Chapter One: Father and Son Mission
Outside of the village, there is a manor. This is where the Aburame Clan made their home. They were an introverted bunch, and despite the tall tales, they did not creep underground around with insect and other creepy crawlers. You may rest assured that poles were not along the road to their home displaying the severed heads of their enemies, suspected to be any guest, to notify people to stay away.
They do have a welcoming sign, if you can believe it but not a single porter to watch over the gate. Not at all, the wooden sign that posted above the front entrance read: "The Gateless Gate". With no obstacle to enter the courtyard, the guests would have to swallow their fear and doubts to enter the greatest garden in a walking distance from the village of Konoha. It was filled with flowers blooming from vines, trees and bushes. Certainly praise worthy, but the clan would not have their garden compared to the beauty of the feral forests.
To note their appearance, much is dedicated to their clothes, as you would see why soon enough. Not much could have been said about their body's build under their heavy coats; they hid their faces under high collars (or a scarf or piece of cloth), and dark sunglasses. Also their hair was black, matted and stood up. My, they seem like a humdrum group! And indeed, they are – terribly true. It is best to let them tend to their bug collecting. If you had seen one in his stiff stance looking over a bug, you could leave any questions you may have for him for some other time. It was like how the sun would bring bright and warmth; he would be there for up to hour and has been there since before an hour of your arrival. You did have a question about bugs, am I correct? It never is about the workings of bugs, maybe just a comment on how they allowed bugs to live in them, the walking hives. Otherwise, he would not be a help at all in answering a question like where the village was or what time it was.
By no means, do they intent to offend you when they do not give out their names. For example, the one you may address as the Sage as of the moment, recognized as the official head of the clan; he would have begged on his hands and knees to a bubble bee, the most sociable bug there is, to help him answer this so-called simple question. This response, though the inquirer of his name would rightly lose interest to know this man begging to such an unimportant creature by his standards, would continue for an utmost two hours. After the groveling, the Sage would have forgotten about the answer and discuss how pleasant the flowers were in the area. They had small talk for small creatures.
Their memory depended on what the bugs knew, and these bugs were even less interested in humans than we are of them, a true collector or not. The rites of the Aburame Clan, wherever they are lost, explained the manner in which their inhabitant bugs' connection to their memory. This is cited from the rites, chapter 3: "When your contract begins with the destruction bugs, all personal memory should be stored in the bugs and all tactile and philosophy should fill the head. Do not restrain from using the bugs with the memories of being attacked or done wrong to as the front lines of battle. When this bug dies, the memory dies. This is the way to forgiving and forgetting."
So, after a long battle, they would know less about themselves than you could say about them. On the brightest side, you also know not to bother talking to them; now, they were not immune to the unpredictable as in this case, you are about to know.
Shino, the youngest and heir to the clan, rested in a hammock made of vines that hung from the flora covered roof of his room, called the nursery. The floor was nothing more than ground covered with flowers tended by insects, and his doorway was covered with the same vines of the nursery. They were spread about by his father, the Sage.
"Hello, dad," Shino said turning his head from a bee that rested on his outreached hand. "How are you?"
"We are to meet with the new leader of the village," The Sage announced in his droning baritone, "we are leaving now."
Shino rolled out of the hammock, and followed his father who walked down the hall. "Why did it take so much time to get a Hokage?" Shino asked. "Was their some inquiry about whom was the strongest?"
"Yes – but the Hokage was chosen from a traveler," he answered. "We were unfit to protect this village. How shameful for us to rely on luck; my existence must be forgiven by this new Hokage."
The rest of their travels to the office of the Hokage was filled with silence. They had stopped a few times to inspect the merchandise in the bazaar and smelled the flowers at a shop on the way, but business was business, and soon, they had reached the door.
When they entered, they saw the new Hokage, Tsunade, a ninja of the legendary three that were students under the village's third Hokage, Sandaime. The papers and scrolls around her desk rested uneasy to its edge waiting for a single slip to bring it down.
"Hello," the blonde hair woman said holding a smile. Her hair was parted in the middle and made two loose pony tails behind her. "Please take a seat."
So they did.
"How are you, Anan?" Tsunade asked. The Sage looked around the room and started to get off his chair.
"I see you have other company, please excuse..." he stopped as the Hokage lowered her hand requesting he take his seat.
