Chapter 17

It's not until you're close to death that you realise how precious life is. As a Shinobi you are sometimes have to take it away from others. You take them out of this world, not knowing if they have a family, friends, people who will care if they don't walk back through the front door.

Who would miss me if I was gone? Tsunade? Possible, I was her niece and she was the Hokage. Kakashi, the first person to be nice to me. Shino? Being my boyfriend I hope he would care, but wait what happens if he hadn't made it out of his surgery. He was still in ICU. Yuki and Akane, they had already lost TaiKan, could losing me destroy their lives and make them give up being a Shinobi, they had seen the horrors of it already. If I were to give up now….Would my life have been in vain? I would never be able to walk through the summer days again; the smell of the grass after it's rained. I would miss it and the ramen, can't forget that. I can't give up….I won't give up! I won't give into you Kami.

Something warm was placed over me. I snuggled down into it. The presence around me paused and then the soft sounds of feet. I felt something on my hand and I groaned. The sudden wave of pain coming from my chest. I blinked slowly and looked up. I saw the outlines of spiky hair. A black shirt and glasses. Shino.

"S-shino?" I whispered, he leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"Its okay Aiko-chan," he said embracing me.

"G-gomen," I muttered. He released and stood up straight.

"I'll be back, I have to go tell Tsunade-sama," he said, I nodded slightly and closed my eyes. I was on the verge of sleeping when I heard voices in my room.

"I think you were dreaming Shino, she isn't awake," said the older woman,

"Trust you to say that ero-baa-chan," I muttered blinking, Tsunade turned and stared at me, I grinned cheekily up at her although my eyes were slightly blurry and probably rolling around, giving me the look of a maniac. Suddenly I was in a tight hug, possibly cutting off my air supply. She let go of me and I saw she looked like she was crying.

"We were so worried about you," she said

"Hai, I'm fi-" I started but was stopped by a huge coughing fit coming up and stopping me, luckily no blood came up and I was fine after. I grinned knowingly and she stood up.

"I'll let you to be, there are more of your friends here but you also have to stay for a bit to get better," she said, I nodded and looked at Shino, he was lying already in bed and was looking out the window.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him, he looked around and shrugged "Okay, is that a yes or a no," I asked again

"Shouldn't I be the one asking the questions," he hissed, I was slightly taken aback by this and stared, "You knew taking that many pills could kill you and you still did it," he added

"I had to save my squad," I shouted at him then coughing and turning away. I felt his boring into the back of my head. After I finished I carried on. "At the start of the war, someone told me what a Hokage's relative has as a duty. To show and set an example for the rest of the Village, it's my duty as one to protect my team and Konoha whether you like it or not Shino. Taking those pills was helping me to do it, if that's what it takes then so be it!" I shouted then hearing a bunch of gasps I turned and saw most of the jounin and our genin there. I swore and turned away only to meet the face of Kakashi.

"Yes oh perverted one?" I asked

"Just visiting!" He said. He waved for everyone to come in and it was luckily not as much of a tight squeeze as expected. I sat up straight along with Shino so there was more space. In the four chairs sat the old jounin teachers. My genin and Shino's were sitting on the window sill over Shino's bed. Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata and Lee sat down on Shino's bed while Tenten, Naruto, Ino and Chouji took residence on my bed. Neji and Shikamaru just stood by my bed leaning on the wall. I smiled at everyone in the silence.

"So how the restoration attempt?" I asked breaking it,

"Its good," said Ino flatly, they were still staring at me,

"If you're going to ask about the pills then just piss off," I shouted

"No it isn't that but we just remember the last time it happened," said Chouji sadly, I looked confused and Shikamaru filled me in.

"This is too troublesome," he muttered "About 6 years ago on an Uchiha Sasuke retrieval mission Chouji overused the food pills and soldier pills and the cells started self destructing. My clan's medical book stopped this happening, thus saving him and now you," he explained, I nodded slightly

"Meaning he almost died that day," said Ino flatly.

Oh," I said quietly, I sighed and shook my head. I swivelled and stood up slowly grabbing a jacket to but over the horrible unflattering dressing gown. Everyone looked up quickly.

"I'm going for a walk, anyone can come if they want, but I need to exercise." I explained boredly walking out the door. Ino's words kept echoing in my head.

……He almost died that day….

I shook my head as I heard footsteps behind me and saw Tenten, Neji and Lee following me. I ignored them and went out to the garden behind the hospital and sat under a tree. Lee and Tenten were talking quietly as I closed my eyes and started meditating with Neji.

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"Dude, you okay?" asked Kiba as everyone started talking to each other, Shino shrugged looking impassive. "You have to forget about it, she lived didn't she?" he added, Shino turned and nodded then looked outside again. Kiba and Hinata followed his gaze and saw him looking at the four sitting under the tree. Neji and Aiko were facing each other about three feet apart and were meditating, Tenten and Lee were talking then she looked up and waved at him. Kiba waved back and Hinata stuck out a hand in greeting. Tenten crawled over to Aiko and whispered something to her. She looked up slowly and noticed Shino, Kiba and Hinata looking at them. She smiled and waved slightly. Kiba and Hinata greeted her same as Tenten but Shino just turned away.

"Dude why did you do that!" exploded Kiba,

"Because it was only right," he replied quietly

"You don't turn away from someone you love and loves you when they are genuinely sorry," said Kurenai suddenly appearing besides them as Kakashi and Asuma started a card game with Naruto, Chouji and Shikamaru.

