Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. So if you recognize anyone or anything from the anime, I'm just borrowing.

Takes place sometime before Shippuuden. Technically, it takes place in the Naruto world, but without regard to Shippuuden. The Konoha 11 are now 16ish, but I wouldn't call this AU, so I'll call it OS (for Outside of Shippuuden).

Thank you to all of my encouraging, wonderful reviewers. You all make my day.

OOOOO

Chapter 20

OOOOO

Kaoru and Kinako sighed when Shino brought Hinata's unconscious form into the family room. Again. The rest of the clan members present were finally growing accustomed to seeing Hinata lying unconscious on the couch.

"She fainted again?" Kinako remarked with dismay.

"Yes," Shino replied cheerfully.

His mother blinked and studied his face closely. There was a tiny tinge of pink on her son's normally pale cheeks. Then, instead of placing his teammate on the couch, her usually formal and proper son sat down on a loveseat and settled Hinata on his lap. The big clue, however, was when Shibi walked in with a decidedly smug look on his face.

Little Shinomaru walked over, placed his elbows on the couch, and thoughtfully rested his chin on his hands. Hinata's long, dark hair fanned against the armrest. Her pale, porcelain face looked serene and elegant. "Hinata-neesan looks just like a princess," he finally decided.

Shino nodded his silent agreement.

"Why is Hinata-neesan sleeping? Did she not rest well last night?" Shinomaru inquired politely.

Kinako, who had been inwardly sighing and squealing over the adorable sight, suddenly raised her own eyebrows to the roof.

"Don't worry. She's fine," Shino replied smoothly.

Shinomaru reached out to lay his small hand on top of Hinata's. The slight pressure roused her from her faint, and she blinked her eyes open to see his concerned, little face looking back at her. When he saw that she was awake, his worried look of concentration turned into a big grin.

"Hinata-neesan, are you feeling better now?"

"I'm fine," she smiled back at him. She gave a little yawn and a lazy stretch before realizing she was lying on her teammate. Hinata made a little "Eep!" sound and scrambled to sit up properly. She shifted off of Shino's lap, and he let her escape, though he raised his arm and let it lie across the back of the couch, right behind her shoulders.

Shinomaru went to fetch the bag of his favorite books and pulled out the one with the blue cover. Shino shifted just enough so the small boy could squeeze in cozily between himself and Hinata. Shinomaru knew the story well enough times to recite it by heart, so Hinata and Shino listened patiently as he pointed at the pictures and told them about the adventure.

When Shinomaru was finished he laid his head against Hinata's side. Suddenly, he looked up at her with a smile.

"Hinata-neesan."

"Hmm? What is it Shinomaru-kun?"

"I love you!"

Hinata's mouth formed a tiny O of surprise, and she visibly melted. She scooped Shinomaru into her lap, gave him a gentle squeeze, and kissed his soft cheek. "I love you, too, Shinomaru-kun."

Shino wondered at the ease with which his tiny cousin had said those three important words. He hadn't quite worked up the courage to say that to Hinata…yet.

Shinomaru turned his attention to Shino and looked up at him expectantly. Whenever he told his mother and father that he loved them, his father would always copy him first. It was their little tradition. So now it was Shino-niisan's turn.

What? Shino thought as he looked down at him, his eyes widening slightly.

"Shino-niisan, I love you!" Shinomaru said happily.

Shino smiled. Ah, so that was it. "I love you, too, Shinomaru."

The littlest kikaichuu user kept looking at him expectantly. Then he turned to Hinata for a moment as she bent forward to pull the book bag in front of her. His calm gaze returned to look up at Shino.

Oh. Shino's mouth suddenly went dry.

"Kaoru," Kinako, across the room from the cute couple, whispered behind her hand, "did you tell Shinomaru to say that?"

"No," Kaoru shook her head with a smile, "though I'm going to buy him another book as a reward."

Shinomaru looked at his niisan, then at his neesan, and back again. He gently prodded his wise and uncharacteristically tongue-tied cousin.

Shino coughed. His cheeks were now decidedly pink.

"Your turn, Shino-niisan," Shinomaru prompted patiently.

Hinata looked up from where she'd been rummaging through the other books. "Shino-kun, did you want to read the next one?" she asked obliviously.

Shino cleared his throat. "I…I love you, Hinata."

Hinata squeaked and dropped the book on the floor. Unconsciously, she tapped her pointer fingers together. Poke, poke. Poke.

Shino watched in fascination. He'd seen Hinata do the finger-poke thing many times—always for Naruto. This was the first time she'd ever done it for him. For some strange reason, his male pride purred within him, and a warm feeling blossomed in his chest.

