Aburame Shino; 1 Year Later

Age 13

-Pow-Wow Shindig-

The Aburames tend to fly under the radar. Not many people know of us and those who do tend to avoid us. It's not like it bothers me, but I've always found the rest of the world to be rather judgmental just because we're more unique than they are.

I never saw my mother much. She was apart of ANBU and, because of that, she was away on missions a lot. My father was once part of ANBU as well but once I was born, it was either my mother or my father had to lower back to the ranks of a jounin in order to watch over me. I suppose my father drew the short straw this time.

I got a call early that morning from one of the Hokage's closest and most trusted ninjas. He told me that the Hokage wanted to speak with me, which was good news because I had just taken the chuunin exam and done well.

So now I was waiting outside the Fifth Hokage's office. The other people from the Chuunin Exam Tournament were waiting outside as well. I was pretty confident that I had done well but you never really know. The system is rather flawed, especially after what had happened last time. There really should have been another tournament last time to make up for the fact that half of the contenders didn't get a chance to fight.

Only one had been able to defeat me in the tournament this time and that was Hyuuga Neji. He used a cheap shot to defeat me, in my opinion. He was behind me and I was next in line. Of course he was going to become chuunin. He wouldn't have been called to speak with the Hokage unless he was going to become a chuunin.

The person in front of me was taking a long time and I was getting slightly impatient. It was early and I prefer to sleep in.

Finally, he emerged. He was carrying a plastic bag with a chuunin vest neatly folded inside of it. Without even looking in my direction, he passed by me and walked down the hall.

From inside the office came, "Aburame Shino."

I suddenly wasn't feeling quite as confident anymore as I entered the office. I don't normally feel that way, but for some reason I felt as though they were calling me in to discuss with me what I had to do in order to improve myself and become a chuunin next time around.

People normally don't take the Aburames seriously. They look at us and think we're weird bug freaks but it's really not true. Yes, the things we do are a little different and yes, we do have a connection to bugs. But other than that, we're just like the other members of the village.

The Fifth Hokage was sitting behind her desk with a pile of chuunin vests in plastic bags folded on her desk. I wanted one. I wanted two. But I had this sinking feeling that I wouldn't be getting any at all.

"Congratulations." She said, gesturing towards the stack of vests without even looking up from her activity. I waited for a moment and then took one vest.

"Hyuuga Neji." She said as he entered. I looked at him and then at my vest. Was this it? What had taken so long with the other kid if all she did was gesture to a stack of vests? I wasn't going to dwell on those thoughts any longer since I could tell Neji wanted me to leave so he could get his vest. So I exited the office. I contained myself all the way home when I passed a familiar face. His name completely escapes me, but I recognized him. Uzumaki Naruto…? No…

Maybe I didn't know him after all. He didn't say anything, only looked at me briefly. So I figured it had been a mistake.

Upon reaching my house, I knew something was going on. There were numerous people inside and there was no reason for that. How could there possibly be more than my father inside?

I opened the door.

"SURPRISE!!"

There were extra people inside, just as I had thought. Kurenai was there, as well as Kiba and Hinata. They had never been in my house before. There was confetti. And balloons. And streamers. All these things had not been here when I had left.

"Congratulations on becoming a Chuunin, Shino!" said Kurenai.

"We threw a surprise party for you!" said Kiba as he snapped a paper party hat to my head. It pinched my neck and was not comfortable, but I figured I'd take it off when his back was turned. Kiba tended to get upset about things like that so I've learned to just let him have is fun and then adjust them later.

"Do you feel any different?" Hinata asked pleasantly.

"From what?" I asked.

"From when you were a genin." Hinata replied.

"Oh." I said. "No."

I looked at Father. He was just standing there silently.

"They were here when I woke up." He said finally.

"Okay, Shino, so now you TECHNICALLY don't have to train with us anymore." Said Kiba as he put his arm around me. "But we know you still will anyway!!"

I don't know what it is with Kiba, but he seems to think that I ENJOY it when he invades my personal space in such a manner. He puts his arm around me and gets too close for comfort. I did what I always do in those situations. I looked at him for a moment to give him the benefit of the doubt but when I got no response, I had to physically remove any contact between the two of us.

Unfortunately, he once again looked undeterred.

"So what else do we have planned for today?" Kurenai asked.

There was more?

"I figured we call all just have a pow-wow shindig and chill out!" Kiba announced.

…

What in the world was a pow-wow shindig?

It kind of sounded like a dog thing, so I figured it might have been some kind of ritual that Kiba performed in his family. The last thing I wanted was to deal with some kind of ancient Inuzuka ritual.

I watched as Kurenai pushed my father out of the house.

I knew it. We were going to have to perform an Inuzuka ritual.

I looked at Kiba. He was only standing there with a usual blank look on his face. When would the torture begin? Was the anticipation all part of it?

Hinata and Kiba said nothing. Nothing about the pow-wow shindig. Everyone seemed to know what it was except for me.

"What is a pow-wow shindig?" I said finally.

Kiba looked more confused than I have ever seen him in his life. And that's saying a lot because Kiba gets confused easily.

