Fun fact: all of the chapter titles are carefully chosen idioms that fit with the chapter theme/plot.

Chapter 3

But Satisfaction Brought it Back

Most days that Shino and his father were not away on missions they joined his mother together at the table for the evening meal. With the decrease in available missions due to the cold weather, this happened more often than not whilst the snow blanketed the ground.

Shino's mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of the strangely enticing woman he met today. He had been reviewing all he knew about the kikai and their relation with non-host bodies. Much to his displeasure, his knowledge of this particular area was lacking.

He lowered his utensils and turned to his father.

"Have the kikai ever wanted to leave the host for another? I came across a woman today with chakra that the kikai desired. They were quite unwilling to be dissuaded from leaving. Has anything like this ever happened before?"

Shibi nodded.

"It can happen, yes. In the same way, mosquitoes prefer certain individuals over others; one's chakra may be more appealing than their host. In extreme cases, the kikai may rebel against their host or leave despite the host's will. In even rarer cases the chakra may be so appealing that the kikai may never return as long as the new host is still alive."

New host? The words raised a new question in Shino's mind.

"The kikai would choose the other over their original host?"

"In some cases, yes." Shibi nodded again. "Once they feed upon the more desirable chakra, they might be unwilling to accept any other food source."

"What is the best way to control the kikai around these people?"

"The most obvious answer would be to avoid these people and avoid the negative possibilities altogether. Otherwise keeping them fed and keeping a tight hold on them would be best." He stopped to stare more pointedly at his son. "Don't allow them to feed on the person's chakra. It's likely they will never return."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite his father's warnings, he found himself entering the bookstore the very next day, hoping Sachi would be working. He couldn't figure out what it was about Sachi that drew the kikai so much. From what his father said it was little more than a preference for her chakra, but this did little to satisfy his curiosity. The only things he was almost entirely certain of, was that she didn't seem to realize the effect she had, and that she seemed nothing more than a run of the mill civilian, albeit a blind one.

"Shino-san is that you?" The woman in question rounded the nearest bookshelf and interrupted his train of thought.

"Yes," he answered. She smiled.

"I heard you coming. What brings you in today?"

"I wondered if you could recommend another book."

"Do you need another gift already or is it something for you?" she asked.

"Something for me." She hummed thoughtfully and trailed a hand across the bookshelf just in front of him. She brushed a thin finger along the spine and pulled it into her hands.

"I've heard good things about this one. It's a different world than ours. It's a fantasy story with action and only a tiny touch of romance."

"Have you read it?"

"No, they haven't made a version of it that I can read. That's just what a customer told me about it."

"Which would you personally recommend?"

She replaced the book deftly and trailed her hand over three shelves and down two before selecting another novel.

"I would say this one. It's like a dystopian alternate dimension. The characters rise up to take back their world and it's really funny because the main character is always saying something he shouldn't be." He plucked the book in question out of her grip, looking it over with interest.

"You seem fond of it."

"I have an audio version that I've listened to a couple times. That's one of the perks of working here. I can get the owner to special order some books for me."

"I could walk you home and you could tell me more about it if you wouldn't mind."

"I'd love to but only if you contribute to the conversation more than yesterday. I don't want to be the only one talking. I'll be out in 15 minutes."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

While the original team 8 usually trained first thing in the morning, their training time was being disturbed by Hinata's need for wedding planning. She had apologized profusely to her two teammates, and explained that the boutiques and businesses were far too busy for her to go to after their training had ended.

Not wanting to end their training completely, as skills that were not constantly honed tended to become stagnant, they settled for delaying their meetings until the afternoon for the next few days. Hinata had assured them she had already picked out most of the decorations and had only needed a few days to order them.

The afternoon, however, interfered with the time Sachi got off work and the last two days Shino had left training early to be able to walk her home.

The first two days he had managed to escape without too many questions from his team. While he was sure Hinata would not kick up a fuss, one could never know about their Inuzuka teammate. He was not hiding his meetings with Sachi, but as she was little more than an acquaintance there was no reason to tell his teammates about her.

Therefore, after two days of vaguely answered questions about leaving training early, he was cornered by Kiba as he stood in Shino's way. Hinata stood next to the pair of them just as curious as Kiba to know the goings on of their teammate.

"Where is it you keep heading off to?" Kiba asked with a raised eyebrow.

"As I have mentioned before, I am going to see a friend," he answered in a very brusque and impatient manner. If Kiba delayed him too long he would not be there in time to walk Sachi home as she got off work.

"Yeah, you said that before." Kiba punctuated this sentence with an eye roll. "Who is it? You haven't mentioned anyone by name."

"I have not mentioned a name because it is unlikely you know her and, therefore, a name would do you little to no good."

Kiba's lips split in a very toothy smirk.

"Oh, so it's a girl, huh?" He snickered and turned to Hinata beside them. "How about that Hinata? Looks like Shino finally got himself a girlfriend."

"That's wonderful to hear, Shino-kun." Shino was thankful for Hinata's quiet support even if she had the wrong idea.

"She's not my girlfriend," Shino said with remarkable patience for a man that was being delayed from his goal. It would be improper to describe their relationship as anything more than it actually was.

Kiba put his hands up in a quiet surrender with his teasing smirk still in place. "Alright, alright, friends with benefits, whatever."

