A/N: I started this before Shino reappeared in the manga with his new design. Consequently, the Shino in this story still wears a tall collared, white coat like his original instead of the new heavy hooded outfit he has. In addition, with a lack of canon information, I choose to be a little creative with Shino's abilities and how destruction bugs work and problems he might have.
Chapter Two – Dogs
Inukai Kizuna…
At first glance, most in Konoha would mistake him for an Inuzuka, although most Inuzuka would see that as being far from the truth. He was a large man, broad shouldered, and rugged like an Inuzuka, but he lacked their tattoos and had azure blue eyes.
Kizuna is not related to the Inuzuka clan in any way and his parents were poor dog trainers originally from a small village within the Fire Country. Moving to Konoha had made their rotten lives even more difficult and Kizuna replaced what he saw as failures for parents with dreams of becoming an Inuzuka.
Yet, he was only able to watch them from afar, while ignorant of the secrets that all ninja clans had. Not even fellow Academy classmates would know much about the abilities and subculture within another classmate's clan. He only saw them as dog trainers, like his own family, but they were extraordinary and respected.
He wanted to be respected as well. He wanted to be one of them, but that would require more than training his own dog, Supaiku, in combination with his ninja techniques.
It would require marrying into the Inuzuka clan. Kizuna knew enough about the clans that a man marrying into a clan wasn't unusual, especially if the woman was a kunoichi. While clans with hidden techniques weren't as strict as clans with bloodlines, it was still important to keep their ninja techniques within the clan.
Therefore, he searched for an Inuzuka that was of marrying age and found a flower among the dogs. To tell the truth, he found many of the Inuzuka too scary and feral looking, but Inuzuka Hana was beautiful and he was determined to make her his.
Shino moved as silently as bug, despite racing through the forest hidden and down-wind in case Hana's enhanced sense of smell could detect his scent.
More than once, he tried to convince himself to turn back. The rational part of his brain tried to tell him that this was a personal matter between Hana and her ex-boyfriend. Following her as he was, was nothing more than stalking the kunoichi he was attracted to and thoughts of concern for his best friend's older sister couldn't eliminate that.
He cursed himself more than once for this emotional response that he tried to keep buried. Feelings of infatuation and possibly love had placed him a position he shouldn't be in and forcing him to make unwise decisions such as leaving behind his gourd where more than half of his destruction bugs now resided. The same bugs he had spent a lot of chakra feeding earlier in the morning in an attempt to let his nest grow in-between missions and it could end up giving him a disadvantage to a fresh opponent.
Yet, it wasn't as if he had no faith in Hana. She was an experienced Chuunin who not only specializing in veterinarian medical techniques, but she was also skilled in her clan's techniques with three dogs rather than the normal one. Yet, the Haimaru Triplets were each searching in a different part of the forest, forcing Hana to face Kizuna without them.
An Inuzuka without her dogs was about as powerful as an Aburame without his bugs, which was not much at all. Too much training and skill went into combining their attacks with their animal familiars, leaving them vulnerable without them.
So involved in his thoughts, Shino almost went too far and miss the last available tree branch before the forest clearing. As it was, it swayed underneath the combined weight of him and his destruction bugs.
However, the green foliage of the trees hid him well, plus the added bonus of neither of two people standing in the forest clearing were expecting him to be there. They were both clearly focused on each other.
"My lovely Hana, look at what I found," said Kizuna innocently as he lifted up a yellow furred puppy, who wagged its tail happily at the sight of Hana.
Hana sighed before talking a controlled tone, "What are you up to Kizuna? Don't tell me that Koumaru managed to get out here all by himself."
Inukai Kizuna looked like how his destruction bugs described to him, but seeing him in person, Shino couldn't help but realize what about his man probably made Hana attracted to him. He was strong and ruggedly handsome and would have easily been mistaken for an Inuzuka except for the blue eyes that would have been exotic among the dark feral-eyed clan.
While Hana certainly learned more about Kizuna that she wanted, Shino understood the initial attraction, the need to find someone who understood her life. A fellow dog user, but unrelated to her clan, would certainly be interesting to her until she discovered his true self.
Shino pushed the twinge of jealousy way while struggling to maintain the Aburame's emotionless emulation of an insect. His surge of emotions would only serve to stir up the destruction bugs within him.
