Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

This was a plot bunny piece that I have decided to share with you all. I hope you like it. Shino Aburame doesn't get enough attention and really, he is the most ninja of all of that class of ninja. He does his job, he does it well.

In Which Shino Aburame Appears to Defy Logic

Shino Aburame was excited.

Not that you could tell by looking at him. Shino had been taught from an early age how to control his emotions. It was a necessity.

Why? Because not only was being able to control your emotions a vital aspect of being a ninja, given his clan's ninja art of carrying insects about within their person, being in control of one's emotions was vital in the extreme. If he became agitated in his emotions there was every chance that the insects would as well and begin to swarm to possibly disastrous effect. They could even attack that which had upset his emotions in the first place. Even if that emotion had been a positive one, like the excitement that currently drove him forward.

His father had told him repeatedly that emotions could make the insects swarm out of the control of their ninja wielder.

That was a problem.

Why? Because then he may harm himself, his family or even his friends, provided that someday he actually had some.

Despite having lived in Konoha since its founding and being affective ninja for the village, the Aburame clan was looked at sideways by most of the people in town, even the other ninjas.

They found the bugs creepy.

Shino didn't understand that. To him bugs were fascinating. Something so small, so small that most people snuff out their mere existence without thought or even intent, that could accomplish so much as long as it worked together with its fellow insects. Every insect had a place and a job and a way to belong in the greater scheme of the colony.

And most people didn't see it but humans tended to function much the same way.

They grouped up in their villages and each performed functions meant for the betterment or continuation of the society as a whole. They defended their village dearly against threats and were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save the rest of the village. They rallied around one being who directed the rest of the group, though they called theirs a Kage instead of a Queen. He snorted momentarily at the image of the Third Hokage dressed up in drag as a Queen, but quickly shook the illogical image from his mind.

But the ease of comparison was so logically obvious that Shino was baffled that others couldn't see the pure reason of the situation like he could.

But none of that mattered today.

Because Shino Aburame was excited.

He had finally been deemed emotionally stable enough and knowledgeable enough in their clan abilities to be granted his own hive. It had been growing steadily inside of him for a month, so he could get used to the sensations of holding living beings within him, of being able to communicate with those beings.

A small part of Shino was also grateful for the company. Even if he didn't ever make any friends with the humans on his village, he still had his family and his colony. He would never be alone again.

And even better, today he was going to begin training with his colony, learning to direct them to do as he wished. His father said that it would be tiring and exhaustive of his chakra at first, but Shino was ready. He just knew he was.

He ran down one of the forest paths that could function as a short cut between the school and the home of the members of the Aburame clan, focusing on keeping his demeanor calm despite his excitement when he felt some agitation within his bugs.

But, it wasn't him that they were reacting too.

This was a natural response. There was something in the air that frightened them.

Then he heard a soft grunt, a muffled thump and the sound of snickering boys.

Shino knew what those noises together meant. The logical assumption was: bullies.

He silently left the path and took cover behind the trunk of a particularly wide oak, peering around it slowly so as to not catch the attention of anyone else who may be watching.

A small blonde boy was pushing himself up to his feet, rubbing his wrist against his split lip which was already pulling into a smirk. Defiant blue eyes stared back at his tormenters, as though daring them to continue on.

In fact he did.

"Try that again, I dare you!"

Shino sighed. Naruto Uzumaki was the wrench in his theory about humans and the hive. The almost universal antagonism towards the boy would only make sense if he was somehow from outside of the collective or a threat.

But Shino knew that Naruto was from Konoha. The only thing the boy knew about his parents were that his mother died giving birth to him and his father was a ninja who died fighting the nine-tailed fox. And for the life of him he couldn't fathom how Naruto could possibly be a threat, except to the patience of their teacher Iruka Umino who couldn't seem to go a day without having to reprimand the rambunctious blonde.

Shino found Naruto curious.

The lens through which Shino viewed the world was that of reason and logic. He knew that this was an unusual approach, especially among children as young as he, so he always explained how he came to the truth of whatever it was that he had said.

But Naruto defied all logic.

The way he acted followed no logic. The way others acted around him followed no logic.

And it really irked Shino to see it. The world was logical, it had to be. Even if you don't understand the logic, there is some logic at work. That was how reality functioned.