Through the years of always wearing his sunglasses around his teammates, they had come to recognize his subtle facial expressions based on what little of his face they could see. Kiba could see from the tensing in his temples and the harsh downturn of his eyebrows that he was on the receiving end of one of Shino's particularly burning glares.

Kiba tried to defuse the situation with a humorless laugh and a strained smile.

"Kiba-kun, I don't think Shino-kun is like that," Hinata intoned in her most gentle correction.

"Yeah, okay, I got it. Nothing is going on." Kiba kept his hands up in the placating fashion from earlier, trying his best to end the glare currently sending a chill up his spine.

Shino vanished from the scene. His impatience with his male teammate had grown thin and if he hadn't left then he would be late.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sachi-chan," a sweet voice singsonged to Sachi's left as she stacked a box of books onto an almost empty shelf.

"Yes, Yuki-chan?" Sachi mimicked back.

Yuki was Sachi's best and oldest friend. When they were both old enough to consider jobs Yuki was adamant that they work together. When she had been hired at a bookstore to operate the register she had sung Sachi's praises till the owner had given in and hired the blind girl, never once regretting it after he witnessed the girl's work ethic.

Yuki was a kind, though, rather dramatic and excitable soul. It was perhaps for those reasons that Sachi had made friends with the vibrant woman. Having grown up experiencing her mother's constant antics, Sachi found it easy to interact with the girl that most thought was a little too hyper for her own good.

They were not wrong.

Yuki positively exuded energy. Even now she wiggled herself excitedly as she stood beside Sachi, waiting to explode with whatever information or question she had.

"You haven't told me who that guy is! Who is the guy you keep leaving with?" She bounced on her toes awaiting an answer.

"You mean Shino-san?" She paused in her stacking with several books on her arm and another in her opposite hand halfway to the designated shelf.

Yuki groaned impatiently. "What other guy could I mean? The tall guy in the coat!" She nearly shouted. Her tone turned to one that was more than a little suggestive."What do you two get up to?"

"He just walks me home," she said plainly, not rising to Yuki's implication. "How much can we be getting up to?"

"Well, it's been four days in a row. Do you think he will come today?"

Sachi resumed her stacking. "Maybe. I don't know. He's a shinobi. I'm sure he has better things to do than to walk me home every day."

"Not if he likes you!" Yuki singsonged again.

"Like you said it's been four days," Sachi responded.

"Has he made a move yet?" Yuki asked ignoring the reiteration of the time.

"Four days!" Sachi said the words slowly, enunciating each syllable carefully as if talking to a foreigner that barely understood the language. "We aren't talking weeks, months or years!"

Yuki scoffed. "If he hasn't made a move, what do you two do?"

"We talked about books, characters, I told him a bit about braille, people and things like that."

"That's all?" Yuki asked incredulously.

"Not everyone moves as fast as you do."

Yuki bounced on the balls of her feet in utter emotional agony. "How am I supposed to live vicariously through you if your life is boring?"

"When did you decide to live through me?"

"As soon as he walked you home the first time," Yuki squealed excitedly, clasping her hands against her cheek lovingly.

Sachi heaved a sigh full of amusement and exasperation. "You are a hopeless romantic. It's not my fault you broke up with your boyfriend. And my life is not boring."

Yuki waved her hands wildly in the air and scoffed. "My ex didn't understand me."

"You were only dating for two weeks! Did you even give him a chance?"

"Two weeks is long enough!" she defended. "I'm looking for The One; the only! I can't find him if I'm tied down to someone I know is wrong." She sighed dramatically. "I don't know how you don't understand. You understand people. You are so perceptive!"

"Yuki-chan, I can't just meet someone and know they are 'The One' in an instant. I might be perceptive but I don't know everything about a person without time to get to know them. I can't exactly understand that love at first sight thing," she waved a hand over her face for Yuki's benefit as if to remind the girl she was blind, "that you have claimed with your last -what is it now- four boyfriends?"

"That's not the point!"

"What is the point?" she asked with surprising patience.

"Do you think he will come today to walk you home?"

Sachi groaned at the repeat question. "Maybe. I don't know," she answered again. "He didn't promise he would if that's what you're asking."

Yuki looked outside the shop windows, scanning for a familiar figure and let out a tone of disappointment. "I don't see him waiting and you get off in," she looked at the clock on the wall, "three minutes!"

"Maybe he's not interested," Sachi stated, not without a slight tone of disappointment.

"Or maybe he's just busy," Yuki countered optimistically.

"You know you have customers waiting." Yuki turned to see three disgruntled patrons waiting at the register to make their purchase. She squeaked and dashed off, leaving Sachi to hear her emphatic apologies across the store.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thanks to the speed Shino had gained in the years he had trained to be a shinobi he had arrived just as Sachi walked out the door of the bookstore.

"There you are, Shino-san," she smiled as he closed the last few feet between them, obviously recognizing the sound of his kikai. "I thought maybe you weren't coming today."

"I experienced a not entirely unexpected delay."

"Alright then," she said curiously. "What was it we were talking about yesterday?"

"The clichéd false dichotomies of the antagonist making the protagonist choose between saving their love interest or an innocent party."

"Oh, that's right! I think it does make for a good heroic story but it seems unlikely that the hero can always save both, don't you think?"

Would you guys like to know the total words/chapters in the story? Or would you prefer not knowing? Feel free to ask any questions at any point in the story. I love answering questions, as long as they are not spoilers.