"I-I-I…I love you, too, Shino-kun," Hinata returned quietly.

Shinomaru smiled contentedly and selected another book. He calmly began another story as Shino and Hinata sent each other shy, loving glances over the top of his head.

OOOOO

Neji watched from the shadows as Hanabi glared at the Aburame compound from the roof of the bakery. The young girl had kept her post for the last two hours, but no one had gone in or come out. The new jonin sighed and moved to her side. He let his suppressed chakra flare so that he wouldn't startle her. Hanabi didn't even look at him when he sat down beside her. She'd actually spotted him an hour ago.

"Tell me about your dream," Neji prompted as gently as he could.

Hanabi sized him up quietly. He seemed sincere, but it was difficult for her to share her fears with anyone, let alone him. Neji was always calm, cool, and controlled. He believed in logic and doing things by the book. The Hyuuga prodigy was exactly the sort of person she would expect to scoff at her dream as childish. Hinata-neesan would understand, she thought, but Hinata-neesan is the reason I'm up on this roof at nine in the morning.

"I had a number of dreams. Some of them seemed fairly unconnected, but they all related to Hinata-neesan being in danger," she shrugged.

"Can you be more specific? Sometimes what appears in our dreams is actually an unconscious manifestation of some other personal concern."

Hanabi sighed. He was going to laugh at her. She just knew it.

"I dreamt Hinata-neesan was alone in the woods somewhere. There were people chasing her, hunting her down. She fell. I wanted to protect her, but I couldn't move."

Neji nodded. "That's not really an uncommon dream. Sometimes Tenten has dreams like those when Lee goes on a dangerous mission without us."

"Really?" Hanabi sounded a bit surprised.

He nodded, feeling proud of himself for being able to assuage her fears.

"I kept waking up and falling back asleep only to have more dreams like that."

"Hanabi-sama," Neji began gently. "Hinata is kind and sweet, but she is also a very strong kunoichi. She can take care of herself. Besides, she's surrounded by the entire Aburame clan."

"That dream was the worst," Hanabi muttered darkly. "It was too realistic."

Neji frowned with concern. Hanabi was worried about the Aburame clan? Sure, many people thought the Aburames were a bit cold and aloof, but compared to the elders of their own clan, the Aburames were practically warm and cuddly people.

"Shino would never let anything bad happen to Hinata. Besides, she's his teammate, so the Aburames wouldn't do anything to hurt her."

"No, not like that," Hanabi sighed wearily.

"Can you be more specific, then?"

"Class W explosive tags with a pressure-sensitive time-delay mechanism."

"Um…" That's a little too specific, Neji amended silently.

"There was a spy," Hanabi began slowly. "He used a henge to sneak into the compound dressed as a deliveryman in the middle of the night. He looked suspicious, but since no one was around it didn't matter. Then he set up the explosives in every room. It was actually a slipshod job because he was in a hurry and people would be waking up in a few hours. After that, he snuck out of the village in his delivery disguise."

"…That…That is very specific."

Hanabi shrugged again, bracing herself for the derision to come, but instead her cousin remained silent. She chanced a glance in his direction and realized his Byakugan was activated.

As Hanabi had recounted her last dream, Neji had felt a kernel of uneasiness settle in his stomach. For the most part he didn't believe in strange portents, but in the shinobi world it was imperative to listen to your instincts. Often it meant the difference between life and death.

Neji scanned the Aburame compound. Beside him, Hanabi also activated her bloodline limit. A whisper of cold slid down his spine. Neji had experience searching the entire village of Konoha for explosive tags. It was the first mission he'd ever completed with Hinata, and they'd grown closer because of it. He easily spotted the small tags and the chakra strings linking each one. There were enough explosive tags in that one block to blow the Aburame compound sky-high.

"You were right, Hanabi-sama. Hinata-sama is in danger."

OOOOO

"Achoo!" Hinata sneezed daintily.

"Oooh! Someone's talking about you, Hinata-chan," remarked one of Shino's many cousins.

Hinata responded with a tiny, shy noise.

"Are you all right?" Shino's grandmother, Aburame Iiko, inquired solicitously. "You are not catching a cold, are you, dear?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"It's getting a bit chilly, isn't it?" Iiko-baasan remarked.

Shino, who thought the weather had turned brisk but not unpleasantly so, stood immediately and left the room. His grandmother smiled up at him when he returned with several large blankets and tenderly tucked them around her.

"Shino," she chuckled, "you are very sweet, but I haven't gotten that old and weak."

Neither confirming nor denying her statement, he kissed her wrinkled cheek and went to sit back down beside Hinata. He had just slipped an arm around the blushing heiress when his aunts tromped down the hall having returned from their shopping trip.

