DISCLAIMER:
I do not own any of the characters within. All are property of Kishimoto-san, et al.

Shino and Kiba walked on either side of Hinata, carefully keeping their distance from her, hoping to appease her slight fear of them. Kiba glanced at Hinata, worry shining in his eyes at the way her gaze kept flicking from Shino, to himself, and back. He watched her watch them for a few seconds, then returned to his brooding.

They were a few minutes away from the Hyuuga complex when Shino stiffened suddenly. From the way his shoulders froze, Hinata and Kiba knew he was in pain, but he didn't say anything: simply nodding at them and walking away, in the direction of the Aburame complex with the same, pained, stiff gait.

Hinata looked at Shino's retreating back, eyes narrowed before activating her Byakuugan quickly. In the second she allowed herself to spy with all-seeing eyes on her teammate, she noticed only one thing amiss: the Kikaichuu's signature on Shino's chakra seemed to have become more prominent. She sighed and rubbed her head, tenderly caressing what would soon be a full blown headache.

Kiba brushed his arm against hers gently, in a seemingly accidental mood that years of partnership had perfected, silently asking her what was wrong.

"Shino's chakra has always been... marked by the presence of his Kikaichuu..." She looked at the man as he turned the street corner and disappeared from sight. "But the signature has become... well, the main feature, for lack of better words." She looked into Kiba's eyes, the skittishness that had been so prominent only moments before, receding in the wake of this new worry.

Kiba nodded and glanced at the path they were on, silently urging Hinata to continue walking. As they began to move along, he frowned. "I have to go pick up Akamaru. We'll see how much has changed in his scent and chakra strength. Meanwhile..." His eyes darted to the imposing wall of the Hyuuga compound they were rapidly approaching before returning to her. "Take care of yourself Hinata. And don't let Hanabi fight you. You need to recuperate, strengthen your chakra. After all," He began to turn around, leaving her at the threshold to the place she lived in, "You're much stronger than you let others see most of the time. It would be a shame to see you take another dive for her sake..."

He left her there, gaping and blushing furiously, and ran to the outskirts of the city, past the river so many ninja were fond of training by, and into the untamed forests surrounding the village. Once there, he angled west, until he passed the invisible border that divided wild forest from Inuzuka forests, marked only by scent and not sight. He ran for a few minutes, dropping from the trees and forcing himself to use the much slower pace that came with not propelling himself forward with chakra, until he reached the center of his home camp.

It was nothing fancy, just a nin-issue tent along a large boulder with a slightly smoking fire pit in front of it, set a few yards from the edge of a meandering arm of the river. Akamaru was sitting, staring at the smoke, waiting for some shred of excitement. As he smelled his partner, his ears perked up and he stood, ready for anything. It took a glance and two words to get the huge dog to bound over the smoke and to the man: "Let's go."

From there, Kiba, now accompanied by Akamaru, made his way to the Aburame complex. He jumped the wall, leaving Akamaru to stand guard for a minute, and dashed across the gardens again to Shino's window. He jumped onto the sill, overcome with déjà vu as he knocked on the window and called out, "Shino."

Except, this time, Shino did not move to open the window and glare at his teammate, who had disrupted his rest again. Instead, Shino rolled over on his bed, exposing his back to the window and the suddenly speechless Kiba. Where there should have been a smooth expanse of ivory skin, there was a jagged labyrinth of scars which seemed to shift on their own accord. Kiba stood there, half-sitting on his haunches, watching, but not understanding what he was seeing until one of the jagged edges seemed to expand unaided, then explode, releasing a spurt of chakra and a small Kikaichuu bug. Kiba wrinkled his nose as the smell of the chakra: an almost sickly-sweet smell, reminiscent of decaying flesh reached him.

For the first time in his life, Kiba wished for the Byakuugan, to be able to see what was going on inside of Shino's body, for with each new expulsion of a bug, which happened every few minutes, Shino stiffened and moaned in slight pain. And even as Kiba wished for the power of the white eyes, he was glad Hinata had not, and would not see this. Kiba turned slightly from the sight and whistled softly at a decibel too high for humans to hear. Seconds later, Akamaru was slinking across the garden to his side, nose wrinkled in distaste for the smell of decay on the wind. Kiba whispered to Akamaru as silently as he could manage and waited for the long inhalation and almost silent barks from his companion. His brow furrowed as what he learned penetrated his brain.

Shino was in serious pain, losing chakra, and the smell was not of Shino's body, but of his chakra decaying beneath his skin.

Kiba swallowed hard and dropped off the sill, walked across the gardens, slipped over the fence, and somehow made his way back to his forest, one thought ringing through his mind: Shino was dying.

Author's Note:
Ok, I really could have made this longer, and I probably should have, come to think of it, but I really wanted to stop this here.
For those who care, I have decided to go with the "disturbing". The "horrifying" was too… dark for this particular story, but there's always next time…
Today the thanks goes to Elviella (the ending will be happy, eventually…), Heiress of Nature (thanks for the double review, and beware: the cuteness will mostly die within the next chapter or two…), and, of course the ever review-giving Fishy (who seems to enjoy the fluffy scenes as well as the thought of disturbance to come.).
Thanks guys, or girls, as the case may be. 
-NAD