Aburame Shiro...

The Hokage

"17) The third Hokage has been referred to as the Professor. It is said that he knows every jutsu in the Fire Country. When I spoke to him of his title, he regretted having it. The Professor added, 'I would lose the title if people in this country developed more techniques, but this lost is nothing to the gain of a strong country.'

I had disagreed on this manner. The Professor has prevented the danger for the people to make more jutsus. They are an appropriate amount of techniques to persist."

The sun was low in its rise. Sandaime lead Hiashi and Shiro down the field along the trees at a quick pace. Following the black clad Hokage, Shiro lagged and threw his arms down in dismay. He let them run ahead and plunged his stooped body next to a tree trunk. His breathing was feeble and he pulled down his scarf. Sticking a finger down his throat, he threw up the black bugs clogging his air way.

"You are only a quarter of the way done this run," Sandaime said. "Get up now, or start from the beginning."

"Can't concentration on keeping the bugs still," Shiro told him. "what's more, they're heavy and hungry."

"Itachi wouldn't..." he gulped dragging his voice box over the tip of the blade that Shiro had swiped out of his sheath. Sandaime did not thrust aside the sword, but he frowned deeply upon Shiro's murky shades. "Let ease be with you, young ninja."

With great exertion, Shiro began to pull himself up against the tree. He came to a slight lean, and kept his sword pointed at the Hokage. Hiashi's pure white eyes inspected the still composure of Sandaime's slumping face.

"It has been predestined," she spoke and activated her eyes that blocked blood in the veins near her head, "you cannot beat him."

Her insight penetrated behind the layers of Shiro to his inners where she watched the colony of bugs swarm throughout his body. Deep in his stomach, she detected two hands clapping together but could not warn Sandaime. On the final seal, the two hands dissolved into bugs and shot out of Shiro's mouth in a line and around Sandaime's neck.

Bringing his forearm down on the line, Sandaime brought Shiro to his knees. The line of bugs cut at Shiro's lips and fell down in between his hands. "Self destruct."

The end Shiro held released from his hand and wrapped around the Hokage's neck and exploded in spikes of blue charka. Sandaime jumped away and coughed. Hiashi prepared for battle.

"The gentle fist will only make me stronger," Shiro stated stopping Hiashi. "Now, where am I?"

"Shiro, extra laps," Sandaime ordered.

"And who are you?" Shiro asked.

Code Names

"18) Hold onto compassion, even if the public entitled what you hold by some other name. Once a person ran away with money that was in my possession, I did not pursue him. When my own mother called me weak for not taking what belonged to me, I did not say a word to correct her that I was compassionate to that thief's suffering in his lust for the root of all evil, because I was compassionate to my mother's suffering in her ignorance of the root of all my contentment. When she witnessed my ease after the robbery and my gratification to hear her criticism, her praise for my contentment under those circumstances was nameless. I would not call that a weak vocabulary, because no one could miss a word."

After clearing up Hayate and Aoba's code names, Shiro leaned to towards Anko as she cupped her hand and placed it ahead of his ear. He could fell the blood pulsating on the side of her hand as she whispered his code name to him. He acknowledged her and she back away to hear his pledge.

"Aburame Shiro, here, now The Stage," he said as he pulled down his scarf, "and I hold that name for this mission to my way of the ninja. The long version, naw, to the shit with rites, my way is what I do and what I am going to do. So long."

Shiro and Hayate head off from the group keeping their headsets buzzing in their ears.

"Guildenstern," Shiro said.

"Did we resolve that I would be Rosencrantz?" Hayate removed his sword and cut through a low lying branch that was in their way as they ran down in the ground. "What is it, the Stage?"

"Got anything planned after this mission," Shiro asked.

Hayate adjusted his pack and rolled his eyes up so that his dead beat eyelids covered all but a sliver of the lower part of his eyes with ruptured blood vessels. Shiro repeated the question, and Hayate uttered, "Just a moment," pulling out his time sheet.

"Painless instructions on tournament rules," Hayate read from the shaking letters, "and then I am refereeing the Chuunin final exam."

"Woah," Shiro stated. "In cartoons, the referees never last!"

"Any references?" Hayate asked.

"Well, um, there's Code Name: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and the unforgettable, dot Hack: Sign That the Referee Dies, also What Ever Happened to Referee Jones."

