Icecream Date

"Shino-kun! Look at this!" He was being dragged forcably down the streets of Konoha, still midly confused as to what was happening... So this is how Sasuke feels all the time... no wonder he hates Fangirls. Trying to figure out what exactly happened wasn't helping him either.

... I knew that the easy way out would be the worst idea...

"Shino-kun!" She stopped suddenly, and he almost ran into her; it brought him awkwardly close, and she seized that moment to clamp her arms around his elbow. "Buy me some icecream... okay?"

"Icecream..?" He repeated dumbly.

"You know," she giggled; it sounded distinctly evil to his ears... but then again, he was very biased at that moment. "A frozen dessert... often served on a cone... buy me some? Please?"

He blinked. "Why..?"

"Because we're on a date silly!" She giggled again, and started dragging him to where an icecream stand had been, conveniently enough, set up.

Kami-sama, please have mercy on my soul...

------

"Hey, it's alright," Sakura sat on the edge of the hospital bed, trying to work up the nerve to comfort the crying girl. She just sat there, pulling her knees up to her chest as she looked away from the medical ninja.

How is this alright...? It... it hurts. It just hurts. And your a medic; you're supposed to hate pain, 'specially when it belongs to other people... so how is this alright..?

"Come on..." Sakura scooted closer, and put a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened under the pinkette's touch. "Jeez... what's so good about him anyways? He's just another guy. There's tons of them! Speaking of guys... I'll be yelling at your cousin when he comes back; wanna yell with me? That'll make you feel better."

"N-no..." Hinata shook her head, feeling a few crystal tears fall from her chin. "S'not N-Neji's f-f-fault..."

"How is this not his fault?" The pinkette asked, rage entering her voice. What did he do to make her so mad at him..? I hope she doesn't hurt as much as I do... "That complete bastard has been ruining my life for the past week! And now he goes and beats the hell out of one of my friends! This is deffinately all his fault!"

Ruined her week..? "D-did he t-tell Sh-Shino t-to d-d-date her..?"

"Well... no..."

"Th-then... then i-it's s'n-not his f-f-fault..." Hinata sighed, and moved to lay back down. "I... I w-want t-to be al-lone..."

"You sure..?" She only nodded, then waited as Sakura stood up and slowly, left the room.

------

"You should have some, Shino-kun!" She cheered pleasantly enough. Shino held back a groan, and sat down at the first place he saw... unfortunately enough, she sat down beside him. "Come on... I'll share mine if you want."

"I'm fine," he didn't look at her. Didn't want to risk sending some signal that would mean something completely different than what he really meant.

"Awe..." she whined, but was quiet for awhile. He sighed. How am I going to fix this with Hinata..? "... Shino-kun..?"

"What?" He growled out under his breathe, glaring down at her from behind his glasses; she pouted, but looked more excited than scared. ... why is this happening?

"Are you sure you don't want some..?" she offered, holding up the vanilla icecream cone.

He glared more. "... do I even know your name..?"

"Silly," she giggled, and took her cone back. Thank Kami for small mericles... "You must have just forgotten my name; everyone knows me! I'm Kaede, the prettiest kunoichi in Konoha!"

Shino snorted. "That's all a matter of opinion."

"You don't think I'm pretty..?" she pouted, trying a little too hard to look heartbroken.

"I said it was a matter of opinion," he restated, rolling his eyes. Please... someone save me. Anyone; I'll even take Orochimaru over this! Worse; I'll deal with my father...

"Well then..." she said it innocently enough... but the subtle shift closer to his side, and her foot moving to hook around his ankle suggested differently. "... what's your opinion?"

"You're pretty," he shrugged, answering honestly. "But we live in a village of pretty kunoichi."

"So I'm not the prettiest..?" he could hear her pout, and bolted his eyes straight ahead; the icecream cone seemed to disappeared, and her hands brushed over his chest. Damn it... damn it... damn it... He might have been showing sure signs (to everyone around him, and eventually himself) of feelings for Hinata... but for one morbid reason or another, he was a teenage boy.

"I think of s-someone else as the prettiest," he muttered out, edging away from Kaede.

"Oh," the innocent tones in her voice had disappeared, replaced with venom. "Who is she?"

"I would think that was obvious," he pulled himself to a stand, stuffing his hands into his pockets; he refused to look at the girl. "Hyuuga Hinata."

"That girl?" she snarled out. "What's so special about her? She's rather plain."

Annoyance bubbled in his belly, and his kikaichuu wanted to swarm out of his skin... "It's all a matter of opinion, Kaede-san."

"Opinion?" It was impossible not to look at her as she stood up and stepped forwards to glare right into his sunglasses. "Opinion has nothing to do with that! She's plain! She always has been, she always will be!" She pouted slightly, crossing her arms tightly under her chest... Shino found his eyes wondering a moment. He shook the thought out of his head, and forced himself to look up at her face. "Ch. I bet you only like her because she's the Hyuuga Heir..."

"And why do you like me..?" Shino challenged; the venom was in his voice this time. Several of his kikai bugs escaped from his grasp, creeping over his collar and out of his sleeves, and buzzing down around his feet. She took half a step back. "Maybe because I'm the Aburame Heir? We both know it's not because of my 'good looks'; you can't even see how I look. And it's not because of my jutsus," he allowed more of his kikaichuu to crawl out from under his skin, and told them to surround her - she squealed, backing away even farther. "Girls like you hate bugs."

"I-!" she tried to find something to say, eyes frantically trying to watch all the kikai bugs around her. "St-stop it!"

Shino glared more. Serves her right for trying to ruin things between me and Hinata... He stepped forwards this time, and with a particularily powerful feeling of spite, told some of his kikaichuu to land on the girls skin; he watched as she screamed, falling on the ground. Father would be so proud of me.

"Shino!" A familiar voice broke his concentration, and in a quick sweep his kikai bugs all rushed back to him. He looked up to find Kiba glaring at him. "What the fuck are you doing to that girl?"

"G-get him away!" Kaede screamed again. "He's a monster!" Scrambling to her feet, she ran off. Both boys watched her leave, before turning their attention to each other again.

"The hell Kiba..." Shino growled; Kiba blinked, and stepped up to his friend. He pushed up Shino's forehead protector to feel his skin.

"You're not sick," the dog-lover said, pulling away. "So why the hell are you acting like this?"

"That girl, quiet possibly, ruined my life," Shino growled again, still glaring in the general direction that Kaede had disappeared.

"Right... well... you can't just go off and attack people like that."

"I wasn't fucking attacking her!" He yelled out; he silence afterwards was deafening. A quick glance around prooved them to be the center of attention. "Her own damn fault... tricking me into a date then provoking me..."

"... You were on a date with her?" Kiba was glaring at him now.

"Yeah," Shino huffed... suddenly, he was forced to take a step back to dodge the fist aimed for his jaw. Kiba looked just about ready to kill.

"The hell you bastard! What about Hinata?"