True Beauty

True Beauty

Shino sat on a branch on a tree nearby the village, watching the sunset.  Sunsets were mainly the only few things Shino looked forward to.   Training had became boring because Kurenai had them do the same training drill everyday.  Shino signed as another person from the village walk by calling him the ‘creepy bug boy’.  Sometimes even his own teammate, Kiba thought of him as such, but he didn’t tell Shino these because in ways feared him.
‘Who cares what that dirty dog boy thinks of me.’ he thought, ‘He probably drinks from the toilet just like that mutt of his.’
Kiba had always secretly thought he was creepy ever since he and Hinata found out that Shino shared his body with a bunch of chakra eating bugs or Kiba would say a walking ant farm.  One person however, didn’t find him creepy or wasn’t afraid of him at all and that was the kindhearted, Hinata.  When most of the genin of the village looked in his direction they would mostly give him a look of dislike or fear Hinata however, would always give him a small smile of understanding.  For some reason Shino always felt a special bond between Hinata and him.
“Um…Shino.” a familiar female voice uttered suddenly, causing him to lose his balance and fall off the tree.
“What?” he groaned from the impact of the fall and was slightly annoyed, since his insects were very wary of the environment around them he was hard to startle but Hinata had a habit of sneaking around and surprising the insect ninja without even trying to.
“Sorry” she apologized meekly, “but I came to see if you would come have supper with us.”
Shino got up and dusted himself off.  He nodded. He had forgotten Kurenai had told them to meet her at the restaurant to treat them for yet another successful mission. As they walked down to the restaurant something kept on pestering Shino. So he decided to get the topic off his mind.
“You don’t fear me, do you?” he asked lightly, partly curious if she hung around him only because she felt pity toward him.
“No I do not fear you, Shino.” Hinata replied, shocked that he would ask such a odd question, ”Why do you ask?”
“No reason” Shino said, “Just curious.”
“You are my teammate there is no reason for me to fear you, Shino.”
He raise his arm up slightly and moved his index finger upward a little revealing two of his chakra feeding bugs.
“What about them?” he asked lightly, “Do you fear the chakra feeding insects that infest my body.”
Hinata looked at the bugs and back at her friend before shaking her head.
“Those insects just make you unique and they are a part of who you are” she said lightly, ”Besides your insects won’t keep me from liking you.”
After Hinata had said that she gave a small blush.  Shino gave a small smile before continuing to head for the restaurant that Kurenai had recommended they come to for supper.

As soon as they reached the restaurant they were greeted by Kiba and his dog, Akamaru.  Akamaru instantly ran to Hinata and tackled her to the ground. Hinata giggled as the puppy began to bath her in dog kisses.  Kiba laughed at his overly hyper puppy before going over to pick him up.
“Come on Akamaru cut it out before you drown her in your dog saliva.” Kiba chuckled, as he picked up the dog and turning his attention to Shino, ”Where were you, bug brain?”
Shino ignored his friend’s question.  Kurenai stood up from her seat.
“Gone out to watch the sunset huh, Shino.” she said with a knowing tone, ”Hinata was worried about you  and decided to come get you, since it took you so long.”
Hinata shyly nodded, it was true she was indeed worried about him since he’s never late for anything, and it was taking him so long to reach the restaurant so she decided to see if he was okay.

After a discussion about the previous mission, they selected their meals. Kiba ordered a big steak so he could split it with Akamaru, Kurenai had a bowl of ramen noodles, Hinata had a small salad, and Shino ordered a bowl of stew. Kurenai rolled her eyes at Kiba and Akamaru.  Shino watched in disgust as the two consumed the big piece of meat viciously.  Sure Kiba was Shino’s best friend but the way the two ate was enough to make even Choji lose his appetite.  Although it didn’t really bother Shino too much since they were his teammates and he still considered Kiba his friend, he learned to live with it.  Kurenai had already finished her bowl of ramen noodles and had ordered a cup of ginger root tea.  Hinata had finished her salad after Kurenai ordered her tea. Hinata watched Kiba and Akamaru uneasily.  A part of her just had to smile at the scene due to the fact those two act like brothers and just had to do everything together.  The other part of her felt embarrassed by the way those two ate.  Shino gave out a soft sigh as he ate his stew slowly, allowing the rice taste of the stew linger in his mouth before swallowing.  Pretty soon the three boys finished their supper.  Then they all ordered drinks.  Kurenai ordered yet another cup of ginger root tea after finishing her first cup.  Kiba ordered a cup of root beer and a small saucer of the same for Akamaru. Hinata had a cup of peach and vanilla tea.  And Shino had ordered a glass of vegetable juice.  
