Aburame Shino; 5 Years Later

Age 17

-She Hates People-

"Shino."

I spun around to see my father standing there.

"There's no sense in standing by the window. The ninja is not coming."

I wanted to deny that I had been standing by the window awaiting the arrival of a ninja telling me that I had passed the jounin exam that I had taken a little while ago, but I do not lie to my father.

"I was just making sure he was not running late." I said, and that was the truth.

I thought I had done well in the jounin exam. I guess I had thought wrong. Now I had officially failed two jounin exams. My father had become a jounin when he was only seventeen, like I am right now, so I was lagging in ability as far as our ranks were concerned.

"We have other matters to attend to as of now." My father said. "We have to get the house ready for guests."

I think something about what he had just said confused me.

That combination of letters formed words…

And that combination of words formed a sentence…

And normally, everything my father said made sense.

But he had just said that we were supposed to get the house ready for guests.

This could only mean that someone important was coming to our house. Like the Hokage.

"Is the Hokage coming?" I asked.

"No." he answered.

"Who is then?" I asked.

"An acquaintance of mine from my childhood."

I was still confused. He had yet to make any sense.

"Why?"

"Because we haven't seen each other since our genin years." My father responded. "I became a chuunin at fourteen but she stayed a genin. We lost touch and she recently called and wants to get together."

Was I stupid for not understanding?

"Her name is Kokyuu." My father said. "And she has a daughter that I believe is six years old named Tsuma. So I want you to behave and be nice to both of them."

What was he EXPECTING me to do?

He probably aimed to confuse me so much that I would be unable to react or question his motives.

"Now, I have to warn you about Kokyuu…" he started but then he was interrupted.

By a knock at the door.

"That's probably her." My father said as he leaned over and opened the door since we had been, after all, standing right there.

"GESO!!" I heard a shriek that made me almost stumble over. Then a woman came leaping into the house and wrapped her arms around my father, but he didn't react. "You haven't changed at all! You look the same!"

What was Geso?

Oh right. My father's first name.

I was distracted by the fact that this strange and enthusiastic woman was now looking at me.

"Oh, this must be your son you told me about…Shino?" she said.

"Yes." I said.

"He looks just like you!" the woman said as she grabbed on to me and gave me a hug.

She was more affectionate than Kiba.

"This is Kokyuu." My father said to me even though it was quite easy to gather all this from her entrance.

"Hi there!" said Kokyuu. "Well, now that I've met your son, I want you to meet my daughter! Come on in here, Tsuma!"

That's when a girl stepped in.

I had been misinformed when I was told that she as six years old. She looked more my age, maybe a year younger, so I looked at my father who, unsurprisingly enough, didn't react.

Sixteen, Father. Not six.

"This is Tsuma…" Kokyuu said as she adjusted her daughter's collar.

Tsuma didn't look too thrilled about being here. She had a miserable frown on her face and her arms were crossed.

"Shino, say hi to Tsuma." My father instructed.

"Hi." I said.

But she didn't answer.

Instead, her eyes narrowed.

…Which caught me off guard, I must admit…

"Oh, don't mind Tsuma." Said Kokyuu. "She's just a little shy."

"Indeed." I said, pushing my sunglasses further up on my nose.

"Shino, give Tsuma a tour of our home." He said.

"Very well." I obeyed. I began to walk around the corner and turned around to see that Tsuma was not following me.

"Tsuma, go with Shino!" Kokyuu insisted.

Tsuma only frowned more as she followed after me.

I took her to the first room and sat down.

She stood in the doorway.

"I'm not giving you a tour." I told her straight out.

"I didn't want a tour." Tsuma said. "Especially from you. I hate you."

Now, while I didn't really care about Tsuma's opinion of me, I was a taken aback at this sudden statement. I knew a lot of people disliked the Aburames just because of what we were, but never had anyone just said straight out that they hated me.

I felt myself getting all boiled up on the inside.

The chakra bugs were also unhappy with the statement.

I wasn't going to do anything, but then I was.

Then I wasn't.

