|0:Intro|~::Silence Screams::~|Shino|

RECAP:

I rubbed my eyes again, yawned, and followed Shino out the door. Down the hallway, I almost ran into a wall and stumbled into Shino, who grabbed my arm before I hit the ground. "Caught you," I heard him mutter. He led me into the guest room and to the bed, where I sat lazily and looked up into his shaded eyes.

"Thank you," I smiled. He nodded and turned to walk away, but I grabbed his hand and tugged him onto the bed. I pulled his collar down and kissed him softly, catching his slight surprise for a moment before he pushed back. When I moved back, I blushed. "You're amazing," I whispered and hugged him to me.

He hesitated before hugging back silently. He stood as I let go. "Sleep well, Aya," he said as he walked away with his hands in his pockets. "I will wake you in the morning."

"Goodnight," I murmured and lay back on the bed, closing my eyes and breathing in the fresh scent on the sheets. It wasn't a minute before I was fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~MORNING~

The light in the room flashed on as the door opened silently. I mumbled in annoyance and flipped onto my side, curling up. The person in my room came closer, but stayed quiet.

After a few minutes, I started to fall back asleep, but a touch on my shoulder woke me back up. "Aya, I know you're awake," Shino said.

I groaned. "It's time already?"

He rubbed my shoulder and sat on the edge of the bed. "Should I leave you to get ready?" he asked.

"If you leave, I'll go back to sleep," I grumbled and blinked my eyes open. "What time is it?"

"It's seven."

"Doesn't training start at ten?" I asked, confused.

"Yes," he answered.

I turned to look at him. "Three hours early," I muttered and sat up. "Why?"

He stared back. "Rising early makes you more alert later," he replied.

I rubbed at my eyes. "It's not like I'm getting back to sleep anyway," I sighed. "Thank you for waking me."

He nodded and stood, pointing to my backpack with my clothes. "Get ready," he said. "I'm leaving in about an hour."

Confused again, I watched him walk out. I changed and walked into the hallway, where it was dark and quiet as if no one else was awake. I walked down the hall to Shino's room and knocked softly, hoping his parents wouldn't wake up. The door opened swiftly.

Shino stood at the door with his glasses in his hands as he cleaned them off. "Come in," he said and moved out of the way. "Quickly."

I stepped in and stood at the wall, gazing into Shino's maroon eyes hypnotically.

He looked down at his sunglasses and wiped them a bit more. "It's shocking how you didn't take longer to get ready," he said. "You sleep very heavily."

I shrugged. "Are your parents still asleep?"

"No," he answered. "They wake up at seven as you did."

"And you wake up at..."

"Six," he replied. "I normally leave at eight."

"What do you do until then?"

"Go out to the garden." He pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose and turned to walk out the door. "Are you coming along?"

Shrugging off my questions for now, I followed him and listened carefully. I still heard nothing coming from anywhere in the house, but Shino didn't seem suspicious. This must have happened every morning, although I found it odd that he was awake before his own parents.

He led me into a very thick part of the garden. Even though his clothes were baggier and bigger than mine, his jacket didn't catch the bristles of the plants like mine did. Actually, he hardly even brushed the plants, while I was struggling to wedge past them without tripping. Soon, the path got a bit more comfortable, and Shino stopped walking and stared at the plants in front of him.

I turned my back to him and watched a butterfly glide past and land onto a leaf. Smiling, I held my hand out, knowing it would probably fly away, but it stayed put. "How beautiful," I muttered as the insect crawled onto my finger and then lifted itself into the air and onto another plant.

Shino looked back toward me. "Surely you've seen a Monarch butterfly before," he supposed.

I shrugged. "I've seen them, but never in a habitat such as this," I replied, almost sadly, and turned to look at him. He watched the insect crawl around, glide further into the thick bushes, and disappear. Shyly, I took a step closer to him and lightly set my hand on his sleeve since his hands were pocketed. He stared back at me for a moment before getting closer, gently pressing his lips to mine.