"THIS is a pow-wow shindig." He replied. "This wonderful surprise party that we planned for you."

A party? I hardly think the three of us hanging out is really a 'party'. It seemed more like… the three of us hanging out. "How come no one else is here?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"It's only the three of us." I pointed out.

"FOUR!" Kiba yelled, referring to Akamaru.

"Whatever." I said.

"Well…we didn't know who else to invite…" Hinata said. It's not that I was offended that no one else had wanted to come to my surprise pow-wow shindig, like Hinata obviously thought I was, I was just confused as to why it was considered to be a pow-wow shindig if there were only thee people there.

Then I figured Neji was having a pow-wow shindig too and everyone was probably there.

"They're probably all at…" I started but then I reevaluated my thoughts and corrected myself. "No, never mind."

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Neji's a chuunin too." I answered.

Kiba laughed out loud.

I took a step back from him.

"Yeah, like ANYONE would go to HIS surprise party!" Kiba practically bellowed. "I bet not even his own teammates did." Then, to add to his complete random streak, he turned to me and said, "Shino, doesn't it make you feel good to know you have pals like us?"

I never really considered Kiba and Hinata to be 'pals'. More so… teammates.

But if he considered me as a pal, I wasn't going to stop him. As long as he didn't expect me to 'pal around' with him.

"Don't worry, Shino, we ALL know that it was just a weird fluke chance thing that Neji beat you!" Kiba continued with his random statements. "Same with you, Hinata! He must have cheated or something!"

"Wow, Kiba, that's so nice." Hinata said, though she obviously knew that Neji had beaten her fair and square. It was a fluke when he beat me, but not when he beat her.

But it didn't really matter. If I had not become a chuunin because of Neji then that would have been one thing. I'm a chuunin so I have no qualms with him. "It doesn't matter that he beat me." I said so we wouldn't get stuck in a spiral of bad mouthing and fearing Neji. "We're both chuunins."

"I was just thinking that!" Hinata said.

Okay…

"So what should we do?!" Kiba…went on. With more random stuff.

Maybe this had been sufficient enough time for a pow-wow shindig. I don't really know how long they're supposed to be since this was my first one, but I figured that if I wanted it to be over then it was over… since it was MY pow-wow shindig.

"I'll walk you both home." I offered.

"HOME?!" Kiba demanded.

I take it pow-wow shindigs are usually longer. "Yeah." I said. "We could have our pow-wow shindig on the way back to your houses."

Kiba looked speechless for once in his life. I thought maybe he was about to say something intelligent, but I was wrong. I was SO wrong.

"Oh Shino. You saying 'pow-wow shindig' has just made my day."

Hinata laughed at me too. I didn't understand. THEY had called it a pow-wow shindig so what was so hilarious about me calling it a pow-wow shindig? After all, that's what it was, wasn't it?

Kiba argued with me for a little while, but Hinata stood idly by. I let him babble without saying a word, seeing if maybe he'd resolve the problem on his own if I just stood there staring at him. He went around in circles with himself and eventually came to the conclusion that it would be best if he and Hinata went home. I won the argument without saying a word. That either makes me incredibly intelligent or Kiba incredibly stupid. Maybe it's both.

Naturally, we had to take Hinata home first. Even though Kiba lived closer to my house than Hinata did and for Kiba to walk all the way to Hinata's house and then back to his was a little senseless, he still did it.

I didn't see any sign of Neji, so that meant it was safe for Hinata to go into her house.

"Bye guys!" Hinata was as she opened her door. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Bye Hinata!" Kiba waved. I nodded to her as she disappeared into her house.

What an interesting family dynamic she must have.

I turned around and realized that Kiba was staring directly at me. I would never understand Kiba's insane ways, but I chose to pretend as though I didn't notice so I wouldn't embarrass him.

We started going towards Kiba's house. I knew exactly where it was. Usually, when the three of us had to do something together at a certain house, we went to Kiba's house. I had never been inside Hinata's house and I think she preferred it that way. And both of them preferred to avoid my house as much as possible. Kiba's house was the only other one to go to.

"You ARE going to train with us, aren't you, Shino? I mean, even though you're a chuunin?" Kiba said suddenly.

He actually looked a little serious, like he had come to that statement not by random chance, but by actually thinking.

"I don't know." I answered.

"You don't know?" Kiba said. "Give me a straight answer for once!"

"I will sometimes." I told him. And it was true. I have to admit, I haven't learned everything there is to know from Kurenai and therefore would still have to attend some training sessions.

Akamaru barked and Kiba retorted with, "Yeah, right Akamaru. When Shino says something, he means it."

Like I said, I would never understand Kiba.

"Well, you're home." I said when we reached his house.

"Okay." Kiba said, back to his regular demeanor. He went up to his house.

He opened the door. I realized I should thank him for the pow-wow shindig. "Kiba." I said. If he didn't hear me, I'd just forget about it, but he did. And he turned around, waiting.

"Thanks for the pow-wow shindig." I finally said.

"No problem, Shino!"