"She's sorry and we all heard her reason why. You would do the same if you had something precious to protect. You seemed to almost get yourself killed before." Said Kiba in a dangerously low voice and Akamaru growled.

"If you didn't realise it was her who brought your whole clan in, heal your dad and waited patiently outside your ICU room for you to come out. She didn't even tend to her wounds or the internal pain she had," said Ino looking at the Aburame. He still looked impassive but inside it was killing him. The guilt of acting like that, of hurting her and not being the one to protect her. She always seemed to be the one doing that for him.

"Your friends are right, Shino." Said a deep voice by the door, everyone turned and saw the fathers of most of the jounin standing there. Shibi being the one to talk. His mother was standing next to him with a bandage around her head. Shino seemed to brighten at knowing his family was alive.

"Hai," he said seriously, everyone was quiet and the genin shuffled uncomfortable,

"Shino-sensei, we're going to go see Aiko-sensei," said Akane getting up and helping Yuki.

"Get well soon Shino-sensei," said Yuki smiling weakly as Akane and Kaito dragged her out. They raced down the halls to the garden and out to the garden. Soon following were the parents of the jounin out to the garden.

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As I sat meditating I heard people running and I saw all the genin coming over.

"I incoming!" yelled Kumo jumping, they hit us and knocked everyone over. I could say laughing that Neji didn't look impressed. He smirked that turned to a grin that turned to a genuine smile as he saw us laughing. I stopped laughing as I saw a shadow pass over us, the others stood quickly but due to the last ambush and I was ill I took longer to stand and eventually Tenten heaved me up to stand. I blushed lightly at being helped. It turned out to be Shibi and Reika, Hiashi and the Ino-Shika-Chou originals. I bowed slowly and started coughing. I turned and I noticed Tenten mouth a 'sorry'. I nodded and stood straight.

"Gomen about that Shibi-san, Reika-san," I said quietly

"It's alright Aiko we know the situation," said Reika, I nodded and Shibi looked straight at me.

"I would like to thank you and also your squad for helping my clan. Although the loss was great we still have a strong clan. I would like to give my deepest thanks to you," he said, I bowed

"It was no trouble I'm just glad that one of the strongest clans can stay that way," I replied

"You never know you might be part of that clan soon," said Tenten quietly next to me, Shibi and Reika heard this as well and I choked and turned bright red.

"Its not that way," I stuttered the realised I caused an offence to the Aburame's in front of me. "I didn't mean it offensively I jus-" I started babbling on,

"Its okay Aiko we know," said Reika smiling and laughing slightly. I wanted to kill Tenten right now. In the slowest and pain fullest way. I sighed though and dismissed the thought.

"We must leave and check up on the compounds repairs," said Shibi "Arigatou again on behalf of the clan," he said

"Hai," I said bowing and he nodded as they left. "Shikaku-san, I heard it was the Nara's medical book that helped," I asked

"Hai, it was Aiko," he replied

"Arigatou for it, I'm just sorry that this is the second time," I said quietly "Chouji told me about last time," I muttered

"Its okay, we're all just glad you're alright, I'm just surprised you survived on more then 3 of those pills," he said

"Hai, you see……..Ano……I've been using those pills most of the time in Anbu," I replied sheepishly, everyone turned and stared at me "That's how I stood for so long on them, I guess I went over my limit," I added, Chouza shook his head and laughed with Inoshi and Shikaku, Hiashi just shook his head and smiled. Neji looked taken aback by his uncle's weird behaviour but remembered I was TaiKan's old jounin and probably respected me for taking TaiKan on.

"Okay, I never expected that," said Inoshi "Maybe its something in the genes," he said dismissing the thought of me being some alien species. They said good bye and left soon followed by Neji going to training, Gai coming and making Lee run 100 laps of Konoha and Tenten being needed in the weapons shop. It was around lunch and my genin and Shino's went for lunch. I presumed the others in our room had left because I saw a tall figure walking over. I smiled up at him hoping for a better returned greeting instead of last time.

"Ohayo Shino," I said waving,

"Ohayo Aiko," he replied sitting down. I sighed contentedly and rested on my back on the tree trunk. I felt and arm snake around my waist and yank me closer to the host of the arm. I smiled and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Gomen for over reacting," he said quietly

"Its alright you had reason to over react, according to Inoshi, Chouza and Shikaku said I was slightly weird because its never effected me before by taking that many," I replied looking slightly confused. He lifted his hand and took my face in his hand softly and leaned in,

"You may be weird but you're my weird one," he said before kissing me softly. I melted into the kiss until I head someone cough. I looked up and saw Tsunade looking mighty pissed off.

"Ano sa…….Tsunade-san," I said waving,

"What the hell are you doing? Your supposed to be resting, both of you and this is a hospital!" she shouted, I nodded getting up, she grabbed mine and Shinos arms and started stomping us back to our room.

"Hey, hey hold it Tsunade they're ill and not in the army," said Jiraiya appearing out of nowhere,

"Hai, listen to ero-sennin, we're ill and I can't walk very fast," I agreed from my position on the floor from tripping. Tsunade sighed and let go of us and Shino helped me up slowly.

"Psycho bitch from hell," I muttered before breaking into a sprint from her as she heard it. I made it back to our room fast enough to lock the door just hoping she wouldn't break the door down. There was a quiet knock on the door and I opened it slowly to see a tired looking Shino and I let him in before locking it again behind him. I plonked onto the bed and closed my eyes. It was an exhausting day today and I sure was hoping life was going to get better then it was now.

Not meaning to threaten but Rate and Review or I'll stop…..I feel dejected….