He studied him analytically, looking beyond his jealousy and tried to think of him as only a possible opponent. Kizuna wore a typical Konoha flak jacket with two giant shuriken strapped to his back and around his waist was a cord threaded through the loop end of several kunai. Shino's educated guess was this man was a projectile specialist, a ninja who specialized in throwing shuriken and kunai accurately and throwing a large number of them over using techniques.
Standing next to Kizuna's side was a large crimson furred dog. It wasn't as big as the Inuzuka clan's largest breeds like Akamaru, but it was covered in knotted muscle and nasty scars from a hard life. There was also a thick leather collar around its neck, but no leash.
"I want you to give me another chance," replied Kizuna as he appeared to give up his obvious charade. "You never give me a chance to talk to you otherwise."
Hana folded her arms across her chest, "With good reason."
"Come on," he pleaded as he placed Koumaru on the ground near his feet, "All I did was give you a gift. We were good together, but you snapped over such a tiny thing."
"Tiny thing?" she snapped. "You gave me a collar!"
"It was a choker," he argued. "And it looked pretty on you."
"I don't care! You still don't understand anything about the Inuzuka!"
"That again," growled Kizuna as his mode turned dark.
As the atmosphere in the forest clearing became more tense, Shino could feel his destruction bugs react to his silent call. With his attention on Hana, he ignored the discomfort and pain as a swarm of destruction bugs left his body quickly from underneath his coat.
Kizuna stepped away from Koumaru as he started to pace in frustration. Hana took advantage of his distraction as she walked over to where the puppy stood. While she walked, she placed two fingers to her lips and whistled loudly, as if to call the puppy over to her, but it just stood with its ears perked up. With her call apparently ignored, Hana reluctantly walked closer to Kizuna to reach the puppy.
"You never took the time to understand us," she said softly. "Instead you tried to force your own beliefs on me. How did you expect to become part of my clan like that? I tried to teach you, but you would never listen—"
"Oh please!" yelled Kizuna as his anger rose as he paced closer to the puppy. "All you ever talked about was how much you loved your dogs more than me!"
In Kizuna's fury, his foot lashed out with obvious intent to kick the puppy. Hana saw this and with her ninja reaction time and incredible speed, she managed to pick up Koumaru and shield him from Kizuna's kick. Yet, her speed wasn't enough to avoid the kick herself and Kizuna's foot landed hard against her ribs.
"Hana!" yelled Kizuna in surprise as he backed away from Hana's crouched form.
"This is why," she said practically with a painful whimper, but her voice was determined. "You are abusive to your dogs and your discipline is cruel. My clan may roughhouse and even bite and kick our dogs to maintain the pack hierarchy, but they remain our partners. Instead, you think you are the master and they are your slaves to abuse."
"Y-Your wrong," he tried to defend himself as he crouched down in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to make her see his way, but his hands slid down with an intimate familiarity that was no longer welcomed.
"Stop it—"
"STEP AWAY FROM HANA NOW…"
Both Kizuna and Hand turned in surprise as a third person entered the forest clearing. Aburame Shino stood still with his hands comfortably in his pockets and sunglasses over his stoic face, but his voice was deadly serious.
"Shino?" said Hana in surprise as she struggled away from Kizuna and managed to stand back up with the puppy in her hands, but the pain in her ribs made her wince.
"Who is this!" yelled Kizuna as he stood up too with a mixture of jealousy and new rage. "A new boyfriend coming to rescue you?"
"My name is Aburame Shino. I am—"
Hana interrupted, "He is my brother's teammate. We're done, Kizuna. Goodbye." She turned away from Kizuna and walked toward Shino with a small smile on her lips.
"Don't walk away from me!" he yelled as he extended his arm with his fingers wide spread. "DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME!"
"Hana, look out!" yelled Shino as he saw five chakra threads emerge and whip out from Kizuna's fingers, but it was too late as the blue threads encircled around Hana's throat.
Hana's knees buckled from underneath her, causing her to yelp and fall while sending the unfortunately puppy flying as she tried to brace herself with her hands stretched out.
"Chakra threads?" yelled Shino as started to move toward her.
"Don't move!" yelled Kizuna as the blue glow of the chakra threads increased suddenly, accompanied by Hana's screams as she clawed at the soil with her nails. Despite what he wanted to do, Shino managed to stop and watch as the brighter glow faded.