"You have forgotten your name, yet again." She shook her head. "And, hello, Shino, I am glad to know that the thin trend of the Aburame clan has survived since the first arrival of other countries to the village for the exam."
"Forgive us!" They shouted in unison then requested that the other started first. As this display of manners occurred, Tsunade pointed at Anan.
"She wishes me to allow you to go first," Anan spoke to his son.
"I believe that she meant for you to speak ahead of me," deciphered Shino.
"That is quiet enough! I do not want to hear any pleas for a pardon as I have no quarrels against either of you." Tsunade said. "To come to irritation from politeness is too much of a good thing. From a team's analysis of a battle in the Forest of Death, your eldest son, Shinto, committed seppuku at the time he had Orochimaru on hands and knees. I don't suppose that Orochimaru asked him courteously to do this barbaric act."
"I have raised myself to be unfit to help this village in its time of need," Anon pulled out a dagger from his coat, "please, bear witness to my punishment."
"Curse you, moral fools! You never enjoy life or care of any precious memories. No! Only business and enlightenment are goals for your clan. Have a drink!" She put out two cups knocking over the stacks of scrolls. The pair instead got off their chairs and collected the scrolls.
One said: "Confucius said, 'In serving the lord, adhere to the rites, letting others take it to be debased flattery."
Another cited Buddha: "Good is restraint in the body; good is restraint in speech; good is restraint in thought."
The Hokage shrieked in frustration with her hands pulling down on her yellow locks.
"What lapse of sanity brought me to accept such company?" She rested back in her chair. "Automatons, they are!" She claimed. "No wishes and no desires." The cups were swallowed by her. "I am cutting you out of the missions."
"I would advise against that course." In shock, Anan said to Tsunade dropping the scrolls he had assembled in his arms and in his large pockets. "The village has lost many of its crown ninjas, and cannot spare one."
"The grass! Think of the grass, please do so." Shino said. "If a foreign ninja felt the blade on his ankle, it shall be our weakness exposed!"
"Their blade upon our Achilles' kneel!" Anan proclaimed. "Grieving we would be, to be not used!"
"Lipless, I rather you to be." Tsunade jested and even Anan murmured in contentment. "Truly, what you need is a vacation. No adventure will no you any good. To be honest, it will do me no good."
"What say you about slaying this insane Hokage?" Shino asked.
"Will you kill your father?" Anan responded.
"Fair enough," Shino said, "proceed with honour."
With a swipe of a hand, she evoked a wind current that threw Shino back into the book shelves and slowly pushed back Anan.
"And if it were a mission," Tsunade asked as the papers settled down, "enjoyment you would have?"
Anan went over to his son and kneeled over him. "It is a mission now; we will not fail."
"And what about," Shino whispered, "this think she calls enjoyment?"
"If we fail, there remains the honourable death," Anan helped his son up and turned to the Hokage. "We accept."
"Wait a minute!" Tsunade shouted. "I suppose it would distress me either way. I am mistaken in any way. Now, it pleases me to hear your groveling. Anan, you can take the lead."
"I apologize for raising myself unfit to fill-in the last Hokage. You however, have filled in very nicely." He said and raised the Hokage's eyebrow mistaking it as a compliment to her large bust size. Anan bent down on one knee and had the gourd on his back showing over his head. "And for not raising proper children to prevent the gaps in this village's strength."
"You cannot move onto another person's confession," Shino corrected him, "it is my fault for not demonstrating my abilities at the Chuunin tournament, or since they were interrupted, to excel quicker in my growth."
"And who is to guide your growth but your father?" asked Anan.
"Truly I cannot request of you to hamper your own development for my own," Shino said.
"Am I to invest in short lived gains or the terms of which would become long?"
"The village would need strength straight away," Shino said.
"Shut up," Tsunade had walked behind them and picked them up by their large collars. "You ruin groveling!"
With her brute force, she tossed them out the window and the crashed down to the ground face first. They rolled over to their backs. From high up where there was a huge hole in the wall, they heard a scream.
"Contemplate, this Shino," Anan said, "whenever blame comes between us, a coin will be flipped."
"Do not try to steal my blame," Shino stated. "I'll oppose you to the death."
"Agreed." Anan responded.