It was late evening and Shino was sitting on a tree branch, with Hinata at his side, in front of the hospital's second floor. Everything about the morning exchange with their former teammate - and their best friend - was very disturbing and they both agreed that they couldn't just let that go.
At first, they thought about bringing along a variety of important objects which could help Kiba remember at least something from his past, such as some of the former toys of Akamaru or pictures of his family from when he was young. Afterwards however, they realized that maybe flooding the man's brain with news such as Akamaru's death or memories of his father passing could be a bit too much too early if these objects did indeed work. Maybe for now, they could just treat him as their friend. It was what they missed the most anyway.
Two insects informed Shino that Kiba was indeed not asleep yet and Hinata's Byakugan confirmed that he was also very much aware of their presence outside, staring in their direction. Muttered words of "just come in, I know you are there" were all the two ninja needed to invite themselves to Kiba's room, entering otherwise unobserved through the window and to Shino, at least something felt finally normal.
"Hinata-san and Shino-san.", Kiba acknowledged as a greeting, though his questioning look suggested that he was mostly just trying to recall their names correctly.
Hinata smiled and Shino nodded, trying to brush off the feeling of amiss he got from Kiba referring to him as 'san'.
"What do you want?", Kiba proceeded to ask, and Shino cringed because he could have never imagined Kiba asking him something like that with such a cold and distant voice. Kiba was always loud, emotional and passionate and while Shino liked to complain about it often, seeing this cold and reserved person lying on the bed reminded him just how much he missed the former.
"Kiba-kun, we just wanted to talk and spend some time with you." Shino heard Hinata reply.
He saw Kiba sighing and growing frustrated.
"Look, I know what you are after, but I really cannot remember anything, including you two. I really have tried, I have been trying all day actually, and I don't think spending more time with you will help with that, at least not for now.", Kiba let out in a single breath.
"We are not here for that, Kiba.", he assured.
That apparently surprised his friend. And Shino had to fight smiling, because even after all that time and losing his memory, Kiba apparently never let go of the habit of tilting his head to the side when he was confused - the habit which he originally picked up from Akamaru.
"We missed you. Why? You have been gone for a year. We just want to have a moment together, as a team, just like in the old days."
Kiba stayed silent, intently listening, visibly comforted that they were not there just to try to extract more information. Shino assumed that people coming over, trying to make him remember, was indeed what their former teammate was dealing with the entire day. That was of course not surprising that that was the case considering that the man was indeed sent by someone to try to kill the Hokage and almost succeeded.
"Whenever someone from our team was sick or injured, we would visit them at the hospital and play cards together." Shino explained.
"... cards?"
"Yes, and eat beef jerky which you loved, but according to Sakura-chan, that is not allowed yet.", Hinata added with a smile on her face. "But I promise we will bring it as soon as you can digest solid food."
Hinata's kind promise made Kiba grin and Shino knew they were on the right track.
"Thanks.", he replied, looking down on the ground. "And by the way, Hinata-san, I am sorry about earlier."
"Do not be sorry, please. I am sorry, I should have known better. We were just all so shocked that you had no clue who we were…"
Kiba frowned, as if contemplating whether to say something. He turned to Shino a moment later.
"You are an insect user, is that correct, Shino-san?", and Shino knew this was a genuine question as well as a small test.
"Yes. You hear them and smell them on me."
Based on Kiba's expression softening, he said the right thing.
"I have a blurry memory of one of my missions a couple of months ago… when I realized I could communicate with insects to some extent. I could read their movements as if someone taught me how to do that before. I guess that came from you."
Shino nodded. He saw that Kiba was doing his best to reciprocate their efforts to reestablish their bond even without his memory and was grateful for that. Perhaps, he was also tired of feeling constantly alone.
His friend then turned to Hinata.
"I also had a small talisman with me when I woke up, with a pressed flower in it. And you smell like you were working with flowers not long ago."
Hinata blushed and smiled. "After I lost my cousin, Neji, in the war, I would always give to you both lucky charms with pressed flowers when you were going on missions… Neither of you ever believed in them, but you took them along anyway."
"Seeing that Kiba is still alive after everything that happened, I think I should reconsider.", Shino said contently. He has always appreciated the attention and care coming from Hinata and he was also happy that this entire time, Kiba apparently did have at least something with him connecting him to his friends, though he was unaware of it.
