Angel's Touch

Artemis-sensei: *stretches* I know, I know. I haven’t updated in a month. Sorry about that peeps. Here’s the lowdown of what you can expect in the next few months.

As I stated before, I’m attending a college to be a game designer. It’s a 2 ½ year accelerated program for my bachelor’s degree, and I’m 2 years into it. In other words, I’ve reach that near end mark. This whole month was spent in teams, working on our game’s game document (65pages), technical document (15pages), and art document (45pages of drawing @_@). I hardly got any free time, and what I did get I used for sleep. -_-

But now I’m in that pause between classes, looking at 3D Max Modeling for my next class. This means I’ll be modeling stuff in 3D (weee XP). I don’t know how much free time I’ll get. *sigh*

I’ll do my best to keep drawing on deviantart and typing this story, though. ^^

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Chapter 22: Somebody for Everybody

Shino wasn’t sure how this day had taken such a dramatic turn. He’d woke up that morning and eaten some microwave breakfast, took a hot shower, fed his insect friends, and had relaxed in his chair to check on how a few of the tenants were doing when he’d heard the creak of the door being opened. He knew that if it was Sasuke, Sasuke would have knocked and brought him an insect for his collection. The other male normally always did. So to not hear a knock told him he had an intruder.

And an intruder it had been. A rather annoyingly persistent one at that. Since he hadn’t seen this youth before, he could only guess it was one of the new tenants that had moved in. The boy’s stubbornness reminded him a bit of Naruto, as well as the grin he’d tried to throw at him when he’d snuck in again. But Shino had underestimated him, never having guessed the guy would wait hours just for him to drop his guard so he could snoop around.

Shino hadn’t moved after the boy found his computer and ran for it. On the outside he’d remained calm, but behind the sunglasses there had been a quiver of fear in his eyes. Shit…the guy had seen the cameras. And unlike Sasuke, he’d obviously taken it in the worst way.

It was like when he had been little and his father had been home. He’d wanted a cookie from the jar and had tried to get one, despite his father’s firm no. Then he accidentally knocked the jar over and broke it. It was that sinking feeling in the stomach where you know you’re in trouble and there’s nothing you can do to avoid it.

So it was with a nauseous stomach and a heavy heart that Shino stepped forward and opened his door when a knock sounded.

And now he found himself reluctantly walking down the sidewalk, escorted by said annoying dog boy, Uchiha Sasuke, and ever grinning Naruto. And that’s where the humor came in for him.

“Sasuke…was it ok for Kiba to blackmail Bug Man like this?” Naruto whispered, looking questioningly at his charge.

“Morally? No…but considering the circumstances, there’s really no other way to get Shino to leave his room,” Sasuke noted with a shrug.

“But it seems wrong to threaten to tell the police. And besides, we’d never let him do that, would we?” Naruto pushed, frowning a little.

Sasuke smiled at the pout and shook his head. “Course not, dobe.”

“Somehow, I blame this on you,” Shino grunted, shooting Sasuke a look.

Sasuke put on an innocent façade and scowled. “He’s not my responsibility.”

Akamaru whined between the three boys, letting them know that Kiba wasn’t his responsibility either.

“Ok!” Kiba announced, breaking everyone’s train of thought as he stopped them all in front of a strip mall. “First thing on the list is to do something about Aburame’s appearance.”

Shino didn’t comment, though his eyebrow twitched slightly in annoyance.

Naruto frowned. “But I kinda like how Shino looks. He looks bad ass.”

“That’s the problem!” Kiba shouted out and turned, glaring at the three boys with his hands on his hips. “You can’t make friends if you intimidate everyone you look at! Besides, the whole hidden face wild look is so yesterday.”

“Uhh…Kiba…have you looked in a mirror,” Naruto stated.

Akamaru snuffed in agreement with Naruto.

Kiba shot them both a glare, “No comments from the peanut gallery!”

“……” Shino was coming to the quick conclusion that Kiba was an idiot.

Sasuke had already come to that conclusion a long while ago and was choosing merely to watch out of boredom.

Kiba huffed angrily and turned, pushing Naruto’s comment and Akamaru’s agreement out of thought and eyeing the stores. “That one!”

He grabbed Shino’s arm and dragged him into a store. Sasuke had to keep from laughing at how much that action reminded him of Naruto’s way of dragging him around.

“Hurry up, Sasuke!” Naruto shouted, already rushing into the store after the other two.

