "Alright, bug or no bug, I'm taking off those glasses." You moved toward him again, and felt a strange presence behind you. Looking back, you saw a small army of the little bugs crawling across the floor to you. This time you let out a little squeak and jumped back bumping right into Shino. You felt an arm reach around you and steady you. "Sorry…" You mumbled.
"Are you afraid of bugs?" Shino asked curiously.
"Not afraid…they just creep me out…" You tried to explain.
"Hold out your hand." Shino instructed. You obeyed and the little bug that was on Shino's glasses fluttered onto your hand. You shuddered with revulsion and tried to back away, but Shino wrapped his arms around you and pulled you to his body
"He'll stay with you until bugs don't bother you." Shino explained and you swore you heard a small laugh in his voice.
"Uhhh…okay…does he have a name?" You said trying to keep your voice from betraying your disgust at having a bug in your hand.
"No. You can give him one if it makes you feel better." Shino said and continued holding you. You looked at the bug that was back to doing the cute routine and thought about some names. Before you could think of a good one, Tenten called to you from the other side of the door. "Time's up!" The door opened and you made no move to leave. The bug had all of your attention. Shino removed his hands from around you and grabbed your free hand. He led you out of the closet to the tune of several wolf whistles. Ignoring the group, you were lead to the back wall and sat down next to Shino. Temari passed the bowl, and you spent the rest of the party asking Shino about names for the little bug that was rapidly becoming like a cute pet to you.