But here he could see none.

Naruto gasped as another fist collided with his stomach. The other kids were at least three, maybe four years older than them and seemed to be taking a fiendish glee in beating up the town pariah. They punched, kicked, derided, restrained and every other little thing that they could think of in order to make the kid stay down.

But Naruto keep pushing himself back up. It was taking longer and longer each time, and the legs that he stood on were getting shakier and shakier with each rise.

Shino thought the whole damn thing was insane.

Then he saw the rock.

The ringleader had grabbed a fairly large rock from somewhere in the clearing. Naruto wouldn't be able to dodge this time, he was too tired and worn out…and Shino very much doubted that he would be able to get up again either.

Not this time.

And that was just too much for Shino. As illogical as getting up time and again was, it was also pure Naruto. And for him to behave in any way other than that, would be so against what Naruto was as to create its own strain of illogic.

Shino darted out from his tree and slammed into the boy with the rock, who then dropped it in his surprise as the pair tumbled to the ground.

Shino quickly found his feet, and was up, whirling to meet the gaze of the other attackers who had frozen in momentary shock at the sudden appearance of another person. They were civilian kids, students at the other academy in Konoha who were not going to take up a life of arms, but more mundane things like accounting or farming. These are the children who seemed to take the most pleasure in tracking down Naruto, or any of the other Ninja Academy Students, but always making sure to pick on someone younger than them.

Shino suddenly wished he paid more attention during taijutsu classes.

Shino suddenly wished he had friends and hadn't been walking alone.

Shino suddenly wished, rather cowardly he thought, that he hadn't taken the short cut and had not been pulled into this situation in the first place.

But mostly, Shino wished that he had more training with his hive – because that buzzing was not a good thing. The feeling of thousands of beings on the march within him was suddenly terrifying instead of comforting. The knowledge that the insects were already out of his control was mind numbing and fear was creeping in as the trail of small little black bodies started to slip from underneath his clothing.

"What do you think you're doing?!" One of the kids shouted, clearly having found his courage after realizing that his new opponent was nothing more than one small child.

"One should protect one's classmates. Why? Because it is only logical to do so."

Shino had his feet planted firmly, knees slightly bent, arms outstretched in front of him. Figuring that there was no way now to turn the incensed insects back to the peacefulness of their hive until the threat had been ceased.

Instead he poured two thoughts into the bugs, pleaded with them to hear him, even if they did not know him well enough to respect or heed him. Only two thoughts, two pleads, two requests of the beings taking up residence inside of him

Please, find help.

Please, don't hurt anyone.

Bugs swarmed out from his sleeves, rushing towards the youths who screamed and stumbled back in shock. They turned and tried to run away from the impending wall of tiny beetles, but the bugs were much quicker than the boys could ever hope to be. Buzzing little rope shaped streams of beetles quickly seized the wrists and ankles of the boys as they fled and pulled, tugged, griped with a strength that didn't seem possible. They were soon lifted into the air and thumped, with some force, into the trees that they were trying to escape into.

Shino panted, feeling a sense of emptiness grow within him, a combination of his hive's quick evacuation and his rapidly depleted chakra stores. His knees slammed into the packed dirt and his vision began to swim, his arms dropping limply at his sides.

"No!"

The high, gruff voice of Naruto Uzumaki cut through his mental fog and he glanced up slowly to see the blonde boy standing in front of him, arms stretched out to his sides, seemingly trying to act like a barrier.

It took him a few minutes more to realize that the beetles had turned back on their hive carrier. Caught up in the rush of the fight, not yet attuned to Shino's own will, the bugs were in a frenzy and seemed to be ready to attack the very people that had been meant to protect.

But it was a curious thing. The bugs did stop, hovering in the air in a semi-circle around the blonde, as though he had thrown up an actual barrier against them. A heavy buzzing filled the air as the beetles became even more agitated and it occurred to Shino that it was possible that it hadn't been the bullies' presence that first called the attention of his hive, but rather Naruto's.

But they had reacted in such a way that indicated that they were in the presence of a threat.

How was Naruto a threat?

Should he have left everything alone?

No! Naruto was a classmate. A comrade. A part of their village. He was to be protected. It was a ninja's job to protect.

A shadow slid in front of Naruto's body and Shino heard the comforting murmur of his father's voice.