Sasuke sighed and momentarily met Akamaru’s gaze. “You sure you don’t want to look for a new master?”

Akamaru snuffed and shook his fur a little, before going to lay down in the shade of a tree. Sasuke considered joining him, but the thought of two angels, namely Naruto, alone in a store with their earthly knowledge told him the wiser choice. So with a heavy sigh, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and bravely entered the store in search of the other three.

“Sasuke! Look!” Naruto shouted as he entered, holding up a dress.

Sasuke smirked, unable to hold back commenting. “Yes, dobe. You’d look beautiful in it.”

Naruto paused, then scowled and stuck out his tongue with a slight blush, “Baka! I wasn’t talking about wearing it!”

Sasuke walked over to further inspect the article. He then noticed the design and decided that was what Naruto had apparently meant to show him.

“Fans. Like the ones on your clothes,” Naruto confirmed his thoughts.

Sasuke smiled a little and shook his head, “Idiot…they’re not the same. These are regular fans. The fan of the Uchiha is our clan symbol.”

“Yeah and it looks like an eye crying. Clan of cry babies, neh?” Kiba joked.

“HEY! Watch it, dog boy!” Naruto bristled angrily, interrupting Sasuke from making his own retaliating remark.

“Oops, sorry. Forgot…don’t insult your boyfriend,” Kiba smirked.

Sasuke watched Naruto flush and start to lose his temper. His experience so far in all things dobe told him that if he didn’t steer Naruto’s train of thought somewhere else, they were going to either draw a crowd or get kicked from the store for fighting. And although he felt Kiba receiving a fist in the face would be justifiable at the moment, he didn’t feel like paying for broken things.

So with a sigh, Sasuke rest his elbow on Naruto’s head and threw on his most irritating smirk, “Oi, Usuratonkachi. How about we find you some decent clothes. Preferably, none orange.”

And surprisingly, that worked. Naruto turned his attention to Sasuke and immediately scowled at the smirk. “Teme…What’s wrong with orange!?”

“You look like a walking traffic cone,” Sasuke answered, though honestly he had no problem with the clothes Naruto wore. But hey, it deterred a fight.

Naruto turned red at the comment, and not from embarrassment. “A WHAT!? ASSHOLE!! I HAVE GREAT TASTE IN CLOTHING!!”

“Dobe, I’m tired of being seen with a guy that dresses in yesterday’s fashion,” Sasuke pushed, finding an angry Naruto kind of amusing to watch.

“Yesterday’s fashion? Oh, like you’re the pick of the crop,” Naruto scoffed, catching Sasuke off guard. “I mean look at you, teme. You look like you came from a funeral.”

“What…?” Sasuke growled out, eye twitching. No one insulted a Uchiha’s taste in clothing.

“Black, blue, and maybe some white on a good day. Wow…real original,” Naruto pushed, deciding that if his pride was going to get hurt, Sasuke’s was going down with it. “Is the Uchiha legacy that of Goths and Emos?”

That did it. Now Sasuke was pissed. “Why the hell does everyone assume I’m emo!? I had this style before emos were even emo!!”

On the side lines, Kiba and Shino watched the argument escalate in silence. Finally, Kiba looked at Shino and raised an eyebrow, before grabbing the silent youth’s arm and dragging him off away from the two quarreling boys.

“Honestly…they act like a married couple…” Kiba scoffed, looking along the isles for clothes that might work on the boy he’d taken hostage.

Shino grunted a bit in agreement, though he found it kind of nice. He’d never seen Sasuke happy with another person before.

Kiba let Shino’s arm go and started sorting through a rack, pulling out a few things and handing them to Shino. “Anyways, back to the mission at hand. We need something more…approachable. Something bright and cheerful…”

He glanced towards the still arguing couple and smirked in mild amusement, “Preferably nothing orange.”

“Why?” Shino asked.

Kiba looked at him and huffed, glaring a little, “Because you look like one of those serial stalkers they show in movies.”

“…” Shino shifted slightly where he stood.

“Doesn’t help that you watch people with a camera…” Kiba muttered and went back to looking for clothes.

Shino continued to remain silent, knowing nothing he said would get through the other’s thick skull. He watched the pile in his arms grow, then shrink, then grow twice the size of that before, then finally shrink back down to one single outfit Kiba had settled on.

“Ok, in ya go!” Kiba stated, shoving Shino across the store to the changing room and into a booth. “And don’t come out with that jacket on!”

Shino frowned and looked down at the clothes, then back at himself in the mirror.

