Shino for dark-wolf-howl.

Disclaimer: I suppose since these are required, I must say, "I do not own anything of this fic but the idea!"

xxviii — popular

Little Kagome approached the lonesome brunette child perched atop a wooden bench. His stubby legs were dangling off the edge, the cement ground far beneath them.

Ino-chan had cautioned her against conversing with this boy; she claimed that he was even ickier than Naruto-kun, Chouji-kun and Kiba-kun combined!

Sango-chan had protested saying that wasn't true, but when Sakura-chan piped up asking her to prove it wasn't, the former had quieted down.

There seemed to be a general consensus among the girls of Konoha's child daycare center that Aburame Shino should be avoided like the plague (whatever that meant).

But she couldn't understand why he should be, and why her friends thought he was so icky.

Naruto-kun picked his boogers and made connect-the-dot pictures with them on the walls.

Chouji-kun always ate the classroom's crayons and munched on the playing beans; there was a rumor that he was the culprit behind the mysterious case of Hinata-chan's missing shoe.

Kiba-kun still needed to be potty-trained.

They had reasons that Little Kagome could accept as to why they were classified as icky, but not Aburame Shino.

"Shino-kun," she chirruped, her fingers linked behind her back, "konichiwa!"

The boy turned to her, the overhead sun reflecting off his opaque glasses.

"Konichiwa."

She climbed up the bench to sit beside him, her lips stretched out in an amicable smile.

"What'cha up to?"

"I am in the middle of forming closer bonds with my companions," Shino apprised in a somber, childish voice.

Kagome blinked in response to his cryptic answer, and the peculiar way in which he spoke… almost as an adult would.

"Friends, you mean?" she inquired with an upraised index finger.

Shino was silent, thoughtful, until he acknowledged, "Hai. Friends."

Well, this was a marvelous surprise! Kagome hadn't known that Shino-kun had had any friends at all—and it sounded as though he was doing something super important with them.

—she wanted to be included, too!

"Can I… can I meet your friends, Shino-kun?" she said, gazing at him with a measure of awe.

Again, the boy was slow to respond and this time rather hesitant.

"…a number of them are… shy. Mary, Eloise, Tom and Chewy are especially prone to—"

Kagome slid off the bench and stood erect before him, her hands clasped together as she went up on her tippy toes.

"Onegai, Shino-kun, let me meet your friends!" she pleaded with a pout. "I promise I won't scare them!"

"Okay…" the boy conceded. "All three-hundred-and-fifty of them?"

Kagome's eyes grew to the size of saucers. She nodded fiercely, her lips pursed in excitement.

I didn't know Shino-kun was that popular! Three-hundred-and-fifty? That's way more than all the kids at the daycare!

Little Shino reached for the buttons of his stuffy-looking brown jacket.

Kagome was about to find out why he always wore that thing even in the hottest of days, and what had warranted him the title of Ickiest.

Children make you want to start life over.

—Muhammad Ali

Author's Note: Ugh, I think I'll go for a bit of a workout before I write any more. Over twelve hours of sleep makes me feel kinda… icky myself.