(A/N) Haha, as this is Torune, who is five at this time, there's, uh, a bit more detail. What I'm trying to say is Gore warning. Stop after Torune herds the beetle into view and start again when it's Ino's turn in the spotlight. Ah, Aburame, can be halfway through a breakdown, and all their mental thoughts show is equivalent to if someone accidentally lost a child in Walmart or something.

"Torune, you can manage the park by yourself, correct?" Shibi asked, handing over Torune's lunch. "Shino has come down with a cold, and I must stay here to care for him."

Torune knew this already, he could hear his younger cousin coughing from here. But he nodded anyway. He was five, he could walk to the park by himself.

Shibi disappeared back into Shino's room, and Torune left the compound, heading for his favorite park. It was one of the more secluded ones, surrounded by forest and home to many bugs.

Unfortunately, a pair of boys about Shino's age were there with a massive dog, the two playing chase around the clearing with the dog, and a third boy, that one a bit older, standing off to the side staring at them intimidatingly. A girl was crouching, examining something in the bushes off to the side.

Torune paused as he nearly stepped on yet another kid, this one having been napping against a tree, apparently having sat down and fallen asleep almost as soon as he entered the park.

The two playing chase paused, the dog crashing into them when it couldn't stop in time. They cocked their heads at him in unison. It was a bit creepy, Torune had to admit.

"Hi!" The blond one shouted, running up to him.

"Hello," Torune greeted, inclining his head. "I will leave, you appear to be occupying this playground."

"No!" The blond one complained. "Stay! We like more friends!"

The older boy approached, staring at the blond one disapprovingly. "We cannot force him to stay if he does not wish to stay."

"Let him go, Naruto," the kid who had been asleep said, yawning.

Torune ended up staying anyway, although not to play with the blond child, who was far too loud for him. Instead, he crouched down next to the girl.

"What're you looking for?" He asked quietly, examining the ground.

"A b-beetle," she whispered.

"Of what color?" Torune asked, sending a couple kikai out to find a beetle.

"B-black."

Torune searched the ground, then spotted his kikai herding a black beetle into view, then disappear into his sleeve.

He spent the rest of the time with Hinata, finding bugs and chatting quietly, but the time came that everyone had to leave.

"Maybe we'll see you around again!" Naruto said cheerfully. He waved his arm wildly, and Torune smiling very slightly. They were loud, sure, but if Hinata was insistent that they were good people, he'd agree to meet with them again.

He got home to a quiet house, which in and of itself wasn't too uncommon. Aburame were a quiet clan after all.

He entered the house, finding a mess, kunai and shuriken strewn everywhere. Tables overturned, paintings on the ground in a mess of shattered glass.

There was also blood. Splattered everywhere. His kikai identified it as both his temporary foster parents and unidentified shinobi. Torune broke into a run, racing for Shino's room.

The blood was heaviest in the hallway right outside. Drying pools, and already dried blood caking the walls and ceiling. A foot was poking out of Shino's doorway, and Torune advanced slowly, realizing quickly that it belonged to his clan head and foster father.

The body was mostly intact, with blood still spilling out. An arm was missing, torn off violently from what Torune assumed to be a hard battle. Whoever had killed Shibi had to be a powerful shinobi. Normal grunts couldn't have done this, especially not in Aburame territory. And he was a clan head, he didn't die easily.

He jumped over the body, finding his little brother's bed empty. A quick and frantic check through the house, plus his insects being spread everywhere he could, yielded no results.

The Hokage. He had to know about this. Torune stumbled out of the house, running headlong through the streets towards Hokage Tower.

Luckily, it didn't seem like the Hokage was in a meeting, as he was let in immediately.

"What has happened?" The Hokage asked, standing up.

Torune wondered briefly how the Hokage knew something was wrong, then realized he could feel blood caking his feet and legs, and remembered the fact he had just run in like the Kyuubi was chasing him. "Th-the clan head," he barely managed to get some formality into his speech. "The clan head has been murdered."

(A/N) No, this isn't the end of the chapter, just an interrupting note. In this universe, Ino is telepathic, and the pictures and words are how it shows up. Emotions are pictures, thoughts are words. She doesn't always see words, but can if she concentrates. As she is empathic, she will suffer from emotional overloads and frequent headaches. This will appear again, I promise. Now on to Ino. Yes, I am leaving Torune there.

Ino woke up happy. She had a nice dream, her head didn't hurt, and the sun was shining. Unlike yesterday's clouds, severe headache, and terrible dreams.

She bounced into the kitchen, watching her dad's head light up in yellow sunbursts. "Morning Daddy!"

"Morning princess," he greeted, turning away from his paperwork to pick her up. "Feeling better today?"

"Yep! No headache at all!"

"That's great," he replied, smiling.

Ino grinned back, seeing her own happy yellow sunbursts out of the corner of her eye. "Can I go to the park?"

He looked worried. "Are you sure, Princess? You didn't fare so well last time we went, and I can't go with you this time because I have serious ninja work to do at T&I."

"Are you torturing someone?" Ino asked, wriggling happily.

Amusement showed in little purple bubbles floating around his head. "Yes Princess, I'm torturing an enemy of the village."

"I wanna be just like you when I grow up," Ino told him, not for the first time.

"I'm sure you will princess," he replied, standing up to grab proper breakfast for them. "We'll have breakfast, then I can drop you off at the park on my way to T&I, how's that? If you have a headache after the walk there, I can take you to T&I with me, and we'll find you a nice empty room."

Ino nodded, happy with that setup.

Her dad handed her a set of keys, clipping them onto one of her many bracelets. "If you get overwhelmed, come right home, here are the keys, I already have you keyed into the traps, so that's not a problem."

Ino nodded firmly, just happy to be going to the park. She was finally now old enough to go by herself! Three years was old enough! Yes, it was a wonderful day today.

With a tummy full of breakfast, they were on their way. As it was awfully bright outside, her dad made her wear sunglasses. That did absolutely nothing to diminish the happy colors, pictures, and words swirling around people, but Ino didn't mind. She liked seeing all the happy colors, most of the time anyway.

"You still good up there?" Her dad asked, poking her leg.

Ino nodded, grinning. "All good daddy!"

"Good, cause we're here!" He said pulling her off his shoulders and spinning her around.

Ino giggled delightedly. "Thanks for bringing me daddy!"

"Of course princess! Just make sure that if your head starts hurting, you come straight home, alright? I'll make sure to drop by here first when I come home, so I may be a bit late if you come home before me."

Ino nodded, still smiling brightly, but storing the information away securely. Three years old she may be, but she wanted to be a kunoichi! And not only that, but a T&I kunoichi. She had to be able to keep stuff in her brain. She waved her arm. "Love you daddy! See you later!"

He smiled in reply, waving back and turning to leave. "Love you too princess. See you later."

Ino looked around the playground for someone to play with.

There were three girls surrounding a fourth one, with pretty bright pink hair, and they didn't look nice. Also, the clouds of darkness surrounding the girl's head didn't look good at all. There were dark purple crowns, pride, she thought, around the heads of the three girls.

Ino decided to split it up, and pranced over. "That's not very nice," she announced. Were they teasing the girl for her forehead? It hardly looked any larger than normal.

"What's it to you?" The leader sneered, red annoyance coloring the purple crowns.

"Well, personally, as a member of the head family of the Yamanaka family, I think her forehead is the perfect size for holding a forehead protector!"

(A/N) Ino's adorable. I may slightly regret killing her father. But that's a problem for next chapter. For now, don't kill me for the cliff hangers! Also, I have a poll, it closes late tomorrow. We'll have to see who wins in the end.