Once they had gotten their drinks, Kurenai had a discussion on their next mission. Kiba noisily slurped his root beer while Akamaru was quickly lapping his up.  Hinata and Shino had both agreed that they would rather let the flavor last a bit longer before finishing off their drinks in unison.  
After they had finished their drinks and Kurenai paid the bill, they began leaving for home.  Shino and Hinata decided to walk home together, since Shino’s house was close to Hinata’s and Shino didn’t want Hinata walking home by herself.  As they walked Hinata began thinking about her training.  She had thought she had gotten stronger but every time she spars up with Neji he always proves that all her training was in vain.  However she refuses to give up and continues training with her friend to improve, even if her cousin still might be stronger. She won’t give up until she is noticed by her father, Hiashi, her crush, Naruto, and everyone else.  It was the fact that she had to prove herself to her family and Shino didn’t was one of the many reasons why she respected her teammate so much.  Just as she was thinking about the young bug ninja a few questions popped in her head that just needed to be answered.
“Umm….Shino?” she asked politely, trying to get his attention.
“Yes.”
“Can you please tell me what exactly happened in the fight between you and Kankuro?”
She had heard some of the stories from some of the villager about the fight between Shino and one of the Sand Village most powerful ninja, Kankuro, but hadn’t heard on who won and what really happened.  She was getting tired of the rumors and wanted to hear it from Shino himself.
Shino looked down on the ground as they walked.  He didn’t like talking about his fight with Kankuro, and wished Hinata would pick another topic to talk about instead of the battle.
“Nothing” he said after a while of silence, “Nothing happened Hinata, now let’s go to a different topic.”
Hinata sensed that there was something wrong by noticing that he was eager to go to a different topic.  Mostly Shino wasn’t the one to change the topic if asked that would most likely be Kiba.  
She walked over to Shino, who was walking at a much faster pace than she so she had to walk faster to get ahead of him, and put her hand on his shoulder.  It was Hinata’s way of reassuring Shino his secret was safe with her and she wouldn’t tell Kiba or anyone else about it.
“Please Shino, please tell me I really would like to know and I promise to tell no one about it too, not even Kiba.” she begged him while giving him that look that she knows he can’t ignore.
Then it dawned on him he now knew what she was attempting to do. Shino stepped back horrorified.  Surely she couldn’t be thinking of using that devious technique that Kiba would use on his older sister, Hana.  That simply would be playing dirty for Hinata to try that.
“Oh no, your not thinking about trying that are you?” Shino asked hoping that his intuiting was wrong for once.
Hinata took her lower lip and brought it up slightly.  She then gave him that sad look.  She had been told by Kiba that it was called the puppy dog pout and could be use to soften most peoples mind on something
“Hinata that is very devious on your part” Shino replied, he was very upset with Kiba for teaching Hinata such a devious technique as that and choose her of all people to try that on him.
“Please Shino.” Hinata pleaded with her friend kindly, still giving him that look.
Shino gave a small sign. He knew she would continue bothering him with that devious technique until he’d give in and tell her on want she wanted to know.  He figured he might as well as tell her since she promised him she won’t tell Kiba and he was all for not letting Kiba know about the close call he had with the puppet master from the Sand Village, cause he didn’t want Kiba teasing him about it.  
“I will tell you only under one condition Hinata.” Shino said after a while of silence and he was ready to gather his thoughts.
“Yes and that is what exactly, Shino?” Hinata asked curiously.
“You don’t try that technique on me again.” Shino answered flatly, hoping Hinata would not have a desire to use that devious trick on him again or need to have any more uses for that rotten little trick either, “Deal?”
“Deal.” she said, “I promise not to use that trick on you again, Shino, but can I still use it on Kiba and Naruto?”
“Yes.” he replied simply, Shino kind of liked the thought of Hinata using Kiba’s own technique against him, in a ways he found that amusing, cause Hinata was one person Kiba refused to argue with and wouldn’t get mad at.
Hinata smiled, “So what happened Shino?”
“It was a close match, Hinata, I just barely defeated him.”
“You did defeat him didn’t you?”
“Yes”
“How close was it?”
“Very close, deadly close.”
“Deadly how?” Hinata’s heart was beating furiously in her chest, she had known that Kankuro was strong but Shino was strong too.  It was a difficult thought to imagine since Shino was always cautious and always had a plan even before a battle had begun and he was one of the quickest ninjas Hinata has ever known. It was because of this he was a very difficult target to kill for many opposing ninjas.  