Five minutes later, Kiba looked up as Shino stepped out of the booth in the outfit he’d chosen. It was a simple jean and t-shirt combo, but it was nice and a lot less intimidating then that jacket. However…the sunglasses were still there and the hair was still too untamed.

“Nice, nice! Now…off with the glasses,” Kiba commanded.

Shino stiffened. He did not like these clothes and he was not going to take off his glasses.

He calmly took a breath and glared at the brunette. “No.”

Kiba could smell the danger and decided to back off for now. Apparently, the sunglasses would need a bit more coaxing. “Fine…come on.”

He grabbed Shino’s arm as the other was gathering up his clothes and dragged the male to the cash register to pay for the outfit. As soon as the clothes were paid for, Kiba took off in search of a hair salon, not caring if he was leaving Naruto and Sasuke behind. Those two could make out or something for all he cared.

“Right! Next on the list is to fix that hair. It looks like it’s never seen a comb before,” Kiba explained, stopping in front of the salon.

Shino paused and looked into the window on the outside, feeling his patience ebb away. Now his hair needed redressed? He rather liked his hair. He rather liked his look. His old look. It was like his father’s, and personally he needed that small bit of home comfort.

“Trimmed and combed. A sleek look would do, ya think?” Kiba asked, turning and smirking at his companion.

Shino’s tolerance snapped and he jerked his arm away from Kiba, turning to leave.

“H-Hey! Where are you going!?” Kiba shouted at him angrily.

Shino turned and locked Kiba with his harshest glare, stopping the youth dead in his tracks. “Who are you to change me?”

Kiba felt like he’d been nailed by the other’s words and flushed, stumbling over his own tongue to reply to that.

“I don’t care. Tell the cops if you want,” Shino finished, before turning and walking off.

“Naruto…dobe…come out of there,” Sasuke growled, banging his fist once on the changing stall door.

Naruto slumped on the bench on the other side, arms crossed and in full out pout and glare mode.

Sasuke sighed and let his head hit the door, scowling a little as he bit down his pride. “Look…I’m sorry. You have nice clothes and ramen is not disgusting.”

“You mean it?” Naruto’s voice came from the other side.

“Yes. I do. In fact, why don’t we forget the whole stupid fight and go get some?” Sasuke suggested.

Naruto peeped out through the crack in the stall. “Can I have more then one bowl?”

Sasuke new his wallet would regret this. “You can have as many as you want, ok?”

There was silence for a long moment, then the lock came undone and Naruto came out with his cheerful grin on.

“ALL RIGHT! RAMEN!!!” He cheered, then threw Sasuke a smug smirk. “See, teme. Told you I was right.”

“Hn…” Sasuke grunted, just glad to have gotten over that hurdle. He’d have never of guessed their fight would escalate and then Naruto would just randomly pull the girl thing to do and shut himself in a stall. His angel was so unpredictable at times.

“…hey…where’d Kiba and Bug Man go?” Naruto asked, frowning and looking around the store.

Sasuke stepped up beside him and coasted the place, finding Naruto was right. “…they probably already left.”

“Awe man! I wanted to help!” Naruto whined.

“Forgetting the ramen?” Sasuke asked.

“In your dreams!” Naruto laughed and grinned at Sasuke.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and left the shop with the blonde, knowing there was little that would deter Naruto’s thought when ramen was concerned. Naruto followed him with a huge smile, feeling happy and completely forgetting their earlier argument. It was nice to get out and spend some time with just Sasuke. They’d had the others around so much that it felt like they hadn’t really gotten any quality charge/guardian time. And of course, they were going to go eat all the ramen Naruto wanted. Things just couldn’t go bad for Naruto at that moment.

“Ah! Sasuke-kun!” A voice suddenly cut through Naruto’s thoughts, making both boys stop in their tracks.

Sasuke had developed his normally annoyed scowl and was turning to face the intruder of their moment with his famous Uchiha coldness. Naruto, however, had turned suddenly pale and was slowly turning to look as well, fear lacing up his spine.

Kiba sighed and walked around with his hands in his pockets, looking for Shino. He knew he’d screwed up somehow and he felt bad. He wanted to find the guy and apologize, especially since he’d had a good point. Changing Shino’s look hadn’t been the right approach at all.

After a moment, he caught sight of the other boy sitting on the stone trim of a plotted garden, the large tree and bushes offering a nice shade. He was back in his jacket, but Kiba noted that the jeans had remained on him.

