A/N: Kimiko here! I put this first chapter up without letting Tamaki edit it, so it's a little raw, but I didn't want anything to be changed because I personally thought it was perfect the way it was. Let me stroke my ego here a little, alright. It is in-progress right now, but I'm already half-way through the second chapter, and it's only a 3-chapter story. It'll probably be done in either a little more or a little less than two weeks, depending on how lazy I am. So here's to me for finishing a story, you for reading it, and Tamaki for putting up with me! Huzzah!

They say writers reveal more about themselves in their stories than they intend to. What does this story tell you about me? Seriously, I'm interested to know!

RATING SUBJECT TO CHANGE

"Intense affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; a strong feeling of attraction resulting from sexual desire; enthusiasm or fondness; a score of zero in a game of tennis."

Love

One four letter word with four different meanings. A simple, overused word. You love your friends. You love your wife. You love the color red. You're angry when you have love in tennis. Logically, it is an understandable, rational, controllable and very easily explainable emotion.

But it is an emotion. "A strong surge of feeling." The uncontrollable, irrational monster that rages within us all. The best of men fall prey to its irresistible call. The bloodiest of wars have been started out of a man or a woman's emotions.

Affection, fondness, attraction, devotion, tenderness, endearment. Call it whatever you want, love is an emotion. You can't control it. You can't reason with it, or hold it back. It's not on a leash; you can't take it out for a walk and assume it'll go quietly back inside. You can define it in a few words; say it in a few seconds. But to understand it, you need a lifetime, and to explain it, an eternity.

Shino didn't have time for trivialities though. Pondering the meaning of love is something Sakura or Ino would do. And that's exactly why they're bad ninjas. Thinking about something you don't understand is not time well spent. After all, they're ninjas, not psychologists.

Shino awoke from a shallow, restless sleep to a dark room. He was used to waking at dawn, but today was a rare exception. Shino stripped himself of what little he was wearing- only boxers and a tee-shirt-and walked, naked, out of his room to the end of the hall. He stopped at the linen closet, picked up a towel, and went to the bathroom to start a hot bath.

As he washed himself, his thought kept drifting off to his dream. In it, it was raining, and he was terrified, but he didn't know why. Then he was falling through the sky. He felt at ease, almost comforted. The large sun looming in front of him started to set. He raised his arm to wave goodbye to it; tears streaming down his face, as he watched to rest of it slowly disappear beyond the horizon. No sooner than the darkness enveloped him in his dream, he awoke to the darkness of his room.

The dream disturbed him for unknown reasons. He had heard of people telling the future and having psychic visions in their dreams. Shino doubted it though. He figured it was just random images somehow tied to his memories, sort of like his subconscious rebooting and sorting through unnecessary information. Besides, dreams mean nothing, they aren't logical, and they're not psychic visions. They're just dreams.

Shino stepped out of the bathtub and wrapped his towel around his waist. He slowly walked over to the mirror and stared at his reflection. He didn't like what he saw, but he knew that was normal. He gave it no more thought as he left his bathroom and walked back to his bedroom.

The sun came up just as Shino left his house to meet with Kiba, Hinata and Kurenai. They hadn't gone on a mission together since Sasuke and Naruto left, but they were making up for it with training. Well… Shino was. Day in and day out Shino worked his butt off while Kiba and Hinata ran off to make-out. He didn't quite understand why they were so affectionate. Kiba tried to convince him that they were in love, but Shino didn't believe him.

Here he was, thinking about love again. Last night it put him to sleep. Shino scoffed at Kiba's vision of love, he knew no more about the meaning of love than Shino did. It wasn't his place to judge, but personally though, he was convinced Kiba was gay.

Other random thoughts plagued Shino's thoughts until he reached the training grounds. Shino sighed because today would, once again, be totally unproductive for Kiba and Hinata. It was their fault though, really, if they wanted to die, that was their problem, and it didn't concern Shino.

When he finally made it to their "spot" at the grounds, he saw only Kiba.

"Kurenai-sensei left for a mission last night, and Hinata's sick," Kiba loudly proclaimed.

"So? It's the same everyday anyways. You may as well go home because, since Hinata isn't here for you to suck face with, you're just going to be in my way," Shino said as he stared, somewhat vindictively, at Kiba.

"Aww, you're going to make me feel bad. Ya know we should train together today. We've been on the same team for, what? Six months now? And still all I know of you is that you're the smart, creepy, bossy bug nerd."

Shino flinched at Kiba's last remark. He didn't want to be seen as the creepy, emotionless bastard he looks like. He refused to let anyone know of his secret desires, though. He assumed it was just easier to push people away, less emotions, less drama, and less stress.

"Whatever," was all Shino had to say to Kiba. If anything, he could release some pent up anger by beating the crap outta Kiba.

