Wedding Dress | twelve
"On Team 8," Iruka announced. "Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino."
There was a tiny gasp from the back of the class, barely audible. Shino turned slightly to stare at the girl—tiny, dark-haired, white-eyed. He didn't know much about Hyuga Hinata, only that she was cripplingly shy, that much was obvious.
Weak.
Shino turned back to face the front of the class when he heard Kiba's exclamation of outrage. "What! But I wanted to be in the same team as one of you guys! Now I'm stuck with him!" He exchanged glances with Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji, tilting his chin meaningfully and unsubtly at Shino. His white puppy, Akamaru, gave a shrill bark of agreement from his customary position on Kiba's head of ruffled brown hair.
Complacent and annoying.
"Deal with it quietly, Kiba." Iruka smiled thinly at the boy, who had been whispering heatedly to his pals. "Now, Team 9…"
Shino's feelings about his new team bordered on nonchalant. He could deal with anything that was thrown at him, especially a perpetually terrified girl and a braggart who probably didn't have half the abilities he claimed to have.
.
.
.
Later that afternoon, the chaos-inducing forehead protectors were distributed. "That's it, class, you're all now officially genins and have graduated from the Academy!" Iruka said with a huge grin. He narrowed his eyes when his comment received no reaction—everyone was too busy admiring their forehead protectors and deciding where to place them—both annoyed and proud.
Suddenly, multiple bursts of smoke appeared by Iruka, making everyone look up in shock. When the smoke cleared, three tall figures were revealed. Two men—one tall and masked with unusual silver hair, the second broad-shouldered and bearded—and a woman, slender and red-eyed.
"One of them will be your sensei until your team becomes a chunin," Iruka explained. "I'm not going to say too much here; you can get to know your sensei in time. Kakashi, Team 7 is yours. Kurenai, Team 8, and Asuma, you get Team 10. Come and gather around your respective teachers please!"
Shino got to his feet slowly, from where he had been sitting a little aside from the other youngsters, silently admiring the shiny new forehead protector in his hands. He made his way over to the woman Iruka had pointed at, coming to stand beside Kiba. Hinata hovered nervously behind the two of them, her fear of this stranger clearly stronger than her fear of her classmates.
Shino's finger traced the Konoha crest absently as he waited for the woman to speak. It would go on his forehead, he decided finally. It was called a forehead protector for a reason after all.
"Well, I'm Kurenai Yuhi," the woman said brightly after looking her students over for a moment. "Let's just have a short introduction session today before we meet up tomorrow to start proper training, shall we?" She smiled reassuringly at them, beckoning them over to a nearby bench.
"Can we train with our friends who aren't on this team?" Kiba asked, sounding a little sulky.
"We will train as a team," Kurenai said patiently, "but we may train with the other teams occasionally, to test how much you have progressed. Now, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"
"Why must I start? What about you?" Kiba snapped, folding his arms. Akamaru leaped onto his lap and snuggled into his jacket with a whimper, as if sensing the dangerous mood.
How childish, Shino thought scathingly, and rude too.
Kurenai's smile slipped a little at Kiba's hostility, but she started to speak. "It's only fair you know about me as well," she said with a small laugh. "I'm Kurenai, and I specialize in genjutsu techniques. I love wasabi but I hate cake."
Three pairs of wide eyes stared at her. "You hate cake?" Kiba finally said, sounding outraged. "No one hates cake! I love cake, and I love dogs as well, especially Akamaru. My favourite word is Akamaru and I like taking him out for walks!" He grinned, flashing sharp fangs.
Shooting a quick glance at Hinata, who didn't look like she was about to speak Shino shrugged and said, "I'm Aburame Shino and I use insects to attack people. I like salad and I don't like tofu. I only fight strong people." He sat back, pulling his coat tighter around him.
"I-I'm Hyuga Hinata and I have the Byakugan. I like p-pressing flowers and I don't really dislike anything," Hinata stammered, clearly self-conscious.
"Excellent! We'll find out even more about each other when we start training tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a long day, so take a good rest tonight," Kurenai advised cheerfully. She smiled at them all before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"She's pretty nice," Kiba said randomly, then turned to face Shino. "And you only fight strong people? We should fight someday, to prove that I'm the worthy leader of this team!" He grinned challengingly, then spun on his heel and ran off to find his friends.
"I'm the worthy leader of this team," Shino muttered under his breath, glaring after Kiba's retreating form.