Myhead spunas I reached up, unbuttoned Shino's collar so it wasn't in the way, and tugged on the rim of his sunglasses and pulled them off. I pressed mylips to his gently, ran my hand through his hair, and moved nearer. Shino took one hand out of his pocket and set it on the back of my head, pulling me closer.

Then, his tongue ran across my lower lip pleadingly, but hesitantly. I almost pulled away out of shock, but caught myself smirking and opening my mouth. He hesitated a moment longer before softly running his tongue across mine.

*Do what comes naturally.*

I responded slowly and did the same to him, following his lead. He pulled his other hand from his pocket and wrapped it around my waist. Then he carefully pushed back on me and touched his tongue to mine a bit more, making me shiver and my stomach flip. I did the same and felt Shino's hands twitch in anticipation.

Shino pulled back and closed his mouth, pushing gently one more time before moving back completely and staring. The second he pulled away, I gasped, realizing that I'd hardly breathed for the past minute, and looked into the maroon eyes adoringly.

He half-smiled at me. "You seemed less nervous," he observed. "Was I considerate enough?"

Even through the seriousness, I could tell he was kidding, but still turned dark red. "As understanding as the first time," I responded. "Except you got farther."

His eyes brightened. "You look embarrassed. Why?"

"Because you're really cute," I said without thinking. "And you give me shivers when I look at you."

Surprised, his expression changed and his cheeks tinted very slightly - almost unnoticeably. "Is that so?"

I smiled. "You look less than confident all of a sudden," I half laughed and set the back of my hand on his cheek.

His blush disappeared quickly, as if mentioning it scared it off. "Embarrassment is a state of mind," he said. "I'm not embarrassed." I could tell that he was lying, but either way, didn't argue with him. Maybe if I couldn't see his eyes, I would have believed him easier.

"Either way, you're definitely making my heart beat speed up," I smiled shyly.

His smirk returned for a second as he pried his sunglasses out of my hand. "I know," he said. "The beat drives the bugs crazy."

"Well, if you know everything, I should stay quiet," I said, half-jokingly.

He looked away. "That is ideal," Shino replied seriously and walked past me into the narrow path.

I glared slightly. "That was a bit harsh," I muttered.

He turned back and raised an eyebrow, wondering what I meant. I averted my eyes and sighed. "I'll get over it," I murmured.

Curious, Shino took a step back towards me. "What was harsh?"

"You could've just told me to shut-up instead of be so lenient with your words."

He looked a bit confused, giving me a look that asked me if he said something bad.

I sighed again. "Forget it," I repeated. "I'll shut-up. I apologize for being uncooperative."

"You're being unreasonable. Listen."

"Ah, well, I'm fine. Let's just...walk," I said calmly and took a step toward him with a small smile. I'd heard much worse from people that I've hated. This wasn't so bad.

Shino watched me curiously as if I was lying, but I walked past him, silently picking my way through the narrow-but-noticeable path. He hesitated before following behind me, definitely wondering what he had said.

*He's always so blunt. I can't possibly take anything he says as insulting or I'd hate him.*

My pace slowed slightly as another group of plants caught my eye. Shino set his hand on my shoulder, forcing me to move on. I sped back up, ignoring the tempting hues of the flowers and moving on hesitantly.

Shino tightened his grip on my shoulder, but kept his pace steady. I felt a breath rustle my hair and felt my pulse quicken, making me slow again. He pushed me again and made me speed back up, as if he was nervous. After a few moments, I found him in front of me, pulling me by the wrist into a completely different, thinner path. His grip tightened and loosened randomly. I knew something was wrong.

"Shino," I said as I fought through the branches. "What's...?"

"Quiet," he interrupted firmly. I quickly lost interest in what was going on and followed briskly, just wondering why Shino was being so brash.

A stinging coursed from my elbow to my wrist as we half sprinted, followed by a slight trickle flowing to my palm. I glanced back, catching sight of a humongous bush to my right with thorns almost three inches long. One of the thorns jutted out from the hardly noticeable path, colored in a dark red on the end. I looked back forward, hoping the cut wasn't too deep, and gasped.

