As soon as I had saw Shino in the meeting room, I walked over and smacked his head. I was not too much of a violent person around my friends, but Shino knew about my fear of bugs. My hands went onto my hips and my facial expression had clearly shown my annoyance. He was never much of a joker. If that was his attempt of his joke, he had failed miserably at it.
"Shino Aubrame," I said through gritted teeth. "I don't know what you were trying to pull with that bug trick, but it was not funny."
"I had not meant for it to be funny." he said to me as he rubbed his head with his hands. "Was it needed to hit me?"
"Y-Yes!" I stuttered out in surprise and in an attempt to stand my ground. I furrowed my eye brows together in confusion. "What was it supposed to be then?"
Instead of answering me, Shino turned away and became quiet. I had gotten even more frustrated at his lack of a response. He did put a bug on me, albeit he knew about fear. It was angering to know that he was being uncooperative about answering me. I did believe that hearing somebody's reason for doing something could make or break a situation. However, I couldn't apply that belief into my current situation with Shino since he would say nothing.
"Okay, listen up!" Tsunade yelled from the front of the room. Right away, all of us merged into a few vertical lines facing Tsunade. "After getting a lot of complaints about the amount of missions I have been sending people off on I thought it was needed to have this meeting."
I heard Kiba mutter under his breathe just next to me. "Slave driver."
Then random voices began to mutter also.
"About time."
"I hadn't seen my wife much in weeks."
"I have a kid to take care of."
"It's about that old hag started to listen to us."
The last remark was what made Tsunade explode. It was not a pretty sight to see.
"YOU ARE NINJA!" loudly, she shouted to us. I jumped a bit in surprise because of her sudden change in her tone of voice. "YOU CAN COMPLAIN ALL YOU WANT ABOUT MISSIONS, BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT WE NEED TO KEEP GOING AT THE PACE THAT WE WERE GOING BEFORE THE VILLAGE WAS ATTACKED! UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE ATTACKED AGAIN BECAUSE OTHER VILLAGES THINK WE ARE WEAK, STOP BEING LAZY ASSES AND GO ON YOUR MISSIONS! YOU CAN COMPLAIN ALL YOU WANT, BUT IF YOU COMPLAIN IN FRONT OF ME ONE MORE TIME I WILL DESTROY YOU. EVERYBODY IS SACRIFICING SOMETHING FOR THE GREAT GOOD OF THE VILLAGE! WHEN YOU GO ON MISSIONS, YOU ARE HELPING PROTECT YOUR LOVED ONES BECAUSE OTHER VILLAGES THINK THAT THE LEAF VILLAGE IS STILL STRONG!" things were quiet for a few moments as she let it set in. "That is all, are all dismissed!"
When I looked over at Kiba, I saw how white his face had become. Despite the fact that Kiba acted courageous and tough, he was fearful of Tsunade and her strong fists. Many of us had seen the destruction that her fists could cause when she had been training Sakura.
"It's okay Kiba, we just have to hang in there just a little while more until we get things under control." I said to him in an attempt to comfort him as I patted his back. "Just because you complained before doesn't mean that she will hold it against you."
"How do you know?" Kiba asked me in a bit of a worried tone. "She doesn't look like the type of person to let things go. Besides, she just lectured all of us as if we were still in the Academy."
"Oh I think there are some things she will let go. Come on, now all of us have some more bonding together since we lived through one of her lectures. Not many people can say that probably." I said with a soft smile on my face. "But just do not be stupid enough to complain to Lady Tsunade again about the amount of missions you're being sent on. Then she will most definitely hang onto that and kill you."
"Such reassuring words." a voice said behind me and I jumped in surprise. When I turned around, I saw Shino there. A vein formed on my forehead.
"So now you're willing to talk?" I snapped at him and turned to the side. Goose bumps formed on my arms when I thought about the bug onto my. It took almost all of my effort to not cringe as I remembered the bug.
"Woah, did something happen between you two?" Kiba asked with big eyes in shock. "I never thought a fight between you two would happen." Ino had just overhead Kiba and walked over.
"Chika, what happened?" she asked me with her hands on her hips.
"This," I said and pointed at Shino. "bug boy had planted a bug on me!"
"Shino, I had no idea you were a secret perv!" Kiba yelled in surprise and my face began to turn red. Ino had smacked Kiba for me, and I mentally thanked her.
"No! He didn't put it at an inappropriate place, it was just on my shoulder." quickly, I explained and did my best to ignore my red face. "It's just that he know about my fear of bugs, but still did something that he had known would have a bad effect on me."
"Aw come on, I bet Shino feels bad about it." Kiba piped in and Ino was turning her head from side to side in disagreement.
"That still does not make what he did okay." she said and Kiba turned towards her.
"Shino's a great guy!" he yelled and Ino crossed her arms over her chest.
"Great guys don't mess with somebody's fear." Ino retorted and sent a glare to Kiba.
"Everybody messes up though." Kiba retorted back and sent the glare right back to Ino. He took a step towards her with an aggressive look on his face.
"Messing up is when you do something on accident. Shino did this on purpose." quickly, she replied and took a step towards Kiba also. I began to sense that things were getting too spicy too quick. I took a step between the two with a sheepish look on my face.
"Thank you both for your concern about the matter, but this is between Shino and I. I would greatly appreciate it if you two walked away from this situation." I said to them in a sweet voice. After a few moments, both of them took a few steps back.
"Just talk to me if you need anything." Ino said to me before she walked away.
"She won't talk to you, because she won't need to." Kiba muttered under his breathe as he walked away in the opposite direction. When I looked around, I saw that more and more Chunin were leaving the room.
"It seems that those two have sucked all of the anger from out of me." I said and sweat dropped a bit. "So are you willing to tell me now, why you put a bug on?"
"No." he said and I sweat dropped even more. "I am sorry that I scared you, that was not my intention."
It took me a few moments of thinking before I answered him. "You had good intentions, right?"
I was a sucker for people screwing up and having good intentions. For some reason, that could make me forgive a person right away. I could pity a person right away or get the instinct to hug them. It was a great weakness of mine.
"Yes." he said and I smiled happily. "Do not let that be the reason you forgive me though." Then, a confused expression was formed on my face with a frown following afterwards. "I know it is one of the reasons on why you so easily forgive others. You need to guard yourself more."
"I do guard myse-" I began to reply but got cut off by Shino in mid-sentence.
"That will be your downfall." he said and I defensively crossed my arms over my chest. "An enemy will find a way to use that against you."
"You can say that all you want, but I believe that there are good people in the world. Just because somebody is our enemy does not mean they are a bad person." I said in a bit frustration.
"Looks like Ino and Kiba did not suck out all of the anger inside of me." I thought to myself.
"Think what you want, but that will be your downfall." he said to me and I angrily stomped away.
If I had stayed there anymore, I knew that I would get so frustrated to the point that I would smack that idiot again.