Abruame Shino

"Cause I'd get a thousand hugs

From ten thousand lightning bugs."

Aburame Shino, second son but heir to the Aburame clan had met the youngest Uchiha in passing years ago. She used to follow her father around, practically attaching herself to his hip and Shino's father Shibi had barley let Shino out of his sight after what had happened to his older brother.

But that is not where this story takes place; no, this story takes place years later after what mission statements dubbed the Konoha Crush and a failed rescue mission having to do with her brother.

Everyone walked on eggshells around the girl, her friends, and best friend seemingly turned guard dog Nara Shikamaru included. It was as if they all expected her to blow up at the wrong mention of her brother— Sasuke or the Clan Killer —her dead clan or anything really.

Apparently that was why she had started taking refuge on Aburame land because when people didn't speak to her or were awkward when speaking to her, it was very obvious it wasn't due to her pointedly absent family or Kekkei Genkai but rather because the Aburame were just that. Quiet and Awkward.

"She's out by the ladybug farms again," Shino's father said over the rim of his tea.

"She'll leave before dark," Shino responded as he picked at his soba. "She always does."

"You should speak to her," Shibi said. Shino, hoodless, arched his brow.

"Why would I do that?" Shino didn't hate the young Uchiha. He liked her, she was sweet. She was everything Shino knew Hinata could be if she broke out of her shell just a little more, and perhaps that's why he had always been soft when it came to helping her find her brother or Shikamaru or even Choji over the years .

"Because it's the right thing for you to do." Shino didn't even bother asking why, just as Uchiha Toshiko reminded Shino of his teammate, Shino knew exactly who the littlest Uchiha reminded his father of.

"Fine," Shino sighed. He stood, picked his noodles up with one hand and grabbed the orange from the counter with the other before exiting the kitchen.

It was warm; the sun beat down on top of Shino's uncovered head and the trillions of bugs that lived on the Aburame land hummed in harmony.

Uchiha Toshiko didn't move as Shino came up behind her. He watched her watching the ladybugs through the clear glass farms.

"Hey Shino-san," Toshiko smiled. She squinted as she smiled up at the clan heir. Her headband glimmered under the morning summer sun.

"Morning Uchiha-chan." Shino offered her the orange.

"Thanks! And Shino-san?" Shino made a sound at the back of his throat as he took a squat next to the younger girl. "You can call me Toshiko, or Toshi, that's what my friends call me."

Shino raised both brows. "You would consider me a friend?"

Toshiko shrugged, "Why not?"

"This," Shino emphasized, "Is perhaps the most we have ever spoken."

"Yeah but you also told the guards to let me through after the first time I got in," Toshiko responded, "I heard them talking about it last week and that's the friendly thing to do."

"You are not hurting the bugs," Shino waved off as he picked at his soba. While his father never made it correctly, Shino never had the heart to let it go uneaten. The man already tried so hard.

"They're cool; they're all one big family, like a clan, and they all work together." Shino peaked at Uchiha Toshiko. Her knees were to her chest and she was staring at the ladybugs almost wistfully.

"It was nice," Shino blurted out. Toshiko looked away from the bugs and towards him. Her head tilted to the side.

"What was?"

"Letting the villagers who needed it stay in your district." It had been the day of the attack; Shino hadn't been in the meeting but Clan heads had been and Nara Shikaku— Shikamaru's father said —had brought Toshiko into the room with him.

At the time she hadn't yet been a genin but Sasuke was unresponsive in the hospital after being attacked by the monstrous Sand Sibling Garra and the Uchiha had needed someone in the meeting on what to do with the currently unhoused villagers in the wake of the attack and Toshiko hadn't— at least according to Shibi —hesitated before offering the empty homes in hers and her brothers district.

"They needed a home," Toshiko shrugged. She smiled, "Not all of them, but a lot are actually asking to stay."

"Oh?"

"I got called the Lady Tsunades office yesterday, apparently most of the people living in the district are requesting to stay despite the new homes being built."

"Will you let them?"

"I don't know," Toshiko leaned back in the grass. "I have to let her know by tonight. Lady Tusnade says letting people stay in the district would help the village economy."

"Truly?" Toshiko shrugged. "Someone was wearing the clan crest yesterday. They didn't have any clothes and they found some I had missed when I went through the homes and for a moment—" Toshiko stopped. Her lips pressed together.

"—It was as if you were a kid again?" Shino finished. She nodded.

"I want them to stay."

"You also do not want them to?"

"It's Uchiha land, not the one we settled on but it's my clan's. My father, what would he think about me letting outsiders in?"

"Your father was a good man?" Shino knew nothing about the former Military Police Chief except when he had been alive he had never seen the man smile except once, in the company of his daughter.

"The best."

"Then I think he would agree with your decision to let them in."

"Oh?"

"In your eyes, your father was the best and you are kind, then it stands to reason your father was kind as well?"

"I guess," Toshiko smiled inwardly. Like there was a joke Shino was missing out on and perhaps there was. Shino knew next to nothing about Uchiha Toshiko except what he had observed or overheard over the years.

Quite blanketed over them, Shino turned his face up at the sun, soaking in the rays. Toshiko stretched out in the grass reminding Shino of any Nara ever, but especially Shikamaru.

It was then Toshiko presented the peeled orange to Shino, "I'll trade you."

"You like soba?" It wasn't even made correctly. The noodles were still just a little too hard. When he told her that she just shrugged.

"I'll still probably like it more than you so take the orange Shino-san."

"Shino, you can call me Shino, Toshiko." The girl beamed as she took the bowl from the Aburame heir. The pair, until they had to attend to their duties hours later, ate together, mostly in silence chatting only when necessary and always easily.

It was odd, Shino observed as he had walked her to the Aburame clan gates, not just how easy it was to fall into this friendship but how much he liked it.

Authors Note: Remember if you want to see anyone specific, just drop the comment down below. Choji is up maybe not next but soon so travel comments on who you want to see either before I get his chapter done or after him!