"This is my Chakra Leash Technique," explained Kizuna. He flexed the fingers of his seemingly free hand only to reveal another set of five threads appearing from his hand to his dog, which seemed to growl in response. "I've had a leash on Supaiku all this time, but with only a small amount of chakra it wasn't visible. My leash can immobilize and do more…"
Kizuna's dog, Supaiku, started to bark at Shino furiously and show off its sharp canine teeth while it strained against the threads that held it in place.
"Release Hana now," said Shino with no fear in his voice.
"Better worry about yourself, bug boy. You're about to be squashed," said Kizuna as he released the threads on Supaiku, letting the dog run toward its target.
"Shino, forget about me and run!" yelled Hana from where she was forced to her hands and knees, but Shino didn't move. Running would be an intelligent thing to do after having already used so much of his chakra to feed a large nest of destruction bugs that was almost too much for him; a nest that partially resided in a gourd that was sitting uselessly on the other end of the forest. He could have run, but he wouldn't…
Supaiku pounced at him, with foam practically coming from his mouth with anticipation for violence. Shino only pulled out a hand from his pocket in time for the dog to latch onto his lower arm with its powerful jaws.
A sickening crunch could be heard as the dog bit down.
"Shino!" yelled Hana. "Please, stop this Kizuna!"
Kizuna pulled one of the giant shuriken from his back and skillfully spun it with one hand while he maintained Hana's leash with the other. "No, this is your fault, Hana."
The giant shuriken was thrown into the air, the sound of its heavy blades roared as it sliced through the air as it got closer, but no matter how much Shino pulled, he couldn't drag himself out of the path of the shuriken while the dog held onto his hand and held him in place.
The shuriken finally stop spinning as it plunged right into Shino's chest…
"This was your fault," he repeated in a grave tone.
"No, this is your fault, Kizuna."
"Shino!" yelled Hana with joy as they both turned to see Shino alive and unharmed behind them. Yet, Supaiku's yelp drew their attention back as the "Shino" figure started to crumble apart into hundreds of tiny dark bugs. Some flew away while others fell onto the dog and started to feed on its chakra with a soft blue glow.
"A clone?"
"Yes," explained Shino calmly. "I wasn't sure of your method of attack. You appear to be a projectile specialist but I didn't know how much of the Inuzuka's techniques you had emulated. It appears none at all. You only used your dog to distract and restrain you opponent and by the number of scars, I would say you've missed on occasions."
"A fairly accurate assessment," said Kizuna. "But you forgot about these!"
With the hand that previously held the chakra leash on Supaiku, five new threads erupted out and whipped out toward Shino. While he tried to avoid them, they managed to encircle around his neck as well.
A surge of foreign chakra went through his body and Shino felt more than just his body being immobilized by the threads. He felt his bugs buzzing inside of him at their sudden interest in the new chakra.
"The more you resist, the more it's going to hurt, bug boy."
Shino slowly lowered himself down to his knees while he clawed at his throat with his fingers at a failed attempt to pull the threads off, but the managed to speak with difficulty, "Yet…now you have…both your hands too busy…to attack."
Kizuna smiled evilly, "Didn't I say I could do more than immobilize?"
The surge of chakra increased and Shino felt as if his body was being electrocuted with only chakra, but with a reluctant thought, he unleashed the destruction bugs inside his body. The bugs greedily fed on the chakra, his and Kizuna's all in one ravenous meal. The hold over Kizuna's leash lessoned, but his own stamina was being sucked away as well.
Shino moved his hands together, forming a seal and concentrating his chakra on all the destruction bugs inside of him. "Bug Dragon Bullet Technique."
He took a deep breath and could feel the destruction bugs fill his burning lungs until his chest felt as if it were about to burst from the inside out and then opened his mouth to release a powerful stream of destruction bugs held together with chakra into the shape of a dragon. The dragon seemed to roar with the buzzing and chittering of a thousand destruction bugs as it flew toward Kizuna with an insect fury.
With the massive pain and draining chakra, Shino missed his target as Kizuna easily dodged the frightening technique, but Shino's objective was achieved as Kizuna unleashed his chakra threads from Shino while he quickly tried to dodge the Dragon.
Shino managed to get back on his feet, driven by pain and anger. He moved in a blur, closing the distance between him and Kizuna instantly as he lashed out with a clumsy punch that Kizuna easily blocked with one hand and made a punch of his own that hit Shino over eye and shattering his sunglasses in several dark pieces that littered the ground.