He had been saved.

His eyes slid shut in exhaustion, feeling the grip of his father's arm around his shoulders, Shino fell unconscious.

"That was a foolish thing you did."

Shino had only been awake for a few moments but his father was already reprimanding him.

He opened his eyes fully to see his father standing next to his bed, while his mother slipped out of the room, holding Shino's over-jacket in her arms. He blinked at his father, unsure what should be said.

"You are not trained yet with your hive. You know that you should be extra cautious now."

Shino nodded. "I know. However, they became agitated and it had nothing to do with me." Shino paused for a moment, then returned his attention to his father, "They seem to have some kind of problem with Naruto, but I can't think of what that might be."

Shibi Aburame was the best of the clan at containing his emotions, it was part of what made him such an affective clan head because he was able to approach any problem with a completely level head.

But just for a second Shino saw the twitch. A slight jolt of the man's pinkie finger, so small as to almost not be noticed at all, but the corner of Shino's eyes caught it just milliseconds before they closed in an involuntary blink.

Shibi sat down on the edge of his son's bed and studied his son over the tops of his glasses. He sighed heavily, placing his hand down atop where his son's rested on the bed spread.

This was the Aburame equivalent of a clutching hug.

"Uzumaki has…inherited something…something that makes our bugs nervous."

Shino's eyebrows rose. "Even yours?"

Shibi nodded. "Even mind."

Shino thought his father had perfect control. Shibi was a perfect ninja. There was no way that his control could be shaken. If even his father could not control his hive in Naruto's presence, what hope did Shino have shut up in a classroom with the boy every day?

Shino looked down studying his father's hand as it rested on his own. It was so much bigger than his. Stronger. The skin was a shade paler, and hardened from constant practice and use of ninja tools.

Pressing his lips together momentarily, Shino asked, "Is it something sensed by people as well?" Shino glanced to his father's shadowed eyes. "Is that why people treat him like they do?"

Again, there was a slight falter to his father's countenance before he nodded an affirmative.

Shino knew that there was something more that he wasn't being told. Something that made even his father, the most stoic of ninja, uncomfortable with the knowledge. Something about Naruto.

Shino jerked suddenly, startling his father, which was only revealed in the removed hand.

"How's Naruto?" Shino asked quickly. How had he not asked after the boy who had been at the middle of this whole situation in the first place?

Shibi pushed air from his nose, something Shino knew to mean that his father was in fact smiling, or at least expressing that same emotion. Shino felt warm inside at the knowledge that his father was pleased with him.

"He is fine. Your mother patched him up and walked him home while you were asleep. He wanted to thank you, but it was getting late."

Shino nodded. Well, at least he had done something right.

That left one more pressing issue. His hive. He could feel the beetles sitting deep inside, rather still and lethargic. The hive was about half of its previous size, and he feared that he had lost many beetles in this incident.

Shino bit his lip. "What now?"

Shibi sighed, standing and walking towards the window, looking out at the night sky. "I am proud that you defended Uzumaki, which is a proper instinct that we will continue to cultivate." He paused, leaving a hanging sensation in their air and Shino knew that something else was still yet to be said. "However," and there was the shoe dropping, "you were nowhere near ready to be using your insects to fight yet. I know you didn't intend to do even that." Shibi held off Shino's attempt to defend himself by pointing out again that he hadn't ordered the bugs off, "But you lack the necessary control to go into that kind of situation safely. You were only a few minutes from the house Shino. Why didn't you run here to get one of us?"

Shino clutched at his sheets. "There wouldn't have been time."

"What do you mean?"

Shino looked at his father, his face calm but eyes fierce. "They were going to bash his head with a rock. There wasn't time to go running to someone else."

Shibi nodded, incorporating this new information into his knowledge of the incident. "Alright." He nodded once more to himself. "One last thing then about your training with your hive."

Shino watched on nervously.

Shibi turned to face his son, silhouetted by the night sky through the window. "You lost many of your hive." Shino nodded, having understood that already. "But the ones who remain have learned something about you – something that is going to be passed on to future generations of your hive."

Shino's head tilted slightly to the side, studying his father. What could they have learned from this encounter other than their container was dangerous?

"They have learned that you are brave."

Shino scrunched his face. Brave? Him?

