Author's Note: The Mature rating and the Horror tag on this are not so much for intense physical violence, (the violence in this I would rate as Teen, though there is a some Mature sexual content) but for the subject matter and general content of the story.

This is set when the Team Eight members are about 20 years old. This doesn't follow along with the major plot of Naruto Shippuden but there are some spoilers.

Chapter 1

"Man, it's good to be back, eh, Akamaru?!" Kiba exclaimed, arms crossed above his shoulders, smiling as Akamaru replied with a bark.

Team Eight had just returned from a thankfully easy mission. A neighboring village was having trouble with bandits and asked the Leaf for help in finding and driving them out. With such focus on tracking, their team had no trouble. They let them off with a warning, at the request of their employers, but assured them if there was any further trouble, they would return.

The bandits had lost confidence when their hideout had been discovered, and left quickly and quietly.

Now Team Eight was within the city gates. It wouldn't be long before they all parted ways – they could have done so earlier, but it had become an unspoken tradition, after returning to the village, to spend just a little more time together.

Shino understood the idea of team bonding, knew the importance of being a cohesive group, of being synchronized, at ease with each other – stress leads to mistakes, he'd been told this over and over. His clan naturally worked well together, after all they observed and facilitated colonies of insects, even within their own bodies, from birth.

Shino had thought everyone worked like that – orderly, practically, but he had been in for quite a surprise when he joined the Academy. Rowdy, rambunctious, chaos. Dynamics that in hindsight he realized he had observed within his own clan, observed within his body. People were not parts, groups were not machines, his colony was an entity in itself, had a group mind, yet he knew, always knew, it only functioned because it was made up of individuals and individuals were not interchangeable. He could not work with any other member of the Hyuuga clan as well he could with Hinata. He could not replace Kiba with another Inuzuka and expect there to be no difference.

Depending on the time – and on the mission – they would stop and get something to eat. If the mission was too exhausting, they would simply walk the main street, then say their goodbyes and head home.

The ritual had grown on Shino – it could be jarring, after sleeping, waking, traveling together for days, sometimes weeks on end, growing accustomed to Hinata and Kiba's cycles, rhythms – to suddenly have them not there. And this was a mission where they could stop and eat, and as Kiba now pointed out, some of their comrades were out too.

"Oi, Chouji, any food left in this place?" Kiba called out amiably, pulling aside the curtain.

"Not for long! Better get in here if you want some." Chouji replied.

"Welcome back. Everything go okay?" Shikamaru drawled in greeting as they sat down.

"Yeah, we're good. What about here, anything happen while we were away?" Kiba asked. This wasn't unusual, for Kiba to answer for Team 8. He often acted as their spokesperson.

"Yeah actually-" Shikamaru started, only to have Ino interrupt.

"You guys didn't hear?!"

"Hear what?" Kiba asked, uneasy.

"They disbanded Anbu Root! Can you believe it! I've always hated that group! Coming and taking our kids away! My dad's been haunted by it for years."

"They didn't come calling around the Akimichi house – we aren't the greatest at stealth."

"Yeah, my family doesn't have a great temperament either. But I know of them." Kiba replied.

"They've taken many from mine." Hinata said sadly.

After a brief moment of silence, Ino continued.

"I'm sorry, Hinata, but the good news is they're out! Everyone who was there is out! And this is great, I invited Shikamaru and Chouji out here to meet someone, he should be here any minute, oh, there is he. Hi, Fuu!"

The group's attention turned to a man with a high blond ponytail who had just walked in. Ino stood up and hooked her arm in his.

"Everyone, this is Fuu! Fuu, these are my teammates, and these are some of my classmates."

Ino introduced them one by one, and Shino couldn't be sure, but he thought Fuu's attention lingered, after Ino said his name. Ino seemed quite proud, as they heard an abbreviated explanation: Lady Tsunade decided to put an end to it, after many complaints, with the compromise of keeping Anbu Black Ops.

Shino noted there was an agitated quality in the air, in the village on the way home. He felt it himself, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything in front of the others, couldn't bring himself to ask Fuu. Could barely even think it, as he willed himself home. Was it possible? Shino had imagined it, dreamed it so many times, over the years. Thirteen years to be precise. It had been thirteen years.

Could he be there?

Though Shino supposed that was the wrong question. Yes, he could be, but Shino's greatest fear was that he wouldn't be. That he'd been killed, either in action or in training, either seemed plausible to him.

When Shino had last seen him, he'd been 9 years old.

He would be 22 now.

If he had survived.