“The puppet he uses to fight with, has hidden weapons inside it, and one of those was a poison gas bomb which he launched at me in an effort to slow me down, I was able to use the bugs as a shield to avoid impact of the bomb, but I was unfortunate enough to accidentally breathed some in.” Shino said, “I was able to defeat him by placing a female bug on him when I purposely missed a punch and some of the bugs were able to sneak behind him while the others were disabling his puppet he was foolish enough to underestimate his opponent’s abilities.”
Hinata covered her hands over her mouth.  She had always hated the thought of any of her teammates getting hurt, especially Shino.  It was true that she cared about Kiba and Akamaru very much but she had always felt that she and him shared a special bond with each other.  She cared about her teammates since they were the closest thing for a family she had ever had, besides her real family but her real family had always been more focused on Neji or Hanabi than Hinata.  This made Hinata sad.  All she really wanted was to get stronger in order be noticed by her family, especially her dad, Hiashi.  She was glad with the arrangement of the teams despite what her father had said about her teammates.  
“How did you manage to survive through that terrible ordeal?” She asked hopeful he wasn’t in too much pain.
“I was fortunate enough that my dad was around and had some of his destruction bugs to neutralize the poison that was in my body.” Shino replied, simply.
Hinata smiled. “Well that’s good. Why did you not want to tell me about your fight with Kankuro, Shino?”
Shino gave a sigh. “Because it wasn’t one of my better battles.”
“Why.” Hinata asked, now becoming very curious in his response
“If I was stronger or more aware of the battle tactics of my opponent I would have been able to defeat him without too much trouble.”
Even though Shino knew he could keep dwelling on what happened in the past, but he was still kind of upset at himself for not being able to defeat the puppet ninja as quickly as he planned and for being foolish enough to fall into one of Kankuro’s traps.  Hinata looked sadly at her best friend.
“I think you’re strong enough already, Shino.” she said, raising her hands and placed them on Shino’s cheeks, “I wish I was strong like you and Kiba, so maybe my dad and cousin won’t think I’m so weak.”
Shino smiled slightly at her soft touch and allowed her to do so, just as long as she didn’t try any of her sneaky tricks of trying to remove his sunglasses.  Since they had begun training together Hinata had made a list of her goals, one of them was to remove Shino’s sunglasses and see what he had been hiding behind them all a long.  Shino had caught her on a few occasions trying to do that when they were training.
“You don’t need to prove anyone that you’re strong, Hinata.” he told her lightly, “You’re already stronger than Neji.”
Hinata looked up at the bug ninja, puzzled on what he was trying to say.
What do you mean Shino, if I am stronger than Neji then how come he keeps on defeating me?”
Shino gave a soft sigh. “I didn’t mean physically,” Shino replied, “What I meant by that comment was that you are stronger than him as a person.”
Hinata turned her head slightly, still puzzled at the bug ninja’s words.
I’m sorry Shino but I still don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re a better person when it comes to personality.” Shino explained to her, “You care about others and believe in them and that what a person with a heart of gold does, can you not see that.”
Hinata could feel a sudden warmth raise in her cheeks.
“Shino.” she said softly, but couldn’t find anything else to say so she stayed silent.
Since Hinata wasn’t saying anything and thinking that he should continue his point, he continued his little talk with her.  He was going to say something assuring to Hinata, but found that he too was at a lose for words.  Hinata looked down at the ground, wondering what could she do to help her team if she couldn’t get stronger and be able to defeat the enemy if her teammates couldn’t.
“You are doubting your strength in this team, am I not correct.” Shino voiced, knowingly.
Hinata stopped dead in her tracks, how did he know that thought was going through her mind.  Was he able to read her mind or was it just a lucky guess.  No, She knew that Shino doesn’t guess on these kind of things.  She figured it was just that Shino knew her better from all that time they spent on missions and training that he was familiar to her behavior and habits.  She gladly admitted it that he was the prodigy of their team and she was fine with it, that it only made her the more prouder of the silent bug ninja than she already was.  She gave a short nod to confirm that his statement was true.
“I want to be strong enough so that Naruto will acknowledge me.” she said, “I also don’t want to slow you or Kiba down anymore, I want to be just as strong as Sakura, so I can help you guys out anyway that I can when you guys are in trouble.”
“But you don’t slow us down at all Hinata.” Shino replied kindly, “Its Kiba’s poor skills in reading a map that always seems to slows us down not you and you don’t have to be the strongest ninja in order to become a great ninja, I will always be proud of you no matter what you do.”
Hinata felt her heart skip a beat and tears weld up in her eyes.  She was very grateful for having such a good friend like Shino to talk to.  “Thanks Shino, its good to have a good friend like you to talk to.” Hinata said, happily.
Shino only nodded in reply and continued walking.  Hinata only smiled as she walked along side the bug ninja.  She trusted her teammates the most out of all the other ninjas in her village.  