"Bug boy, I don't know how you managed to move, but that was a pathetic attempt," he said as he watch Shino struggle back to his feet without his sunglasses. "I thought Aburame were suppose to be scary, but without your glasses you're just a pathetic punk. What do you like about him, Hana? I suppose he looks better than the rumors, I thought Aburame had bug eyes or empty eye sockets filled with bugs."
Shino eyes quickly glanced at Hana, unaware of the unhidden raw emotion that he exposed, but Kizuna took advantage of the moment, unhooked the cord of eight kunai from around his waist, and swung it toward Shino. Each kunai flew from the end of the cord, where it had been threaded through each metallic loop on the end of the handles, and into a scattered deadly rain of blades that Shino couldn't dodge.
"Unless you have another clone up your sleeves, I've got you this time, bug boy" mocked Kizuna as he watched Shino stagger as five of the eight kunai managed to strike his chest, plunging into his white coat.
But Shino didn't fall…
He stood as if the kunai sticking out of his chest didn't hurt at all and looked at Kizuna with his rather ordinary unhidden eyes. "You mock my destruction bugs, but you have no concept of their abilities…just like you have no concept of the true abilities of your dogs."
"SHUT UP!"
Almost as if Shino was responding to Kizuna's outburst, he was silent as he pulled the kunai away painlessly and unbuttoned his tall collared coat to show what stopped the kunai.
"G-Gross!" stuttered Kizuna as both he and Hana watched wide eyed as a massive heap of destruction bugs crawled along his bare chest. No shirt was there to restrict the movement of the destruction bugs as they moved in and out of dozens of dark holes that dotted his pale skin. Even his skin moved and distorted beyond his control as the bugs crawled along their tunnels made of his flesh.
Although he knew he shouldn't, Shino glanced toward Hana and saw her look of pity and sadness. He moved his eyes away and tried to hide the hurt. He knew that if she looked at him with pity while several feet away, if she was closer it would only be disgust.
"In this case, my destruction bugs acted like armor by linking themselves together with chakra. It was enough to stop your kunai without breaking my skin," he explained as he buttoned the coat back up. "And the attack you called pathetic, was only a distraction, one I thought you would have noticed since distraction is a method you seem familiar with. However, in this case, it will cost you."
Kizuna laughed, "What are you talking about?" He raised the fist he struck Shino with for emphasis. "You didn't do a thing to—WHAT?" Crawling on his hand was several stealthy destruction bugs. He raised his other hand to slap them away only to stop as he noticed bugs on that hand as well.
Shino watched the man with cold eyes. "I placed them on you when you blocked and punched me."
"It's only a few of them, what do you expect me to do? Dance around, scared over a few tiny bugs who can only tickle me to death?" He laughed at amusement of his own joke, but then the pain began. He started to slap his hands to brush the bugs away, but it was too late as he watched the last ones bore their way through his skin leaving bloody holes. "What are they doing!"
Shino talked slowly, unrushed by Kizuna's panic. "You set a trap for Inuzuka Hana and attempted to abuse her. You were careless with your own animal familiar as you tried to kill a fellow Konoha ninja. For all this I have no pity for you."
Kizuna yelled in pain as blood continued to pour from the holes. He hit his hands hard in a failed attempt to crush the destruction bugs from within.
Shino's voice was starting to show his exhaustion. "A few destruction bugs are not enough to drain the chakra from you, but they are enough to devour the chakra lines of you hands. Likely, you'll be unable to perform hand seals again, and you will certainly not be able to use your chakra leash."
Kizuna screamed in rage now as his fingers curled up in pain and he stared at Shino with rabid eyes.
However, the young Aburame was beyond that as the destruction bugs used in the Dragon Bullet and the bugs used for the clone earlier both crawled toward him at once to return to the nest. He groaned in discomfort as his body ached from chakra exhaustion and found he could no longer stand as he collapsed on the ground, unable to move.
"You are nothing but a bug!" yelled Kizuna as he stumbled over to Shino and stomped on the immobile Aburame's head.
"STEP AWAY FROM SHINO NOW!"
Kizuna turned, realizing that when he had released his leash on Shino he had also released Hana's as well. She was standing now, with a look of fury on her face, but now three gray furred dogs surrounded her protectively.