The whole area ahead was full of pointy, irregular thorns and almost no room to move. Not to mention, it was thick and dark.

Why was he bringing me through such a dangerous part of the garden? Rather, why WAS there a dangerous part of the garden? Shino hardly seemed to notice the thorns as he pulled me deeper. I tried to ignore the stinging on my arms, but persevered both in curiosity and a half state of fear.

After another moment, Shino completely stopped and turned, keeping a firm grip on my hand. Risking a glance at my own arms, I saw that there were only a few cuts that really needed attention and were bleeding profusely. Some were very deep. But here I was, stuck with nothing.

Shino's bugs pulsed through his hand in anticipation, telling me how he felt. I looked back and forth nervously.

Suddenly, there was a glint behind Shino's head. There was no way he had noticed it.

Ignoring the thorns, I tackled Shino and brought him to the ground, hovering over him protectively. "Look out!" I hissed as the kunai whistled above my head. I grimaced and looked back up, almost positive that I knew what he had meant to do by leading me here.

He shifted and half-pushed me off of him. He looked in a circle and slowly kneeled. "Stay," he said quietly. "More are coming."

I glared, but knew what he needed me to do. This was under control if I just did as he said. A few more kunai knives flew around the area, one of them almost embedding itself in the dirt an inch from my head before it was intercepted by a cloud of bugs. I covered my head, feeling the blood in my numbed arms flow down and drip onto the ground slowly. The cuts had been so deep.

Shino stood and searched through the plants intently, trying not to overlook any tiny detail. I kept an eye on him, checking the direction behind his head for anything.

More knives shot through the dimness, and all were blocked quickly, hardly coming within a foot of either of us. "Stay down," Shino repeated. "Don't get hit."

*I wasn't planning on it, but thanks for the heads up. Just watch yourself, please.* I almost rolled my eyes, but the fear of one of us getting hit was too great to even blink normally. More kunai and shuriken flew out of nowhere, and one or two stabbed the ground an inch away from me. I glared, knowing I couldn't just sit here, and pulled my own kunai out of my pouch, making hasty hand signs so I could see through the branches.

*There's one...two...three of them!? What kind of technique is this?!* Without stalling, I threw the kunai strongly at one of the figures, keeping it in sight as it flickered away. I did the same with the other two figures. Only one doubled over before poofing away in a cloud of smoke. I looked around carefully and searched for another figure, finding none in front of my face.

Before I could sigh in relief, a shuriken whistled past my ear and arched down, leaving a thin scratch on my arm. It was hardly noticeable among the other scars, but burned much worse.

*Poison.*

I turned and saw one final figure poof away, leaving nothing behind - not even smoke. As suddenly as the weapons started flying, they had stopped and were replaced by the calm and relaxing hum of bugs in the garden.

I hardly noticed the relaxing part because of my arm. It stung horribly as the venom seemed to seep through my veins. Even though I'd dealt with hundreds of poisons, this was nothing like any of them. It was spreading rapidly. I had to get out of here and see the damage before I could treat it. I clasped my hand over the cut and put pressure on it. The blood running down my arm stained my clothes as I stood.

Shino turned quickly and glared, but saw my cringe and stood up as well. "They're gone..." I whispered.

He nodded and stared at my arm, which was tinted red. "From the thorns," he guessed.

"N-No," I said quickly and moved my hand, shocked at the dark bruise that was forming around the small cut. It wasn't like that a moment ago. In response, it shot with pain and the black spot grew larger. I groaned and gritted my teeth in frustration.

Thinking quickly, Shino pulled a bandage from his weapon pouch and grabbed hold of my arm, ignoring the dripping red that got on his hand and wrapping my arm from the elbow to the palm tightly.

I nodded in thanks, but still grasped the cut in a death grip. It still wasn't becoming numb like a normal poison, but was spreading painfullylike crazy. I squeezed my eyes shut. "It's...It's n-not...normal..." I stuttered, starting to scare myself.