Warnings: A couple spoilers, nothing to big, and a bit non-cannon.

Pairing: Shino/Naru

Summery: Naruto never really bothered to get to know Shino, he was just to opposite of him and he was kind of creepy, not that Naruto was afraid of bugs or anything, but when he sees Shino fight, a memory is sparked.

Genre: Romance, Humor

Rating: PG – PG 13, nothing really bad is in this.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Naruto's first childhood memory was really something odd. Not that much about his life normal, but still, he was sure that most kid's first memories were of their parents or siblings.

He was being stalked around by a bug.

He must have been five or six at the time, and being the naive and curious child he used to be he hadn't really noticed, until winter came along and the bug was still following him around, even though by all rights it should have been dead. And then, while walking home one dark, cold winter night, a villager, who had obviously been celebrating the holidays by drinking far too much sake, had 'snuck' up behind him and tried to hit him. Keyword: tried. Before the first could hit a whole bunch of bugs, just like the one that followed Naruto around covered up the drunken man's clenched hand.

Naruto quickly used the distraction to his advantage, running home to his apartment and slamming the door shut behind him.

He didn't see much of the bug or any of its friends for a long while.

Then came the prelims of the Chuunin exam, when he saw Shino fight Zaku. When he saw Shino's bugs. Now, Naruto never really bothered to get to know Shino, the boy was his polar opposite after all, but as soon as he saw those all too familiar bugs he felt a shiver run down his spine.

Creeepyyyy…

Then, after Sasuke had run off to Orochimaru he had joined team eight on the mission to find the Bikochu, (sp?) a special bug that would help them find Sasuke so long as the first thing it smelt when it hatched was something with Sasuke's scent on it. Well, the mission had turned out to be a failure, but the whole time Shino had been freakishly obsessive about making sure Naruto knew he was the leader. And sharing that huge tent with them, well, Naruto didn't mind Kiba or Hinata, but Naruto was sure that Shino would watch him from under those dark glasses of his. It made Naruto feel on display, feel subservient, feel… Strange things he didn't want to put a name to.

His three years away training with Ero-Sennin had given him a nice long time to think over many various things: like how the women Jiraiya always followed around didn't seem to interest him, or how he always did a double take when he saw a male with round sunglasses.

He'd made the mistake of asking Jiraiya what it meant if he was always thinking about someone, and how girls seemed dull compared to this 'someone'. Jiraiya simply retorted that he, being a young man of almost fifteen, should find the 'girl' he was thinking of and get laid. Naruto was sure to never bring the subject up again.

Three long years had passed, and absence makes the heart grow fonder, or at least that's what some drunken girl had told him once.

So what does he do as soon as he sees Shino again? Pretend he doesn't know him of course! Of course, he hadn't expected Shino to act so wounded about it. It kind of made him feel bad, but he was Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage and straight as an arrow!

Yeah right.

'Damn it, Shino's still the same, always so quiet and uncaring. I still can't believe he's upset that I apparently didn't remember him. I would have thought that in three years he would have, I don't know… Gotten over me.' Naruto hefted out a huge sigh as he flopped onto the bed, his mind still racing. 'It's going to be weird, being back here with everyone after three years. Sakura… I bet she's the same too, still temperamental with an awesome power whenever she'd angry.' Naruto chuckled to himself as he gazed out of his window, the stars seeming dull compared to the shine they had in the countryside.

"I'm back home. It's nice to be back." And he fell asleep, dreaming of stars, bugs and sakura petals.

Things really hadn't changed much, he was once again on a team with Sakura, Kakashi was his teacher once again, and this time they had actually passed the bell test, thanks to Naruto's quick thinking of course.

And Naruto could still feel Shino's eyes watching him, and from time to time, he'd see a small bug, following him around inconspicuously.

But other than that, life was pretty normal, well, as normal as his life could possibly get.

And then came the fateful day when Shino approached him and suggest that they 'get to know each other again.' Naruto was about to say no, his imagination running away with him about what Shino could do to him if they were alone, but then he remembered how sad Shino seemed when the first time they'd seen each other after three years Naruto claimed to not know him.

So he'd said yes, he'd love to.

And that is where the trouble truly began…

"Sugoi! Your house is so big! How many of you live here?" Naruto asked excitedly when he first caught sight of the Aburame compound. "Five including me." "What!" "Me, my father, my aunt, my uncle and my youngest cousin."

The place could have probably housed fifteen to twenty people, and Naruto supposed it did at one point of time. That was a kind of creepy thought. All those people filled to the brim with chakra eating bugs, Naruto had to hold back a shiver.

'I wonder if it's uncomfortable to have all those bugs crawling inside of you.' This time Naruto couldn't suppress his shiver and Shino looked over at him, as if to say: are you alright? Naruto smiled and forced the thought out of his head. "Don't worry about me Shino, I just got a chill." And what a chill, Naruto could already tell that this strange bonding time with Shino was going to be disaster, and the feeling was amplified when they opened the door and went inside, it was eerily quiet.

And then Shino, in his way of few words, told Naruto that his aunt, uncle and cousin were going to visit his older cousin who had moved to the Hidden Rain, and that his father was on a mission that would take a couple days.