I had to say something.

"You hate me?" I said finally, at a complete loss of what else I could possibly say.

"Yes." Tsuma answered. "But don't take it personally. Because I hate everyone. I hate people."

"You hate people?" I repeated.

She nodded and sat down in another seat.

I thought about what she said.

How can someone just hate people?

I disliked the company of other people, but I didn't hate people in general.

"You hate people?" I found myself saying again.

"Yes." she said. "All people. Any people. No matter who it is or what they are, I just HATE them."

Quite the outburst she had.

"I suppose you have your reasoning for hating people." I said.

Her head whipped around to face me.

"What did you say?" she said.

"I suppose you have your reasoning for hating people."

She didn't respond to that for a little while.

"So you don't care that I hate people?" she said.

"Why should I care?"

"Because that means I hate you too."

"Well, I've never really cared whether people like me or hate me. While you hate people, I'm just indifferent about people. I feel like hating people takes too much energy. But if you want to hate people, who am I to try and stop you?"

That was the most I had ever said at one time.

"No one has ever said that before." Tsuma said. "Everyone always tells me that I shouldn't hate people."

"I don't care if you hate people."

She eyed me suspiciously, as if she expected me to suddenly jump up and take all my words back and tell her she was wrong for hating people.

Little did she know, I would never suddenly jump up.

And I most certainly didn't care that she hated people. I have dealt with plenty of people in my lifetime who have unconditionally hated people. Mind you, not ALL people, just a certain kind of people. Tsuma was a rare case because she hated all people.

It was then that my father appeared in the doorway. Kokyuu was standing next to him with a big… smile… on her face.

There weren't a lot of smiles in the Aburame house.

"Shino, I've decided that I want you to take Kokyuu on a tour of our home as well." He said.

"I would love to see your home!" said Kokyuu to my father but he had already ducked away and hid in the shadows. He had a place in the house that was completely secret that not even I knew where to find him, so I hardly expected Kokyuu, with her limited ninja abilities, to be able to find him.

"Very well." I said, standing up. "I'll take you on a tour of our home."

"Come on, Tsuma!" said Kokyuu.

I led Kokyuu and Tsuma around the house, making brief introductions to each room.

"Shino, you seem like such a lovely young man." Said Kokyuu. "How old are you now? Eighteen? Nineteen?"

"Seventeen." I corrected her.

"Wow!" she said. "You look so much older than that!"

No I didn't.

"And you must be six and half feet tall!" Kokyuu continued as if I wanted to make conversation with her.

"Six foot two." I said.

"Wow!" said Kokyuu. "Really? You look a lot taller."

…No I didn't.

"And are you a jounin too?" she asked.

"Chuunin." I said.

"Well—" she began.

"No, I'm just a Chuunin." I interrupted her before she could tell me that I looked like a jounin.

"Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of!" said Kokyuu. "Tsuma is a chuunin too! I'm surprised you two haven't seen much of each other on missions!"

"I had a mission with Shino once." Tsuma said.

"You did?" said Kokyuu, looking happy.

She did?

"About a year ago." Tsuma said. "But he didn't say much then. He still doesn't say very much. Which is too bad, because his voice is really sexy."

Oh sure, go talking about me as if I'm not there.

Wait.

What?

"What?" said Kokyuu before I could.

"Nothing." Sighed Tsuma. "I hate him and I hate you."

Kokyuu rolled her eyes. "Thank you so much for the tour, Shino!" she said as she went to hug me but I quickly stepped away from her. "Oh, you're just like your father. It took him FOREVER to warm up to me! But that's okay. I don't expect you to warm up to me that fast."

I don't 'warm up'.

"Now…where did your father run off to?" Kokyuu asked.

"I don't know." I said.

"Well, I'm sure you don't mind if I look around for him." Said Kokyuu. "I used to be so good at finding him whenever he went and hid! Tsuma, you can stay here with Shino."

She frolicked off. She would never find him.

I looked at Tsuma who was glaring at me.

Tsuma…what a very, very, very strange girl.