Hinata gave a frightened cough. "I-I should go, Shino-san," she said, sounding a little breathless. She bowed quickly and hurried away. Shino watched her go with a raised eyebrow.
So she doesn't want to be around me. Fine.
.
.
.
After two weeks of being on Team 8, as he watched Hinata come within an inch of Gentle Fisting Kiba, Shino had to admit that his first impressions of his teammates had been less than accurate.
Hinata still didn't really dare to talk to him, although he understood that was because she was shy and not because she didn't like him. Her huge inferiority complex angered Shino, though, and he often wondered idly how anyone could be so deluded about their own abilities. Her infatuation with Naruto was another issue that didn't amuse Shino one bit. How does she expect to improve if she keeps mooning over him?
The bottom line was, Hinata was tolerable, and possibly even likable.
Kiba was annoying and lazy and proud, and had ways of getting under Shino's stoic façade that no one else could, but he was also funny and reasonably friendly. Not that he had been so open at first, but after a week of scathing remarks to Shino and virtually ignoring Hinata's presence, Kiba had probably been so starved of conversation that he finally couldn't help trying to befriend the others.
Shino wasn't really sure if he actually liked Kiba yet; he was just so talkative. And bouncy and enthusiastic and witty and active, and Shino was none of these. Besides, Kiba was his rival for the position of team leader, so friendship was close to impossible.
"Wait." Shino snapped back to attention when Kurenai stepped forward to stop the sparring. "Hinata, you have to put more force behind your movements; at this rate you won't even bruise your opponent. Kiba, you have to focus more on your opponent and not on Akamaru; Akamaru will work with you, there's no need to keep accommodating him. It makes him lazy as well."
Hinata and Kiba nodded, panting slightly. Akamaru let out an indignant bark, peeking out from behind Kiba's legs.
"Alright then, that's all for today. We concentrate on those points tomorrow. Shino, as I said, work on directing your commands to just one specific insect. I'll see you all tomorrow!" Kurenai gave an embarrassed laugh and disappeared with a twirl.
Kiba burst out laughing. "Did you hear that giggle?" he demanded, walking up to Shino and slapping his back, doubled over with laughter. Shino didn't deign that statement with a response, but if he had it would be, "Yes, I'm not deaf." He completely failed to see why Kurenai's so-called giggle had set Kiba off like that, and simply stepped away from Kiba to avoid being hit in the back again.
When he didn't receive the desired response, which would be, "I did, Kiba! Now isn't that just hilarious?" Kiba snorted and moved over to assault Hinata instead. "You know what that means, right, Hinata? Kurenai-sensei is in love!" He sang out the last word, drawing it out like a howl. Akamaru joined right in with a high-pitched whine, making Hinata cringe.
"I-I'm sure Kurenai-sensei would t-tell us if she liked someone…" Hinata's voice trailed off miserably. She hadn't told anyone that she liked Naruto but somehow everyone knew anyway.
"Stop mindlessly speculating. You're not even making any sense," Shino said monotonously, sounding bored. "It's none of our business anyway. Let's go have dinner." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
We're twelve. Why is everyone thinking about love? We need to be the best we can be, and that means no distractions.
Hinata's face brightened at the mention of a team dinner. She's so…cute when she smiles. Shino was a little surprised at this revelation. But then again he didn't have any sisters, and the girls in his class had pretty much shunned him, and Hinata was usually either blushing or biting her lip or looking at the ground. Or all at once.
Kiba looked insulted for a split second before Shino's suggestion registered in his brain. "Yes! Dinner! I'm starving! Come on, Akamaru!" The small white dog scampered up to Kiba, yapping excitedly. Kiba grabbed Hinata's hand, making her gasp and blush terribly, but he ignored that and dragged her over to Shino's side. Throwing his other arm around Shino's shoulders, Kiba tried to walk off with the entire team in one line.
It was awkward, to say the least. Thankfully for Shino, it lasted for a whole two seconds before Kiba leaped away with a yell of disgust.
"Shino! Your bugs are crawling up my arm! Control them!" he shouted furiously, brushing at his arm with vigour. "Come on, Hinata! Let's leave Shino to his bugs! I know, Akamaru, bugs are so gross, right?"
Hinata blushed furiously and looked back at Shino as Kiba dragged her a few feet in front, smiling apologetically. Shino nodded slowly in acknowledgement. He didn't blame her.
Kiba, you will pay for insulting my bugs. Just you wait.