"…believe how poor the selection was today!" Kaoru exclaimed.

"Well, they said there had been some sort of crop problem nearby, so we can't really take it out on them," Karimi reminded her.

"Still," Kaoru huffed.

"Trouble, sweetie?" Shiribi asked when his disgruntled wife rounded the corner.

"Oh, it was nothing," she waved off.

OOOOO

Shibiki swallowed nervously as Mika unzipped his coat and pushed the lapels away.

"They're inside of you?" she whispered. She trailed her fingers along his sternum and fanned her hand over his ribs.

He was a bit ticklish and twitched with a little gasp under her feather-light caresses.

"How do they come out?" she wondered.

Shibiki swallowed hard and bit back a groan. "T-Tenketsu," he managed.

"Tenketsu?" Mika repeated diligently. She was being very careful not to reveal her shinobi background.

"The tenketsu are tiny holes in the body. Everyone has them, really, but only shinobi develop their chakra enough to use them."

"Are these holes in a certain place or do the bugs come out from anywhere?"

"They are located over the whole body."

"May I see one of your bugs?"

"Um…are you sure you want to?" he asked hesitantly.

She nodded eagerly.

Shibiki called a single bug onto his fingertip and held it up for Mika's inspection.

Mika leaned forward and smiled. The so-called "destruction beetles" were quite cute up close, especially compared to the large, angry bodies of the locusts that her clan derived its name from.

"I think it's cute."

Shibiki blinked in amazement. This was the first time a girl had ever told him his bugs were cute.

"Do you have to send out one at a time?" she asked innocently, knowing full well that the kikaichuu probably swarmed out of their hosts, just as the Inago Clan's locusts did.

While holding his breath, Shibiki directed a line of bugs to march across his arm. When Mika's eyes sparkled with interest and appreciation, he knew he was falling in love.

OOOOO

After sending Hanabi to fetch the Hokage immediately, Neji turned to flag down the nearest Anbu operative. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a mask and dark blue hair on a nearby rooftop.

Uzuki Yugao stopped in her tracks when the Hyuuga boy suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Hyuuga-san, I am just about to report for duty, so unless this is urgent?"

Neji warily eyed the curious stares and whispers from the crowd below. He stepped close to her and whispered directly in her ear. "I don't want to alarm the people below, but the Aburame compound has been compromised. I've sent word to Hokage-sama, but the area may need to be evacuated immediately, and no one should be allowed into the compound."

"Compromised?" The frown was evident in her voice. "Have you spotted enemy-nin within the building?"

Neji glanced back at the crowd to find several people actively pointing at them. He turned to block his next words from view and again leaned close to the Anbu operative. "It is currently empty, but almost every room and hallway has been booby trapped with explosives."

"Only the Aburame compound?" Yugao whispered quickly, the mask doing its job of hiding her lips from view. "Are you sure other homes have not been compromised? This could be another large-scale invasion."

"I have reason to suspect that the Aburames are being targeted specifically."

"Very well. I will gather a team immediately and we will evacuate the area. In the meantime, can the main doors be sealed without setting off the trap?"

Neji scanned with his Byakugan. He nodded.

"Here. These are warding seals. I'm sure you've used them before."

Again, Neji nodded. Yugao stealthily slipped him the seals. It looked no more than a brief clasping of hands to the pedestrians below. Then she was gone.

OOOOO

Tenten checked her buns in the mirror. Same as always. Her gaze fell to a small pink tub on her dresser. She grinned and applied a little of the mixture to her lips. Would Neji notice? Even with the all-seeing Hyuuga eyes, sometimes boys could be oblivious to things like that.

A tall man slipped through her open doorway and leaned back against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. His dark brown hair and eyes matched hers exactly, though his hair was cropped short and mostly covered by a bandanna-style head protector. The man filled out his Anbu uniform nicely with his tall, muscular frame. He cleared his throat to alert his little sister of his presence.

Tenten looked up absent-mindedly. With a grin of recognition, she ran across the room, jumped into the man's arms, and hugged him around the neck.

"Yonda-niisan! When did you get back from your mission?"

"Just now. I hear you've got a boyfriend," he responded nonchalantly.

"Hai," she replied with a kiss on his cheek. Yonda kept his arms around her loosely in an affectionate embrace. Tenten settled back onto her feet and snuggled against his chest for a moment.

"I hear he's coming to dinner tonight."

"Hai!"

"I hear unsettling reports that he is a cold-hearted bastard that killed his own sister and that he is a womanizer of the worst kind with three illegitimate children in several foreign villages and two on the way within Konoha itself.

