Wasurenai
Never Forget

By: FiendisHSerapH

Four - Search

"Good morning, bug boy!"

The voice, loud and scandalous, boomed behind the boy sitting on a huge, white rock just as he always does. Energetic barking followed suit. The lad whose name was called out simply fixed his coffee-brown hair as he looked sidewards and asked flatly,

"What are you doing here, Inu-baka?"
"Running out of questions to ask, Meshi-chan?" a naughty grin followed the teasing statement.
No words followed. Everything was still silent as the winds blew vehemently, implying the emotion blatantly ignored by the mocker.

"Like I do have something to ask about."
His plan of chasing dogs away worked when the voice grunted and answered sarcastically, "AH YES, just in case you are interested, you're the only missing person in our class. You are twenty minutes late and I am here to escort you, Your Highness, to your palace." the addressing terms were stated with harsh contempt.

The guy didn't budge.

"ARGH!" Arms flailed up to the air in surrender. "Come on, Akamaru. There are more things to fuss about than this sore loser." A whelp ensued, and footsteps trailing faint and fainter ended the discourse.

In the young lad's mind, something big is going to happen, and it will deem attending classes for today useless.

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"OHAYOU, INO-HIME-CHAN!"

The voice, and the same voice that had disturbed someone's solitude earlier, greeted cheerfully.
"Growing lovelier each day, hmm?"
"Quit that morning nonsense, Kiba-kun." a girl wearing an orange sweatshirt and brown pants cropped to her knees plopped on the grass where many of her peers also sat down while waiting for their sensei to come back.

"So... what's in here?" she mildly inquired, eyeing her group composed of a hooded boy with a white puppy and facepaint residing on each cheek, a girl with cherry blossoms-colored hair which true enough was the reference for her name, and another sweet-tempered girl with two lumps of brown hair tied neatly on each side of her head like two meatbuns.
"Nothing much, except for a freak who doesn't want to go to class." the guy named Kiba grumped.
"Huh? How could he miss our test? Who is he?" the flaxen-haired girl pouted, looking up at the bright blue sky and the northeasternly sun with an upside palm shading her eyes.
"Yes, sensei told us that it's an important exam." the other girl wearing a green Chinese-collared shirt sliced in.
"Someone you wouldn't mind talking about. He's a sore loser anyway." he paused and also sat down on the dewy grass just like everybody else.
"How does he look like anyway?" Blue-green eyes fixated on a gray hood as it was asked.
"Hm... for your safety, better avoid a guy with a gray shirt, purple turtleneck underneath it, and black cropped pants. He has messy brown hair that looked like as if he don't comb his hair well." The descriptions left those eyes wondering and thinking hard.
Kiba looked around for a while in caution that their topic might be somewhere there, and after that, instantly intoned;

"Say, Ino... you have a new necklace again?"
"Ah yes." she in turn fiddled the silver hoop encircling her neck. "Does it look good on me?"
"It's great." the sweet-tempered girl replied with a nod.
"Thanks, Ten-ten." that remark from the orange-clad lass left the appraised girl blushing slightly.
"EVERYTHING looks good on you, Ino-chan!" a bark affirmed the said sentence.
"Quit that flattery, will you? Ne, how about you, Sakura?"
Spring green eyes looked up at her and nodded shortly.
"Hey hey, I saw that pause!" she beamed, sticking her pink tongue out. The other two laughed, making the day bright in their own simple way.
"Arf arf!" Akamaru barked out.
"What? It will rain? Your smelling isn't good today, ne, Akamaru-chan?"
Another set of barks followed, and Kiba paid close attention as if he's talking to a real human.
"It won't. It's a great day today..." he pointed to the warm sun, "See?"

"Good morning, kids." Kakibara-sensei greeted. "Before we go on with our test, I need to check the attendance." she flipped her record book twice, then started, "Aburame Shino?'
"Aburame Shino's not here, sensei. Probably out in the woods, down in the mudpool, playing with bugs again. Or perhaps he's already eaten by a frog."
Kiba's dramatic explanation sent giggles and even a loud chuckle from the batch's blond loudmouth, Naruto-chan.
Upon sitting down, Ino asked, "What do you mean playing with bugs?"
"HAVEN'T YOU KNOWN?!" that inquiry left Kiba's eyes wide open, as if not knowing that meant missing half of someone's life. "That guy's got a bad talent. Real bad. Don't mess around with him that much or his bugs will eat you alive. He's from the termed dangerous clan of the Aburames with bugs thriving in their bodies!"
"YUCK!" Ten-ten made a disgusted face, then laughed. Kiba followed suit. But Ino didn't join the fun, and instead frowned.

"I... Ino-chan?" Sakura whispered as she saw the annoyed expression on her friend's face.
"I may not know or even saw him but I won't have the shallowness to tease him like that without him knowing." she stated sternly and the laughter died down. The two stared still.
"The boy's silent, but who knows that his real traits are? Like..."
"Hm? Like... what?" Kiba raised an eyebrow, never removing his impish grin.
"Like... he can be good or something."
"Good..." strains of laughter started. "THAT'S A GOOD ONE!" Kiba's sides were splitting with heavy idiotic laughter. The flaxen-haired girl just said, "Hmmmph!" then turned away from his direction, and Ten-ten poked the laughing guy hard on the chest. Upon getting what that meant, he just removed his hood and muttered, "So--rry." and rolled his eyes.

