Naruto Primer: Future Shino
Best Man
Shino chuunin-ified himself in the next chuunin exam he could get his hands on. Then, after successfully being a chuunin for a few years, Shino decided to try his luck at the jounin exam. At age eighteen, he became a jounin. He didn't know what to do with himself after that.
He tried a year of teaching, but that didn't go so well. He got his three students and tried to teach them things but… he didn't really know what to teach them. They didn't use bugs like he did so he didn't know how to go about teaching them how to be ninjas to suit their own attributes. So he passed his students on to a different jounin who had just so happened to fail his students.
So now Shino was a twenty-two year old jounin. It was really just a name to him. He just wanted to prove to people that the Aburame clan was worth something and now that he had done so, he didn't really have a purpose anymore. He'd complete missions for the new Hokage who was, oddly enough, Shikamaru, and even went off with Sasuke, Ino and Lee to kill Itachi. That was successful. Kind of weird, but successful.
He never really saw his friends from the olden days. Every once and a while, Kiba would call him out to have a little guy's party where Kiba would just talk and talk and talk and talk and argue with Akamaru and then talk some more.
It was time to get the mail.
Shino walked out to his mailbox and pulled out the small amount of mail. "Bill… bill… bill… catalog… magazine…" He stopped at the last thing in the pile. "A…letter?"
He took the mail back to his house and dropped the bills and junk on the table and then sat down. "It's from Kiba." Shino read out, looking at the return address. He opened the envelope and pulled out the piece of paper inside. He read it over once or twice, making sure he understood.
"A…wedding invitation." He said. "Kiba's getting married. To Hinata, no less. Who would have thought?"
Shino took his little magnet and pinned the invitation to the refrigerator. He figured it was his obligation to go over to congratulate Kiba and Hinata even though he failed to even notice that they were going out.
Kiba's house wasn't THAT far away so Shino decided that he'd take a leisurely stroll. He knocked on the door and it almost immediately swung open.
"Shino!" Kiba said happily. "What a pleasant and strangely random surprise! What are you doing here?"
"I got your invitation." Shino answered.
"Oh, my wedding invitation?" said Kiba as if that sort of thing happened every day. "Yeah, I mailed those I guess. You want to come in?"
"I just came over to congratulate you." Shino said.
"That was nice!" said Kiba. "Are you going to be able to make it?"
"I suppose." Shino replied.
"Good because I was hoping you'd be my best man." Said Kiba.
Shino coughed a little bit in surprise. "Your best man?" he said.
"Yeah!" said Kiba. "I was going to ask Akamaru but…well, he's old and he said, 'No, sonny boy. It's time you stopped relying on me so much and find some human friends your age!' and then I slugged him right in the jaw and then—"
"Kiba, are you sure you want ME to be your best man?" Shino interrupted.
"Well YEAH!" said Kiba. "You're my best human friend! You know what, Shino? You should get a girlfriend. I'd think you'd be a lot happier."
Shino coughed a little bit more. "A girlfriend?" he said.
"Yeah!" said Kiba. "Come on, you're a jounin and chicks LOVE jounins. Besides, you're a stud! I don't know why they don't love you already!"
"It's the bugs." Shino said.
"Oh right." Said Kiba thoughtfully.
Shino peeked under Kiba's arm to see a bunch of suitcases. "Are you going somewhere?" Shino asked.
Kiba turned around. "No, that's just Hinata's stuff." He answered. "When she told her dad that she accepted my proposal, she was kinda kicked out of the clan. Well, not really kicked out. They just said that I couldn't live in the Hyuuga area because I'm not a Hyuuga and we can't very well live in two separate houses! So Hinata's not the heir to the Hyuuga family anymore. Can you imagine if I could have lived there though? Man, I would have had so many enemies! Namely, Neji."
"You probably wouldn't survive the first night." Shino said, thinking about what Neji would do if KIBA was accepted into the Main House when he wasn't even a Hyuuga.
"Yeah." Said Kiba. "So do you want to come in? Will you be my best man?"
"Kiba, I need to think about it." said Shino.
"About what?" asked Kiba. "Coming in or being my best man?"
"Um…both." Said Shino. "Bye."
"Aww…" said Kiba sadly as Shino turned to leave. "Do you really not want to be my best man that much?"
"It's not that." Shino said. "I'm just trying to figure out WHY someone like you would choose someone like me to be the best man."
"Well Shino, I already said that it was because you were my best friend and if that's not a good enough reason then I don't know WHAT is." Said Kiba. "But do whatever you want! I could always ask Naruto I guess…"
"All right." Said Shino. "I'll be your best man."