"And to mention, Referee: the Conquered," Hayate said, "Wait! How about the referee from Dragon Ball Z, he has been alive forever?"

"This isn't Dragon Ball Z," Shiro stated, "when you die, you are going to say dead."

"Worst wishes for you, too," Hayate chuckled.

Substance

"19) When deciding whether or not to partake in a substance that the public would declare would put you under the so-called influence, judge the good and the bad. If it does wrong to others, then avoid taking it as you shall influence others. However, recall the Lao Tzu's saying:

'3. Motion conquers cold.

Quietude conquers heat.

Purity and clearness are the world's standard.'

Such a random quote, and better read under the influence."

The kitchen was dark, and every direction he could look at spoke with its darkest spots, the location of a hidden camera, or cobweb with some chatty spider. Shiro chuckled and pulled his index finger under his blood shot eye. He walked over the cold titles that pricked his bare feet all the way to a brown rug right in front of the fridge. He reached deep inside and pulled out a clear bottle of golden beer. He put the bottle into his sleeve of his purple rugged rope and returned opened. He closed the fridge door as he took a drink. The lights came on brightly and Shiro held the bottle to his eyes to shade the light. He looked up over the island in the middle and saw his little brother Shino.

"Ah, Shino," Shiro titled his head to the side spilling the beer. "What can I do you for? Better make it quick, my gas is almost out."

"Why is brother acting so weird?" Shino said.

"Shinto has always been a bit weird, but one day he will bring back that milk." Shiro hand flashed Shino a perfect sign. He put down his drink on the table. "I thought you removed your headband?"

"I have honestly merit the permission to wear this," Shino started to whistle the Zelda theme music as he raised his hand to tap on the metal badge carved with the leaf symbol on his head band. "What's got you on the wrong side of my backhand?"

"Them fighting words," He shook his head and grinned sloppily. Grabbing the bottle by the neck, he brought it down on the counter's edge. He looked over to the green glowing digital clock on the stove. It was two in the morning. "I gotta get going."

Shiro walked by Shino.

"Brother, what does it mean to be strong like you?" Shino asked. A chair at the table squeaked along the floor. Shiro pulled off his house coat and then pulled down on his normal shinobi coat.

"I would have to control you to make you understand my strength," Shiro sat down on the chair but then stood up. "I have to train with the Hokage."

Tsukiyomi

"20) Illusions are caused by the excess of effort when observing reality. The proper amount of effort should be none. It is natural."

Iruka finished pulling out wires and stringing them to both walls. Shiro watched as Itachi jumped into the wall to avoid the flame emerging from Gai. Taking a step off the window ledge, Shiro took a fall down to Itachi and grabbed Itachi around the neck. Iruka cut a cord, and Shiro and Itachi soared up along the wall.

When they stopped rising, Itachi opened his red eyes. As an attribute of the sharigan, the threatening three tailed dots in each eye bonded with the iris.

And now Shiro found himself attached to a crucifix over a black ocean with no reflection of the dark clouds or the red sky. Itachi stood ahead of him; a simple outline of what his shadow was including white contours to show some features of his crossed face.

"Welcome my world," Itachi said. The cross released Shiro as it converted into branches that diverged to many. "Impossible."

Soon the branches were obscured by white leafs. Shiro turned his head up into the tree.

"Pipal tree, isn't that right?" Shiro said, "Ideal creation, stranger."

He squatted down against the tree. Reaching his hand, he spread his fingers in amazement.

"I must have been reborn," he spoke to himself, "I was once the fruit of a tree and had fall to sprout, but I do diverge from my previous father." A leaf landed between his out stretched fingers. "Somewhat."

"Tsukiyomi, Tsukiyomi!" Itachi shouted. The red moon dropped from the sky and contracted until it could fit into Itachi's hand. "Explain why he is not under my control."

"The Bodhi tree protected him," said the god, "It is a symbol of Gautama's enlightenment. This realm reinforced his spirit."

"Damn," Itachi swore and they were back into the darkness of reality. Shiro took a swing at Itachi but missed as Itachi knocked away the hand that was holding him and kicked off the wall.

"You do not have the indulgence to blink," Shiro said spinning himself around to stand up right. Itachi landed on a wire. "I'll kill you for not taking me seriously."