After a moment of comfortable silence, he took out a stack of cards from his bag and placed them on the table next to Kiba's bed.
"So, do you want to play?", Shino suggested.
"I- I am not sure I remember the rules.", Kiba responded, sounding uncertain.
"That is of no consequence. Why? Because you never followed the rules anyway."
Kiba's and Hinata's laughter was all Shino needed to be assured that things between them were indeed going to be fine.
When Kiba called him simply "Shino" two hours later during the game, Shino thought that perhaps at some level, things already were fine as they were.
When he woke up this time, he felt a bit better. The annoying feeling of numbness and pain that felt somehow too distant was still there, but at least he was getting used to the environment around him and the word familiarity was starting to come to his mind more and more frequently.
The medic Sakura probably understood how he felt about everything, hence she insisted to be the only person treating him while he was awake so that he was mostly exposed to things and people that he already knew a little. He appreciated that effort. She was easy to annoy and did not have much patience, but something was telling him that it was simply how she was, especially since it was also the Hokage himself who was often at the receiving end of her rage fits, not just him.
All of them were too nice to him actually, now that he was thinking about it, especially considering that he literally attempted to kill their Hokage a week ago. They were all trying to shield him from too much new information and new people to not overwhelm him, so when they brought in a woman that he had never seen before (or so he thought), he knew that there was probably a reason.
"This is Yamanaka Ino, Kiba. She was also in our class.", Sakura stated.
Again, he just accepted that at a face value and with a nod because there was no way he would know. She smelled of a combination of flowers, ink and antiseptic, and while that was odd, he was not going to inquire further, at least not for now.
"Yamanaka-san", he greeted.
She was staring at him curiously, as if she wanted to say something. Kiba just raised his eyebrows at her in return and bowed his head, encouraging her to speak.
"Sorry, Kiba-kun, I just… I didn't know you were so heavily burnt."
Ah, the scars. For him, they had always been there. Actually, he had no idea how he even looked before getting them. To these people however, they might have looked fairly disturbing, he figured.
"Sorry, I hope they didn't take away too much of my charm.", he grinned at her instead. That made Sakura actually laugh and the Ino-woman relax. Apparently, he said the right thing.
"Now you sound like yourself much more than ever since we found you!", the former pointed out enthusiastically. It just made him wonder whether he really had been so playful before all of this mess happened. And whether he would be able to go back to that once this all was over.
The bright-haired Yamanaka woman approached him and leaned on the side of his bed. She was looking intently into his eyes.
"So... how much do you actually remember?"
"What I already told the Hokage. I don't remember anything from my time in the Leaf village. As for what I did after, I have just a few images in my mind. I know I was healed by someone, and I think I was deployed to missions regularly, the last of which was to kill the Hokage. But that's as much as I can gather, it's very blurry."
Ino seemed to have contemplated that for a bit before continuing.
"I heard that you agreed with me entering your mind to help with that?"
"Yes.", he did not hesitate.
"I must warn you that the brain is very delicate organ. Depending on the existing damage, things could go wrong.", she warned.
"Things already went wrong."
"Alright. If at any point you become too uncomfortable, we can stop and leave it for later."
"I- I am uncomfortable already, about too many things.", he laughed nervously. "Just let's get into it."
He saw the Yamanaka woman sit down on one of the chair, extend her hands in front of her towards him and a moment later, he found himself somewhere deep in his own mind, but definitely not alone.
"Are you here?", he asked in his thoughts.
"Yes.", a voice responded. A weird feeling, that was for sure.
"You can see and hear what I think?"
"Yes, more or less."
"Good. So how do we go about this?"
"When it comes to retrieving memories, it is easiest to go by association. You can get a hold of a piece of a memory and then I can help you pull out the rest, if it is still there somewhere. That's how the technique works."
"So, where do we start?"
"You said you do remember trying to kill the Hokage. I think that that is the most pressing issue right now. Can you recall who sent you to do it?"
"I will try."
A face appeared in Kiba's mind and Ino couldn't believe her eyes. No way that this was happening.
Ok, thanks for reading! The next update will have to wait a few days since I actually have to work. But it will come soon, I promise!