"They have learned that you like to join the thick of the fight. You don't want to be a part of the shadows. You want to stand strong and hold your own and send the enemy running through your skill, not merely as a back-up for your team. You fight for comrade rather than mission."

Shino thought it was a rather grandiose way to describe him barreling into a fight with no plan, and that extrapolation was far grander than anything that he would have ever intended.

Before he could open his mouth to protest his father's interpretation of events, the man continued. "You are just the sort of ninja that I would want by my side and on my team."

Shino's throat went dry. Every child wanted their parents to be proud of them. Ninja children even more sore. For clan children it tended to be lifelong goals. For the children of clan heads…

Shino didn't even know how to comprehend what he had just heard. For lack of anything to say in response, Shino bit the inside of his lip and curled his fingers into his sheets all the tighter.

"I will focus on offensive tactics in your training…"

"No." Shino interrupted his father and took a deep breath. "I want to learn everything. Offense, defense, tracking, intel, everything."

This time Shibi smiled. Fully and without restraint and Shino warmed within, smiling himself as he felt a soft buzz from his inner hive as though they heard his statement and agreed with it themselves.

Shino Aburame walked into class two days later, having taken a day off to recover from the chakra exhaustion he'd experienced by utilizing his hive without training. His mother, ever the worry wart, had made him late with a last minute morning check-up and waffling back and forth on whether she should make him stay home again. This resulted in the usually punctual child skirting into the classroom just as the bell rang to the surprised arched brow of Iruka-sensei.

"I apologize for my lateness sensei, it won't happen again." Shino gave a little bow.

His usual seat at a table in the back of the classroom had been taken by a slew of girls in a desperate attempt to sit closer to Sasuke Uchiha who pretended that he didn't even know that they were there. He looked to the other corner of the room where Naruto Uzumaki usually sat. There the boy was, a three person table all to himself because no one wanted to sit by him. The blonde was currently sitting with his head propped up on one hand, glazed eyes staring at something unseen on the ceiling.

Shino walked silently up the steps of the classroom and slid into the empty chair next to him.

Next to.

He didn't leave a blank chair between them like anyone else would have done.

He sat himself directly in the chair beside the class outcast and the usually morning murmurs cut completely and only the scratch of Iruka-sensei's pencil marking attendance could be heard.

Even Naruto seemed to have snapped out of his stupor and was staring at the Aburame in apparent shock.

"What are you doing?" Naruto hissed as the gossip mill started up with hushed whispers.

Shino merely raised an eyebrow. "I am attending class."

Naruto stared at him and for a moment he had the look that adults spare for children when they announce something adorably naïve. "You're sitting with me." He revealed, as though maybe Shino hadn't caught on yet. "No one sits with me by choice."

Shino nodded, it was after all the truth.

"No one sits with me by choice either." He offered.

Naruto studied him. "That's 'cause they all think you're creepy." He pointed out.

"Why do they not sit with you?" Shino was genuinely curious.

Naruto however shrugged. "Dunno." He replied simply. "Probably the same reason they don't play with me…" the blonde sighed and began tapping his pencil against the desk.

They were both then quiet for a while as they listened to Iruka's lecture when suddenly Naruto spoke in a hushed voice, as though he was just carrying on from their pervious discussion.

"Sometimes I think they're afraid of me."

It took all of Shino's willpower not to snort in laughter. Instead he rolled his lips inward and bit down for a moment to rid himself of the urge. "You are not remotely scary."

Naruto's eyebrows disappeared into his fly everywhere hair as he turned to look fully at Shino. "You really think so?"

Shino turned from the lecture and gave Naruto his undivided attention. "How are you supposed to be scary? You are a child. Children are to be protected and cared for. Children are not scary, and certainly not to a village full of fully trained ninja."

"You talk like a grown-up." Naruto nodded once. "You talk more grown-up than Iruka-sensei…" He nodded again, seemingly proud of his analysis.

Shino rolled his eyes. "You talk like a small child."

Naruto snickered. "I am a small child. You are the one who sounds weird."

Shino tilted his head to the side and nodded once, conceding the point to Naruto.

They focused back on the lesson again, Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion now that he was actually paying attention and not just trying to look like he was. Amused, Shino slid his notes from earlier over, allowing Naruto to glance at them. His head jerking quickly between the paper and the board, a small smile worked onto his face as it clicked in. "Thanks." He whispered, sliding the paper back.