So Naruto was in Shino's house… Alone… With Shino…

The thought kind of excited him, which was exactly why it was so horrible. The great Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage couldn't be in a relationship with another man! … Unless it was a feminine man, with large sparkly eyes and pretty hair. Shino was more masculine than Naruto, and if Naruto was gay he wanted to be seme dammit!

'Damn… I sure do have really stupid arguments against being gay… But no one has to know that!' Naruto puffed out his chest a little as he climbed the stairs to what he supposed was Shino's room.

It was a fairly large room, but was sparsely furnished and decorated, the walls were a plain white, the bed had green blankets, the bedside table was made of dark wood, as was the floors and a desk and chair in the corner. There was a small closet across from the bed and a window on the wall opposite of the room's door, a green cutain hiding the sunlight from view.

'Well, I suppose I shouldn't have expected rainbow colours and rock posters from him. But the only colours in this room are brown and green. It kind of reminds me of Lee.'

Naruto flopped down on the bed, eyes locked on Shino's form as the other boy grabbed the chair from his desk and dragged it next to the bed, sitting on it stiffly and turning his head away from Naruto's form on his bed.

A heavy silence engulfed them before Naruto nervously spoke up.

"You know, we can't really get to know each other again if we don't talk or anything." Shino slowly turned towards him, sunglasses glinting eerily in the soft light.

"Did you really forget me? Or do you just want to forget me?" The brunette asked lowly and Naruto stiffened uncomfortably. "Well, you see…." Shino moved closer, sitting on the very edge of the chair as he asked another question.

"Why are you so nervous around me, someone who has been looking out for you ever since we were children?" Shino stood up, towering over Naruto's small form.

"You had a bug follow me around!" Naruto retorted in exasperation, rolling his eyes heavenward.

"That bug, along with many others saved you from that drunken bastard!" Shino leaned down, looking Naruto straight in the eye. "And it was me who had them save you."

Naruto shifted nervously, his close proximity with Shino made him feel odd, so he shakily said. "I think you've said more in these past five minutes than you have in a week, maybe even a month." He chuckled nervously and inwardly sighed when Shino moved away from him, sitting back in his chair.

Silence once again ruled supreme in the room and the only reason Naruto was sure Shino hadn't fallen asleep was that the other boy was sitting up straight.

'Damn it! Why does he have to be so quiet all of the time? I hate having to break awkward silences!' "I do appreciate that you were looking out for me, you know that, right?" Shino didn't answer. "It's just… Kind of freaky when a little bug followed you around all the time when you're little, and then years later you find out the bug was stalking you because some guy was keeping tabs on you." Shino still said nothing. "And I'm confused as to why you'd even bother looking out for me, it's not like I'm special or any-" "Yes you are." "Huh?" Shino got up from the chair and sat himself beside Naruto on the bed.

"You are special Naruto. When I was a child I would always hear adults whispering about a demonic child. A boy of evil and darkness. I believed those words for a long time, until I saw you for the first time." He turned towards Naruto, who swore Shino's cheeks were going pink behind his high collar.

"You were playing alone in the park, laughing without a care in the world. There was no way you could be the child the adults always talked about, but I knew from their hateful looks that you were. It was then that I decided you needed protection, my protection, so I had a female bug follow you around all the time, I was never far behind, always ready to help you from the shadows."

Naruto's eyes were wide as saucers and his mouth had dropped open to form a small 'o'. 'I don't get it, so he's been trying to help me for all this time, just because I didn't seem like a demonic child to him?'

"Unfortunately, the drunken man was my second cousin, so in order for it to seem like it was not me who protected you, I did not follow you around as much, and only had my bugs check up on you every once in a while."

"So… Do you still care about me? Is that why you seemed so sad when I told you it was hard to recognize you, since you cover up your face all the time?" Naruto leaned in closer to Shino, his heart racing for reasons he would never say out loud.

"I more than just care for you Naruto." Before Naruto could ask what he meant his lips had been covered with Shino's, effectively silencing him.

'Oh my dear sweet Kami-sama.' Shino's lips were warm and soft, moving slowly over his own in an almost hypnotic motion that made Naruto respond eagerly, closing his eyes and throwing caution to the wind.

'The great Uzumaki Naruto is gay, so what?'

They parted reluctantly just as Naruto caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, and there, resting on his shoulder was, "Stalker bug!"

Shino let out a low chuckle before leaning in for another kiss, but Naruto stopped him, placing a finger to Shino's lips.

"Before we kiss again, I want to see something." Shino rose his eyebrows up in confusion. "I want to see your face, no high collar, no sunglasses, nothing to hide behind."

Shino seemed reluctant, but took off his high collar coat and slowly removed his sunglasses, his eyes closed behind them.

"Now now Shino, don't hide your eyes from me." Naruto whispered playfully and Shino grimaced, slowly opening up his eyes.

They were forest green on inky black, (ie. Black where the white of the eyes usually are.) eyes that no one could ever possibly forget.

"You have really pretty eyes Shino." Naruto said wistfully as he stared into the depths of Shino's eyes and they grew closer, their lips tenderly caressing each others.

'I could never forget you Shino, whether or not you're hiding your face.'