Taking a deep breath, Kiba walked over and sat next to Shino, avoiding looking at the other guy.

“……Sorry…”

Shino remained silent and showed little notice of Kiba’s presence, making Kiba feel more put down and embarrassed.

Biting his lip, Kiba folded his hands together, “You’re right. I don’t have a right to change you. And honestly…you don’t look that bad. I just wanted to help. But…I’m trained to be a soldier, not a guardian. Heh…guess that chibi was right. It’s not any of my business.”

Shino finally spoke up after that. “Why would you want to help me?”

Kiba looked up at him in surprise, then flushed in embarrassment. “W-Well………I don’t…know. I just do. I guess…maybe…because I kinda know what it’s like?”

Shino looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Akamaru arrived on the scene just then and wagged his tail in greeting, settling down next to Kiba and resting his head on the boy’s lap. Kiba smiled and stroked Akamaru’s fur, getting comfort from it.

“I had a hard time making friends to. Akamaru and I have been together for a really long time, and I can pretty much understand him. A lot more then I understand other people, to tell you the truth. He’s always with me. We’re partners to the end, and that’s something a lot of people never understood. I mean…I’ve heard it all. Every canine related comment you can name, I’ve heard it spoken to me or behind my back. I’ve even heard people joke about how my dog and I are sexually involved,” Kiba explained and laughed bitterly at the last part, rolling his eyes. “Lots of people avoided me, just because I’m a little more in touch with nature. Sometimes I thought of giving up on trying to make friends…but then I met dumb Uzumaki Naruto. He’s an idiot, but he makes me think I can do anything if I try hard enough.”

Akamaru wagged his tail at that and rolled onto his back, making Kiba smirk in amusement. He turned back to Shino and shrugged. “I guess when I heard that no one wanted to be your friend because you like bugs, and that you just gave up after a while, it just sounded like what I went through. And you know, you shouldn’t give up. There’s someone out there for everybody, and if you hide in a room your whole life you’ll never meet that someone.”

“…” Shino stared back at him quietly, making Kiba nervous again.

“Besides…bugs aren’t all that bad. I mean, personally, I don’t hate bugs. Other then fleas, ticks, and creepy spiders…Understandably, of course, it’s a dog thing for me,” Kiba stammered out and looked away with a blush, rubbing the back of his head. “I-I mean…let’s face it…not everybody stumbles into your place like me. So…stop hiding already.”

Silence reigned for a moment, mostly because Kiba had run out of things to say. Then he felt a hand rest on his head and ruffle his hair a little, making him blink in surprise and turn to look at the other boy. Shino had relaxed and took his hand back, then after a moment held up his other hand where a butterfly had perched.

“Are these creepy?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kiba blinked in surprise and awe, before laughing, “No. Butterfly’s are definitely not creepy.”

Shino smiled behind his coat.

Akamaru’s ears suddenly perked up, then he sat up completely on alert. Kiba tensed as well and turned to look in mild confusion, wondering what had grabbed Akamaru’s attention.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Naruto suddenly rushed by screaming, knocking Kiba and Shino off the bench in his rush of terror.

“ACK!” Kiba shouted out as he fell onto Shino, knocking the wind out of the other brunette.

Glasses clattered to the ground and both boys winced in pain, the dust settling a little.

“Damnit…what the fuck? I’ll kill that chibi, I swear I’ll-” Kiba started to rant and paused, realizing he was looking right into Shino’s uncovered eyes.

Both of them blushed a little at their predicament, Kiba getting up off of Shino so he could stand back up. Kiba knelt and picked up the fallen sunglasses, offering them to Shino. Shino took them and slipped them back on, daring to meet Kiba’s gaze again. But before either of them had time to react, Sasuke rushed onto the scene.

“Oi! Break it up you two! It’s time to go!!” Sasuke shouted.

“Nani?” Kiba answered, blushing even harder.

Sasuke didn’t wait to explain, instead grabbing them both by an arm and dragging them along after Naruto’s dieing trail.

“NARUTO!!! YOU BASTARD!!!” A female voice screamed, earning Kiba’s attention.

He looked behind him as he was dragged and spotted a very angry, very scary looking pink haired girl running behind them a few feet off.

“STAY AWAY FROM SASUKE, UZUMAKI!!” She shouted, before her features suddenly took a complete shift. “SASUKE-KUN!! COME BACK!!! WAIT!!!”

“Cover your mouths!” Sasuke shouted, offering little time in warning before he tossed back a smoke bomb.

