Hey, so I was feeling kind of sad last chapter, so I made Haruka's neighbor die.

The cool metal surface pressed into my side, sending shivers down my spine. Where was I? I seemed to be waking up not knowing where I was a little too often these days. My eyes opened blearily to survey my surroundings.

I seemed to be laying down on a fairly largish (of course, everything was big to me now) bright silver-colored metal table. Then the smells hit me. I actually covered my nose with my paws and whimpered.

The sharp biting smell of antiseptics mingled with the faint odor of air cleaner. Fear-scent and the sweetish stink of blood and death seemed to hang everywhere. What was most prevalent, however, was the heavy nose-clogging stench of dog. But that could be because I was sitting next to one.

"Oh, it's you." I spoke to him without so much as a hello.

"And..?" he looked at me sneeringly, then turned his head away. Dogs. Possibly the rudest beings on the planet.

I slowly took my paws away from my nose and gazed around me. Contrary to my first belief, I was not alone. Kiba was hovering protectively next to the dog, and Hinata was listening worriedly as the vet described my injury. What surprised me, however, was that Shino was here too.

He was his usual silent self, leaning against the wall the left of the door, taking in the scene. I tried to walk over to him, but something was restraining my leg. I glanced down in surprise to see bandages wrapped tightly around my right shoulder. Oh yeah. Well that wouldn't make walking any easier.

"You can take her home now. Remember to give her the medicine once a day for a week to prevent infection." Hinata scooped me up into her arms and walked out of the door into the street beyond.

"Shino!" Hinata called out to the silent genin. He turned around and waited for Hinata to catch up to him.

"S-Shino, c-could you please, please keep my kitten for me?" Hinata sounded close to tears. She stared at Shino, daring him to say no.

Instead of answering, he held out his hand. "As long as it stays quiet."

The walk back to Shino's house was quiet, but I could almost hear him silently contemplating the consequences of what he had just done. I pricked my ears forward, waiting for the first glimpse of his house.

It was a normal house, but as he opened the front door and started walking towards his room, I got the distinct impression that it was a bit too normal.

"Stay quiet." were his only words to me as he left the room. I hopped down from the bed and started exploring his sparsely furnished room. Besides the bed, there was only an ink-stained desk and a half-filled bookshelf. I wandered over to the bookshelf to see if there was anything worth reading.

Most of the books were dedicated to the Aburame's unique style of fighting, but a couple of them varied a little. One was guide to different bug and insect species, a couple were history books of Konoha, and one was a very battered and old copy of The Shinobi's Guide: Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu. Aha! I quickly started tugging The Guide out of the bookshelf and onto the floor.

I quickly scanned the first page. None of it made any sense, but I wasn't deterred. I just had to go find someone first.

"Meow, meow, meow." I told Shino when he got home for the day.

"Shut up, what do you want?" he stood looking down at me. I crossed over to the door and scratched at it, while giving him my pitiful puppy, err, kitten eyes. He stood staring at me impassively, when suddenly walked over to me.

Yes, he's going to let me outside and open the door! Wait, why is he picking me up? Why is he not opening the door for me? Shino crossed the small area, fluidly opened the window, and in a single motion, threw me out of his room.

"Hey! What was the big idea? Let me back in there, so I can teach you a lesson, buster!" I shouted at him. Of course, all he probably heard was meowing and hissing, but he seemed to get the idea.

"You wanted out." he said as he closed the window with a bang.

Great, just great, I snarled to myself. Well, I did have someone to find. I picked myself up and stiffly trotted down the dusty road.

I saw him just as he was leaving the forest.

"Hey, dog!" I shouted after him.

"What do you want?" he asked surlily. "And my name's Akamaru, stop calling me dog." he added.

I sat down and, without preamble, said "You owe me."

"How do I owe you?"

"I pretty much saved your life, or don't you remember?" I narrowed my green eyes at him.

"Trust a cat to need payment for a favor."

"Trust a dog to forget a debt."

We glared at each other for a while, when he suddenly sat back and asked, "Well, what is it, what do want me to do?"

"I want you to train me to be a nin-cat." he looked mildly surprised, so I added, "I need to be there for Hinata like you need to be there for Kiba. But I can't protect her if I'm a useless house-cat."

He thought for a while, then said in a rather businesslike voice, "Follow Shino to training tomorrow, and practice walking, jumping and running with the shoulder bandages." he turned away, and trotted after Kiba, who had stopped about a block away.

"What did she want?" I heard him ask Akamaru as they walked away.

I smiled slightly as I walked slowly back to Shino's house. He let me in the front door, and I quickly curled up under his bed to go to sleep for the night.