How We Work

I heart my muse. And music.

Disclaimer: Naruto is (c) Kishimoto. BUT THE YAOI BELONGS TO THE FANGIRLS!!!!

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How do we work?

I’m an Inuzuka, a dog.

With us, it’s all about the pack. Physical contact, open emotions, we’re as free with each other as anything. Probably more than most of the other clans.

Dogs depend on more than noises to communicate. It’s mostly body language, to say fear or hate or “Piss off, unless that’s a bowl of food in your hand I smell and give it here now.” There’s more to us than a bit of fang and growling, you know. Pack and friendship makes us strong. The way we know everything about everyone in the family, and it doesn’t matter because who cares? You can’t control the smells of sex or the way your face always heats up when you’re embarrassed. It’s being a human. And the sense of unity in pack; dominance and submission knit together in that weird working way, that’s being a dog.

Wolves are also like that. Loyal, noble, selfless, but not like a dog. Wolves have to be more reserved. None of that random barking and whimpering. They don’t talk-talk as much; leaving it all to gestures and codes which they all know to live by. I’m not sure why. The wild? Surviving and straining and enduring, that must be it.

I’m just content to be more tamed than they are. Makes dealings with non-clan members easier, because then you don’t get weird looks all the time. Only some of the time, like when you’ve got your nose to the ground to track down some asshole of a missing-nin, and everyone else on your team stares for a while. Then the red marks on your face finally register, and it’s “Ohh… Inuzuka, right?” Good enough explanation for them.

But he’s an Aburame.

A fricking BUG.

If I didn’t have him on my team for three and a half years, (give or take some time, I haven’t really been keeping track) I wouldn’t know how the fuck this guy works. Colder than.. I dunno, a lot of stuff. Ice in the middle of winter at nighttime in Suna. Something like that.

But anyway, bugs are as far from dogs as you get. Farther than those damn cats, ok? Nothing resembling emotion. EVER. No clear changes in posture, no signs to be read as body language. Hell, I don’t even know how they get along. A few words said during the day, training new ways to work with the creepy-crawlies in your body, and probably some more training once puberty hits, I guess. It’s like an anthill there: big community where everyone knows each other, but no one has more physical contact than wiggly antennae. Yeah, and outsiders make them all pissy.

It took me a half a year of working with this guy to finally understand his ass. Because with that clan, it’s more about the inner workings and the little things. A slight change in the tone of voice, speed in movements, stuff like that. You have to squint for a while, and then you assure yourself that it was really there.

Me, being used to things bold and thrown out in the open, was confused as hell for the first few months of working every single fucking day with a rock of a guy who probably smirked behind his collar and glasses until I managed to get the hang of it all. If Akamaru didn’t warn me the first time we met, I’d have picked as many fights with him as Naruto did with Sasuke. Which I did for a while. But now I keep that for whenever Kurenai-sensei gets bored and waves me in his direction with a “Your teamwork need some improving. Have a spar to get more used to working with each other.” Sadistic woman, I swear. She doesn’t pair him with Hinata half as much as she does with me.

So anyway, what links a dog to a bug? Aside from the first weird moment made less weird by beer, absolutely nothing except the dog’s loyalty and the bug’s acceptance.

He changed because of me, I know it. Not like he’s gotten to be exactly like me and loud and stuff, but… I think it’s better. He’s nicer to Hinata and Kurenai-sensei, and maybe even isn’t so cold to most of the other chuunin. I asked him about that once, and he shrugged. Didn’t tell me much ‘cause that’s a pure human gesture anyone can translate to anything. He knows that I can’t get it out of him if he doesn’t want to say it. Bastard.

But I like him.

He likes me too, even if he hasn’t said it yet. Because that’s just the way he is. Trusting me to know what he means even if it isn’t out there… hard to explain, but heck, how else can I put it?

Aburame Shino is never going to be a dog the way I am.

But still… I think that he’ll try to be a wolf.