As soon as they got closer to Hinata’s house, Hinata turned to face her friend to ask him one final question before she went inside the Hyuga home.
“Um…Shino do you think I still have a chance with Naruto, even if he still has a crush on Sakura?” she asked him knowing he would be honest with her, “After all Sakura is perhaps prettier than I am.”
“Sometimes it is not always what is on the outside but what is on the inside that counts as true beauty, Hinata.” Shino replied kindly and honestly, “Compared to her, you are a lot prettier in both inside and outside beauty than she is and Naruto would be a fool not to notice that.”
Hinata smiled and tried her hardest to hide her flushed cheeks. Shino’s compliment was causing her cheeks to turn a bright red from both embarrassment and a feeling that she had only thought she could feel whenever Naruto was around.  As she walked up to her door she once again turned to the bug ninja.
“Thanks for walking me home, Shino and…” Hinata said happily, quickly and gentle hugging the now shocked bug ninja.  He slowly but gently wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. “Oh and thanks for listening to me Shino, you’re a true friend.”
Once she said that she quickly reached her hand up and undid part of his jacket to only the rest of his face was revealed.  She then leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.
They broke away from their hug and Shino turned to head for his home.  He also did this so that Hinata wouldn’t see him blushing like crazy either. Even his insects were content with such affection from the shy girl.  Their normal soft buzzing noise was replaced by light fluttering sound inside their master’s body.  Shino was relieve that his bugs didn’t want to go out that time
“Hinata.” He said for a moment after she reached for the doorknob, “If you ever need someone to talk to, you’ll know where to find me.”
Hinata gave a soft smile and nodded.
“Good night, Shino.” she chirped happily, “See you tomorrow.”
“Same goes to you too, Hinata.” Shino replied lightly, as he started to head for the Aburame household, hoping his father, Shibi would not be too mad at him for coming home late.  
Hinata watch Shino leave before going inside herself.
She flopped down, back first on her bed after her dad had scolded her for coming home so late and with a so called ‘Aburame freak’ but she didn’t care.  She just like someone like Shino or Kiba to talk to cause she felt that they judge her so harshly like her dad or sister does.  As she laid there thinking she spotted a white moth perched by her window.  She got up and walked over to her window to watch it.  Eventually two more white moths joined their brethren, and perched by her window.  Hinata gave a soft smile and opened her window to let the moths in. The three moths flew inside gracefully and one even landed on her finger.  That only made Hinata smiled even wider.  It stayed on her finger for a while longer and that’s when she noticed it. Unlike most white moths these three had bits of purple and blue patterns on the wings.  Hinata gave a gentle smile as she slowly lifted her finger with the pretty moth on it toward her face a little.
When I let you guys back out be sure to tell Shino that he is getting better with your guys breeding now.” Hinata told the moth softly, “And be sure to tell him I like the color selection he’s experimenting on you guys.”
With that said she opened the window once more and let the moths out.  She then quickly closed the window and walked back to her bed. Hinata had gotten use to these little visits from such insects since that was a small favor Shino had asked from her.  He was experimenting with certain color patterns on the wings and was breeding them with white moths to get a breed of moths with beautiful marked wing that would equal the beauty of a butterfly.  Since Shino would soon be clan leader of the Aburame clan, he would have to learn some of the old information or tips from previous Aburame leaders in order to ensure the Aburame clan was still at top working conditions.  She insteatly agreed and each night he would send three moths over to her house so she could take a look at them.  She knew that there was a few other reasons why he asked her to do that, but she couldn‘t put her finger on it.  It was Shino’s way of trying to cheer her up when they found out that Hanabi would replace Hinata’s place as head of the main branch of the Hyuga clan after their dad. She was happy for her sister but was down on herself because her dad didn’t even give her a chance to prove herself.  Her teammates have notice how sad she was about this and did everything in their power to cheer her up.  Kiba would go telling jokes to Hinata that she didn’t need that stupid title anyway to make her important and Shino would send the pretty moths over to her house to get her to smile a little more.  Hinata liked Shino’s way better, it was indeed making her smile more and more as time went by.

As she began to fall asleep the image of the pretty moths stayed fresh in her mind.  As she lied there she began thinking about what Shino had said to her.  
“I think I get it now” she muttered softly, “Moths might not be as pretty as butterflies are but they’re still pretty in their own way, and perhaps I am like a moth I might not be as pretty as Sakura but to my friends I’m just as special.”
She had finally found out what her friend, Shino was trying to tell her for so long with the moths.  With now figuring out the hidden message she began to drift off into a peaceful slumber, with a smile on her face.

THE END