It went off, covering the whole area in smoke. Kiba glanced back and panicked himself, seeing the smoke do little to detour their stalker.

“Naruto! Slow down, you wuss!!” Sasuke shouted out.

Yes…This had turned out to be a very interesting day.


***behind the scenes***

Reporters: (gathered around back waiting for the cast to come out)

Kiba: (walks out first)

Reporters: (all go mad)

Reporter 1: Kiba! Kiba! Are you and Shino having an affair?

Reporter 2: Did he look good in those clothes?

Reporter 3: Forget that! His eyes! What are they like!?! WHAT COLOR!?!

Kiba: O.O (runs for it)

Artemis: (steps out)

Reporter 2: Artemis-sensei!!! Do you realize that scene at the end between Shino and Kiba was totally cliché!?!

Reporter 3: HIS EYES!!! WHAT COLOR!?!?!

Artemis: O.O (*throws Itachi as a distraction and runs for it)

***notes***

Shino’s Eyes – Yeah…I didn’t describe them for a reason. Not the color or anything. Only Kiba knows. XD Though I personally believe Shino has pretty grey eyes. ^^

Naruto and Sasuke: *giggles madly* Emo and traffic cone. I love it. XD

***reviewer responses***

Mitsuko – sorry it took so long to update. Hope this was a nice chapter. ^^

devil child – *plays with her plushies* I didn’t update for a month cause I was so busy playing with these. =P

takako – Nope, none of those guesses. But I’m sure if you asked nicely, Itachi would hug you before killing you. ^^ And the nail polish is black. Could probably find it at Hot Topics…or a local goth store. ^^

littleolmee – Kiba doesn’t make to many friends himself, as you saw in this chapter. That and Shino…is just to cool not to want to know. XD And man…lucky…its already in the 100s here heat wise. -__-‘

XZanayu – hee hee. ^^

CommGonn – Iruka’s such a lover of the hard-to-get game. ^^

niguara-chic – Actually, he’s never taken his glasses off in the anime or the manga. The pictures that ARE out there are all photoshopped pictures, same as the pics of Kakashi without his mask. Trust me, I’ve seen all the anime in its original Japanese form. He hasn’t taken off the glasses.

ClosetEmo – I feel so bad for Lee. But the go fish thing was so funny. XD And no, Kabuto isn’t the seven-tailed beast.

Nomme de Plume – Shino swears he had nothing to do with the love bug thing.

Damp – Things will work out. Don’t worry. ^^ There will be Kakashi/Iruka. And yeah, Shino/Kiba! XD

sephirothsslave – no. Lee has the three tailed water beast that they just found in the manga. It’s this turtle like thing. ^^;

bloodyrose – Yesh! Jiraiya the angel! XD And I’m still working with Lee and Gaara. Gaara isn’t very out about emotions, so its hard to show how he’s growing close with Lee. Sorry…they are a hard pair to work with. ^^ And yeah, Shino and Iruka are just love interest characters. ^^ Sorry… They may some day put into the war effort as well though.

Kryin – Sorry, no easter thing. ^^ Anyways, thank you and welcome to the story.

darkangelthefallen – I love Gaara to. And him with Lee is just so cute in my opinion. ^^

Casso – XD I love how he said ‘drag him out of the closet’. Awe, the innocent double innuendo. ^^

dana – I love giving Akamaru a brain. It shows that they’re more then just dog and master, but partners and pals. And I don’t know if this chapter was a hoot. Hopefully it was.

Kameoto – Hee hee. Yeah, I love those funny lines. I’m glad you liked the squirrel acorn thing. I thought it was funny to.

Cheshire666 – My mind is in the story when I write it. I see what I type, and I type what I see happening. So yeah…Bug Man Makeover. XD

Gwyllion – smut, smut, smut…geez. I can’t even say if I’ll do a good job with that. But it’ll come.

Andi-chan – I know. I’m sorry, but life and school are a big thing to. ^^

Yuri-san – Don’t worry. There will be Kakashi/Iruka. Truth is? Iruka does like Kakashi. He’s just very stubborn and plays the hard-to-get thing. And grammar…yeah…heh…my weak point. ^^’And I’ve read a story that had Sai in it. He’s great. XD But not as Sasuke’s Naruto’s love interest. *pouts and glares at Sasuke/Sai and Naruto/Sai fans*

anki – I’m here. Don’t worry. I updated and everything. And please no…I’ve got a little sister as it is and I want to sell her off myself. <.<