"We'll start with scenarios, there's no point in having jutsus if you don't know when it's appropriate to use them." After waiting for a grunt of understanding from Kiba, Shino continued, "when fighting someone who specializes in close-range fighting, like taijustu, what should you, personally, do?"

"Ummm…" Kiba really had to think about his answer. If he said something stupid, Shino would grill him, but this was something he really needed to know. "Well I'm a close range fighter, so I would engage the enemy in combat, with consideration for my comrades."

Kiba was happy with his answer, but Shino was less than impressed. It was acceptable, but vague. Shino didn't feel like pursuing it any further though, so he let it pass.

"Okay, and what about a long range fighter?"

"That one's easy! Create a diversion, get them close, and attack. If they're out of their comfort zone, they're vulnerable."

"No, what would be much more logical is to…"

This went on for a few hours. Kiba learned valuable strategies, and Shino felt safer about having him on his team. It was probably a good thing they hadn't gone on any missions recently, they probably would've been killed. Kiba wasn't too knowledgeable on the subject of strategy to say the least. He was more suited for what he usually does, the grunt work. He's the force, Shino's the plan and the diversion, and Hinata is the safety.

"This is so boring!" Kiba whined. He slacked off in school for a reason, and Shino wasn't letting up at all!

"You wanted to train with me."

"Yeah, train, not learn!" Kiba scoffed.

Same thing, Shino thought. There was no point in arguing though. He was getting pretty bored too, so they may as well call it quits.

"Okay, we'll take a half hour break," fat chance, Shino thought. He knew they wouldn't get back to work today, "but then it's back to work!"

As they sat in the shade of a large oak tree, Kiba decided it was a good time to talk about himself again.

"Did I ever tell you about the time me and Hinata saved Uzumaki Naruto? Well the cave we were in was starting to collapse so…"

Shino tuned him out and stared at the tree they were under. He had, in fact, heard that stupid story several times before. It didn't make any sense, though, why Kiba was so proud of it. The whole premise of that mission was for Naruto, Kiba and Hinata to learn how to work together, and they still almost failed.

Kiba had stopped talking, but Shino was still uttering, "Mhm. Wow. Amazing." He was used to Shino ignoring him for no reason, but this time the boy seemed to be lost in thought. Of course he could be wrong. Kiba was never one for over-analyzing… or analyzing at all for that matter, but he suspected he was wrong about Shino a lot.

When Shino stopped pretending to pay attention, Kiba knew he was actually listening. He was tempted to call Shino on ignoring him, but he knew it was a lost cause. Kiba assumed the only reason Shino was ignoring him was because he had told that story at least twenty times before.

"So, me and Hinata've been going strong for a month now, "Kiba casually told Shino. Shino perked up to this. Unbeknownst to Kiba, this was only because he was bored, not because he actually cared.

"I never really knew someone could be so happy just from being around someone else. It's like I finally understand the meaning of love. Do you know what I mean?"

"No, I don't," Shino said. He was starting to lose what little interest he had in what Kiba was saying.

Kiba smiled to himself because he knew Shino didn't suspect that he wasn't talking about Hinata. "At first I thought it was just excitement, thinking that I was happy because I knew who I liked. Then I knew it wasn't that, because that feeling only grew the more we were around each other. Do you know the moment I knew I was in love?" Kiba paused until he knew their eyes were locked, "the moment I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him."

The shock on Shino's face was obvious. He didn't miss Kiba's last word, and it obviously wasn't a mistake. Lots of thoughts crowded his mind, "I knew he was gay! Who's his secret lover? I bet it's Naruto, I always thought he was gay too, and my gay-dar is obviously not malfunctioning. Wait, is Hinata a boy? Has Kiba ever been butt sexed? I bet he has!"

Despite all that was running through his mind, all Shino could manage to say was, "What? You're not talking about Hinata anymore, are you?"

Kiba smiled, then started giggling until he was rolling with laughter. "No, as far as I know Hinata doesn't have a penis."

Shino opened his mouth to say something, but Kiba cut him off, "I know what you're going to ask, and no, I'm not cheating on Hinata," Kiba leaned in so close to Shino, he could hear the bugs scuttling around under the other boy's jacket, "and the boy I'm in love with is you."

It was as if Shino had been shot by a tranquilizer dart. Every thought left his mind as he descended into an idiotic stupor. He did manage to stutter a bit as he searched for something to say. After a minute, Kiba was able to discern a "wha? But… you!"

Kiba did get slightly worried, Shino never lost his cool. He could be out-numbered and wounded, but he would still think up a plan and get out alive. Then again, thinking up ways to kill people is easier than trying to figure out what to say to your best friend when he tells you he's gay for you.

"So what, do you think?" Kiba asked, partly because he actually wanted to know, but mostly because he wanted to break Shino's torpid state.

"I think… I think I want to go home," and with that, the Aburame left Kiba alone in the shade of his favorite oak.