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"That's why we are all here." Kakibara-sensei ended. "To test on your actual Taijutsu."
"Ino-chan, we're partners!" Kiba jumped about in sheer joy.
"Dumb, aren't we? You're enemies and you'll be fighting each other." Ten-ten cleared it all for the overly-ecstatic boy. "Too bad I was paired with that Neji weirdo... hm, he's pretty cute anyway."
"Sakura, who's your partner?" Ino asked. The pink-haired lass pointed to the lazy guy under the tree, snoring his day off. Ino sniggered while forming the word, "Shikamaru..."
"Pretty lucky, huh?" she nudged her side, then turned to look around. That guy really didn't go to class, eh?, she thought. Perhaps she could volunteer to fetch him up right now... why is she worrying like this over that... Aburame Shino, was it?

"Too good, it turned cloudy. Not that... hot." Kakibara-sensei's voice was washed away by a sudden gush of water.

IT'S RAINING!

Everyone took refuge inside a small cave near that area.
"Hmmm, seems like we can't go on with the test today." the teacher shrugged, "You kids sure are lucky."
Hollers of cheer are heard, except for Kiba who pouted and groaned sadly.
"Yes, he still has a chance!" Ino grinned to herself, showing an energetic smile.
"Ino-chan, you seem happy?" Sakura tapped her gently.
"Sakura, he still has a chance!" She held the pink-haired girl's hands and squeezed it lightly.
"Who?" Green eyes stared, wondering.
"Oh... none. Gomen." Ino stuck her tongue out and bluffed.

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"Maybe I should let him know of what happened today." she told herself while running as fast as she could to her home despite the mild rainfall. But, where she should start the search? Her question was answered when she saw a guy in a flax jacket standing beside a tako stall.

"Excuse me, mister..."
"Uh... Iruka-sensei, do you know something about the Aburames? Like, where do they live?" the lass' blue-green eyes was fixed on his form.
"Where they live? It's a mystery, little girl. But I know one who lives straight ahead, look at the right side of the road upon turning left around that corner and..."
"THANKS, SIR!" Before he knew it, the girl darted away.
"That is Yamanaka Inoshi's daughter, right?" the stallowner asked.
"Do the Yamanakas have any business concerning the Aburames?" he muttered, but as he looked down, he almost shouted in dismay. His jacket's already stained with tako sauce!
"How will I wash this thing in this weather?" went his second wonder.

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"Nowhere... I looked everywhere." she breathlessly muttered as she dragged her whole body to the entrance of their home. True enough, she followed what Iruka-sensei instructed but found the house shaded with leafy trees locked. Besides, it shot her nerves even to just walk closer to have a clearer look. And the rain seemed to be angry that it poured heavily and she was still two kilometers away from her home. She ran despite tired feet and now...
"Do you want to get sick?" her mother scolded as she towel-dried her daughter's pale-yellow hair limp with rainwater.
"Hmm... maybe." she muttered while drinking some hot milk.
"Rest for a while." Ino's mother had only turned away for a few seconds when she heard the door open.
"INO! Where are you going now?!" she shouted upon seeing the girl go back to the cold outdoors bringing a black umbrella with her.
"I'll be buying some milk, mom!" she yelled, but the sound of raindrops plus the loud crack of thunder and lightning drowned it.
The fair lady checked on the container upon going back inside the house. Indeed, it's all empty.
"Tch, that kid..." she beamed while swaying her head from side to side.

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"This rain is not getting any better." she walked along the woods on the way back from the convenience store. Just then, she was reminded of that Aburame Shino lad, and that guy whom she had met three days ago beside the stream gushing lively just like this one. How will she find him if she doesn'teven know his name? In fact, she had more possiblity of finding that so-called bug boy than she had with that cricket-owning stranger. How could she be reminded of him only now, now when the probability of looking for him is low due to this silly downpour? She walked and walked, trying to focus her mind on the task at hand which is to go home before the rain get any heavier. She walked beside the river that was about to overflow when she noticed something.

Someone sitting by the riverbank, soaked yet still not moving.

The low fog was disrupting her view so she walked closer to see more clearly. The guy has brown hair swept down by the rain, gray soaked shirt with a purple turtleneck underneath... wait, she called to herself, these are the exact descriptions Kiba had given to that Aburame Shino lad. She inched forward, and saw what he was busy at.

He's busy giving a grasshopper a shelter... using his own hand.

What kind of an idiot would stay under the rain just to protect a creature, and not even giving himself some shelter?
But later, she realized that she had already admired this heroic deed.
No time to lose.

Half-expectant that this is the Shino Kiba was pertaining to, she whispered his name while giving him his well-deserved shelter from the heavy downpour.

"Aburame... Shino?"
Indeed, the boy's head slowly turned to her direction, and what shocked her the most was...

She was again staring at those sharp, prussian blue eyes...
... the same eyes as that of the cricket owner's!

her heart leapt from her chest. This is when the saying, "Watching kettles while being heated do not boil." was affirmed.

The boy found himself staring open-mouthedly at the girl, disbelieving what he had seen. Holding on to someone's promise isn't bad after all.

"You found me..." he mumbled, a smile unconsciously breaking through his already pallid lips.
"I found you... I told you I'll find you. I can and I did." was all she uttered.

She felt like she had done more than buying milk today, thanks to the rain.

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