He looked at them with a dumbfounded expression. "When did they—"
"I called them when I whistled," she told him as she motioned with her two fingers to her lips, reminding him when she whistled for the puppy. "I wasn't just trying to call the puppy over, I used an Inuzuka technique to call my dogs. Even with your technique to hide the scents in this clearing, it wasn't enough to hide me from my dogs. If you want to see more of the Inuzuka clan's techniques then let me show you—Haimaru Triplets!" she yelled as she pointed toward Kizuna, "Triple Piercing Fang!"
Kizuna had no chance to dodge as all three of the gray dogs pounced on him while spinning at a ferocious speed, each of them hitting him before he finally hit the ground unconscious and broken.
For Shino it wasn't hard to sleep with one eye open and drift in a state of semi-consciousness with a body full of destruction bugs that seemed to never sleep. Yet, even in this state, dreams sneaked in and even distorted the conditions under which he slept.
So when a pair of soft, warm lips touched his own and kissed him in a way he had never been kissed before, since no one had ever kept their lips close to his for long when they knew the bugs lurked not very far underneath his skin, he was sure he was dreaming.
He was too exhausted to even open his eyes, but as the lips moved away he felt disappointed knowing his dream probably wouldn't return again. The disappointment turned to alertness as she struggled through the fog of sleep.
Something else touched his lips, but this time it was wet and cold…a slightly furry.
Shino opened his eyes to see the yellow furred puppy sitting on his chest while licking his face. He sighed, knowing his pathetic mind had turned a dog's curious licking into something else in his dreams.
"Koumaru, don't bother him," said Hana softly as she picked the dog up and placed him in her lap. "Sorry, Shino, I wish you could have slept longer."
"I'm fine," he said as he brought an arm up to wipe off his face with his sleeve. He looked around and saw they were underneath a tree near the clearing with Hana sitting next to him and her dogs sitting around her. "Kizuna?"
"Gone," she answered. "I had the Triplets hit him a few times for him to get the message. He grabbed Supaiku and ran off."
"Did I go too far?" he asked. She looked at him questionably, but he felt she misunderstood. "I…probably ruined his career as a ninja. I wasn't lying about the damage the destruction bugs did to his hands."
"It was extreme, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad. He could stay a ninja as a projectile specialist, but without the chakra threads he can't control his dogs or people like us. If he tries to make an issue of it, there are plenty of Inuzuka have pull within the Military Police. Many in the clan only see him as an imitator and a bad one at that. I don't think you have to worry about being arrested."
"Hmm…"
They were silent for a while. The puppy seemed content with Hana's playful petting and Shino's mind was slowly registering how much damage had been done to the hive, silently mourning the destruction bugs that had been lost.
"HEY!"
Shino managed to sit up at the sound of a familiar yell. Inuzuka Kiba walked into the clearing, hunched over while struggling to carry Shino's gourd over his back. He blinked at the sight of his big sister and her dogs sitting comfortably around Shino, who seemed laying relaxed on the ground. "Big Sis? What's going on here?"
"Nothing Little Brother, just a problem with Inukai Kizuna. Shino helped me take care of it," explained Hana.
"Oh…but Shino looks exhausted. He's an elite Jounin now," Kiba said in a half-mocking tone. The other half was being an annoying little brother, "Surely he could have taken care of garbage like Kizuna easily. Are you sure that's all that happened here."
A Haimaru barked a warning that Kiba was taking it too far.
"Yeah, yeah, fine. Here's your gourd," he said as he placed the gourd on the ground. "I found it lying in the middle of the forest. I figured something was up knowing you wouldn't leave it behind like that. You can keep it…it was starting to creep me out."
"Thanks…Kiba," said Shino as he approached his gourd.
"Destruction bugs aren't creepy at all," Hana said softly as she looked at Shino warmly for a second then back to Kiba and changed her tone to the authority of a big sister. "I'm sure you can manage to carry it back to Konoha for Shino, Little Brother."
Hana was already walking away with the puppy in her arms and her dogs following her. Kiba grumbled as he watched her and then looked back at Shino, but then he frowned.
"Ah, Shino? Why do you have pink lipstick on your lips?"
Next Chapter - A FlowerAuthor's Note: I wanted to end this story here, but I've changed my mind and decided to write one more chapter. I think this story needs a proper conclusion for this pairing so it doesn't appear so one-sided. So expect a conclusion soon...
Version 1.1
1.0: Original
1.1: Changed the Author's Note and removed the "Epilogue - Flower" line to reflect that a third chapter will be made, titled "Flower".