A/N: A pretty long chapter for me here. Heh.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

~O~
Shino woke up, and pushed the duvets off him. He lay in bed for a while, listening to the quiet and comforting buzz of the insects inside him. He instantly grabbed for his glasses, and shoved them onto his faces, glancing at the sleeping roommate in the bed opposite. Neji was facing upwards, eyes closed and hands clasped on his chest. Shino allowed himself a smile. He had stayed awake until Neji had fallen asleep before he dared take of his glasses. He was only sensitive to the light, but after such a big fuss was made out of his glasses and the true colour of his eyes, he kept them on all the time simply to keep them interested. It wouldn't do if he was forgotten.

He stood up, tiptoeing silently out of the door, and headed to the direction of the kitchen. He was hungry. Very hungry. And with the type of food that Aburame Shibi cooked, it was no wonder he usually took advantage of the picnics that Kiba and Hinata came up with every free day. It wasn't that he was hungry or greedy, but he hated cooking for both him and his father all the time.

He opened the kitchen door silently, and blinked. Hinata was standing with her back to him, cutting up what looked like an orange. Her hair was pushed back, messy yet unnaturally pretty as usual. She turned around and jumped back when she saw him. "H-hello, Shino-kun."

Shino nodded. "I'm sorry. Did I scare you, Hinata?"

She shook her head quickly. "N-no. I'm fine. I was j-just a bit st-startled, is all."

He nodded again. "So, why are you up so early? You're not usually."

"I couldn't go to sleep. I-Ino kept talking to me a-all l-last night, and we w-were up the wh-whole time. A-and then when sh-she did f-fall a-asleep, I-I couldn't. S-so…h-here I a-am," she smiled, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "W-would you like m-me to g-get you an-anything? I-I've made m-more than I c-can eat."

Shino nodded for a third time, and took a seat at the table. Whilst she was bustling around, he took a moment to look at his surroundings. The kitchen was quite spacious, with a large table, big enough to fit everybody that was here. The chairs were wooden and extremely comfortable. The walls were a plain cream, with the odd framed picture of a deer here and there. It was just what he expected from the Nara family.

"Thank you," he said quietly, when she pushed a plate of food in front of him. She smiled at him, but didn't say anything else. He realised that she was playing with her fingers and blushing lightly, obviously embarrassed, but he couldn't think why. "Hinata? What's the matter?"

"A-ano…nothing. I-I-I'm fine!" she stuttered, looking at him with wide eyes.

Shino frowned into the jug of water on the table. She was only ever this shy when Naruto was near by. She had long lost her usual stutter when she was around Shino and Kiba. When Naruto was nearby….

He shook the jealous feeling off him like a cloak, and concentrated on Hinata. A wild desperate look had come into her eyes, as though she was contemplating the best way to run out of the room. He frowned. This wasn't like her.

"U-um…S-s-shino-kun? I-Ino-chan s-s-s-s-said l-l-last n-n-night th-that…" her face had turned a glowing red, and a bead of sweat was rolling down the side of her face. It seemed that it was an actual physical and demanding task. She took a deep breath, and started again. "I-Ino s-said that…you…y-you…u-um-"

"Good morning, my fine folks! 'Tis another wonderful day! It's morning, the sun be shining, the bees be buzzing, the bugs be hiding, the Shino be eating, the birds be singing, and we're alive for another day! Life is amazingly wonderful, and we can live for another glorious day!" Kiba stood in the doorway, grinning, with Akamaru behind him, obiviously still half-asleep.

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Have you been reading again?"

Kiba grinned. "Yep, but that's not the thing. Hinata, you want to play with me and Akamaru after you've finished breakfast? Shino, can I have yours?"

Shino sighed, and pushed his breakfast to Kiba and stood up. "I'm going for a walk," he said, and left quickly. He wasn't in a good mood anymore. His day had started bad, and he was pretty sure that it would probably end badly as well.

He had wanted to speak to Hinata, to spend a while with her without getting interrupted…and now he was. He had expected them to talk about anything, as usual. Not her stuttering and giving him a foreboding sense of something bad to come. Something to do with Ino.

He sighed quietly. He was overdramatising things. It was best not to get things hyped up for no reason.

"OI! Shino! C'mon! We're playing cards! Hurry up, 'ttebayo!" yelled Naruto from the end of the corridor. Behind him were Shikamaru, Chouji and Neji, all with varying degrees of annoyance on their faces.

Shino went in the direction of Naruto. It would do no good for his ears to have Naruto begging him to join in.

Vaguely, he wondered what they would be doing for the rest of the day.

*

It was almost dusk, and the Konoha eleven and the Sand siblings were sitting in the living room of Shikamaru's cabin. Somehow, they had managed to split into gender groups, and were bored, staring around.

Shikamaru was slumped against the wall, attempting to sleep. Chouji was beside him, eating his customary barbecue chips. Kiba was petting Akamaru and muttering to him. Shino sat next to him, not doing anything much, but thinking deeply. Neji was sitting cross-legged, and besides him Lee, who was rambling on about something to a bored-looking Gaara. On Gaara's other side, Naruto was rambling about something else, seemingly Naruto and Lee were both unaware that two very loud people were attempting to talk to Gaara, who was attempting to drown it out. Kankuro was tinkering with a mini version of Karasu.

On the other side, the girls, although considerably smaller in number, were considerably much louder. Ino and Sakura were talking extremely loud and giggling about a boy they had met in Konoha, ignoring the occasional annoyed glances that were shot their way from Lee, Naruto and Shikamaru. Hinata was reading a book, and on her side were Tenten and Temari, arguing about the merits of different weapons.

Soon, all of the conversation died out. There was silence in the room for a few moments, until Ino turned to Hinata. "So, Hinata. How come you don't have a boyfriend yet, huh?"

Most of the people turned to glance at the victim, who was currently turning bright red. "I-I-I…u-um…"

"I know! Take the likeliest boy out of these lot," grinned Sakura, waving to the boys on the opposite side of the room. Most of which were staring at them as if they had grown an extra head, along with four new pairs of eyes, three arms and had declared their intention on getting married to Orochimaru and Jiraiaya. At the same time.

"Yeah! OK…let's start with these lot," Ino said, getting up and standing in front of Kankuro, who stared at her in shock. "OK…I think Kankuro's out."
~O~O~

A/N: In the next chapter there will be slight bashing. Of Neji, Gaara, Naruto, Lee, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kankuro and...I think that's all the boys? Yes, ever so slight bashing :) And embarassing.