Shino thought for a moment on the blonde. He didn't seem so bad when you were at his side. If you were watching him from the outside he seemed like a nuisance, or a pest, or a troublemaker. But from a spot at his side, you saw just another child. A child of the village who was treated rather unfairly.

And he was also struck suddenly with the fact that there was almost no one who was ever at the boy's side.

As the lecture ended, and class slipped into a break period, Shino turned to Naruto right hand outstretched in front of him.

"Naruto Uzumaki, would you like to be friends?"

Blue eyes flew wide as Naruto turned his head slowly to stare at the Aburame with his mouth hanging open. At the table in front of them, even the perpetually sleeping Shikamaru Nara, wrenched open an eye to studying the odd pair.

Naruto meanwhile watched the hand with a strange look on his face. It was part joy, part terror, part surprise, part heart-wrenching sadness. When Naruto's eyes finally slid up to meet Shino's, the Aburame's hand began to shake at the terrifying look there.

Who would have ever though hope could cause his entire being to quake?

Because that it was it was. That expression warring across Naruto's face, those tears swimming in his eyes, the inability to comprehend the offer had first been made – it was a sense of hope so incredulous that it actually hurt Naruto to feel it.

"Your parents won't like it." Naruto whispered, his voice so soft that Shino barely heard it, but it looked like Naruto had forced it out of a closed through with all the force of a scream.

"Why should my parents have a problem with me befriending a classmate?"

Naruto's eyes dropped to the hand, still hanging in the air. "It's not the kids that don't like me. Their parents don't. They just copy."

It was a startling astute observation from someone who was thought to be rather unintelligent by the rest of the village.

"Being friends with me will only get you in trouble."

"My parents have no problem with you." Shino stated simply.

"When I'm just some kid you got caught up with once no. But if I come around your house all the time and the neighbors talk? If you get dragged into another fight because they came looking for me? When people start treating you badly because you are with me? They will care then." Naruto's head drooped dejectedly.

Shino could tell that Naruto was just trying to steel himself against letting hope take hold, and from the frown on the face of the Nara in front of them (who had gone back to pretending to sleep), he wasn't the only one. Instead he sighed and dropped his hand against the table. "Naruto. I live in a clan compound. My neighbors are all family. And my father is the clan head. Even if they wanted to gossip about someone in the family, if wouldn't be the clan head. Besides, Aburames are too busy training to care who someone else's child is hanging around with. Aburames have so few friends outside of the clan, I am fairly certain that they would just be happy that I have a friend my age. And of course I would help you in another fight, but I would not be dragged into it. It is honorable and proper to aid my friend and classmate and I would enter the fray by choice. And people already treat me as though I am strange and weird. I fail to see how being friends with you would change that." Shino nodded, content that he had addressed all of Naruto's issues. "Besides, I'm not asking you to be anyone else's friend. Just mine." He held out his hand once more. "Friends?"

Naruto practically jump into the outstretched appendage. He clasped Shino's small pale hand with both of his deeply tanned once and pumped the arm a few times with a smile so bright that Shino was glad he wore sunglasses. The blonde was smiling, laughing, nodding his head rapidly and even crying a little.

And Shino completely understood the sentiment when Naruto gasped out, "I finally have a friend!" As his insects buzzed about within him, a small melee having broken out at his own feelings towards the situation, Shino committed that feeling to memory.

That confusing, happy, sad, terrifying, hilarious, contentment feeling.

Friendship – that was the feeling of friendship.

He never wanted to forget.

I started writing this piece almost a year ago. I was on the bus to work one morning when the beginning part popped into my head. It about an hour (when I should have been working…) I wrote the beginning up until the part where Shino jumps into the fray and there was where the plot bunny just stopped. Seriously. I didn't touch this again for about ten months and I finally started picking it up and writing a paragraph here or there for the last several weeks. And now I have a finished version for you and I really hope you like it. Because Shino (sort of like Ten-Ten) doesn't get enough attention or storylines in the source material so we as fanfiction writers need to make up for that. And I always thought that Shino would actually be someone to understand what Naruto's childhood was like as someone who other's tried to stay away from because of creatures contained within his body. Really – kindred a bit here.

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