Tenten cocked her head with an amused quirk playing over her lips. "He's an only child, and he's never even gone on a date before, as far as I know."

"Hm. How well do you know him? Just because you don't know, doesn't mean he isn't a womanizer."

"He's my teammate, so we've known each other since the Academy and for many years since then."

"Not the green one?" Yonda grimaced slightly.

"No! Hyuuga Neji. Ack! Don't even suggest something like that."

"Is he good to you?"

"Well, yeah. We are teammates."

"But is he good to you as a young man should be to a young woman? Is he respectful? He hasn't tried to make any moves on you, has he?" Yonda frowned.

"Neji isn't like that, niisan. You'll really like him."

"Hn."

"No, really! He's very responsible and respectful, especially to me."

"Well, alright. Since you seem to like him so much, I promise to withhold judgment until I can meet him in person," he offered begrudgingly.

"You would have done that anyway. You're not the brash one in this family. That's Hachiru's job."

Yonda shrugged. He wanted Tenten to think he wouldn't do anything brash, but she was the baby of the family and the only girl. All nine of her brothers were very protective of her. It's just that it didn't show on a daily basis because she'd never seemed interested in boys before now, not like the village's kunoichi that were forever fawning over the "cool" guys like the Uchiha brat. She was a very special girl, and Yonda hoped her teammate realized just how important she was.

OOOOO

Neji finished putting up the last of the seals on the doors. By circling around the compound, he managed to keep anyone from realizing what he was doing. To those milling around on any given street, it looked like he had politely knocked on the door, waited for an answer, and then strolled away.

The only trouble now was that inner courtyard with the slightly taller tower in the center. There was a note in the center of the tower that could be set off if anyone got within 10 feet. Sure enough, as Neji watched, a genin girl about 14-years-old leapt from a building across the street on a direct path to structure.

OOOOO

Nakamura Akemi wondered idly what her team's new D-rank mission would be. She and her teammates were quite good with plants, so perhaps they were working in the Konoha greenhouses again. Akemi flicked her wavy blond hair out of her emerald eyes. She was running a bit late, so she figured she'd cut over the Aburame compound. They never minded, and the butterflies in the gardens were so beautiful, even at a run. She could already see the small "Tower" at the center of the compound.

Akemi used a small push of chakra to get her right over the street and onto the roof of what she thought of as the Aburame tower. Halfway across the street, she collided with a solid object. Arms wrapped around her like steel cords, and some tiny part of Akemi's working mind pointed out that the solid object in view looked suspiciously like a masculine chest. She felt her body being propelled backwards, and a small gasp escaped her throat even as she clung to the light-colored material in front of her.

Her footing was off when they landed in an alleyway, and she fully expected an unpleasant conference with the concrete, but those strong arms held her fast and supported her. Akemi's eyes trailed upward. First, the chest. She and it had gotten quite close and personal—the light scent of sandalwood and cinnamon. Next came a handsome jaw and warm-looking lips. Then a perfect, straight nose. Last of all…the signature pale eyes that were the mark of Konoha's most powerful shinobi clan, the Hyuugas.

Those eyes looked down at her carefully.

"I'm sorry, miss, but you will need to go around this area," he informed her politely.

She gazed up at him and nodded very slowly.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he frowned and looked genuinely concerned.

Akemi slowly shook her head.

The young man gently took her arm and led her back onto the street where people had stopped to stare. He leaned close to her ear, his breath sending shivers down her spine, and whispered, "Please do not speak of what I said to you."

Akemi blinked and nodded. Then he gave her a gentle push in the right direction, and she stumbled to go and meet her teammates, though not before glancing once more at the handsome Hyuuga boy.

………………………………………Author's Notes:

A lot of this was set-up for future stuff, so I apologize if it seems a bit disconnected.

Hope you liked the Shinomaru/Shino/Hinata confession scene.

I thought it might be helpful to repost the cast list.

The confusing cast so far:

………Shibi, Shino's Dad…………married to Kinako…..children are Shino and Shibiki

………Shiribi, Shino's uncle………married to Kaoru……child is Shinomaru

………Shino(well, yeah)

………Shibiki, Shino's brother

………Shoromaru, Shino's uncle/Shibi's cousin; sons are as follows

………Sora…………married to Karimi………….child is Soramaru

………Soru…………married to Karime…………child is Sorumaru

………Sori.…………married to Karika………….child is Kariko

Zurui means "sly, cunning" and Ii means "good". So Great Aunt Zuruiko Ishitaka is the sly one and Iiko Aburame is the good, kindly sister that is actually Shino's grandmother.