Kiba dragged his feet through the snow dusted streets of Konoha.  The only possibly explanation for the ninja's sluggish movement could be that he'd been drinking.  Kiba seemed to do a lot of that lately.  There wasn't anything wrong with it of course; lots of shinobi had bad habits: Asuma had his smoking, Tsunade has her gambling, Choji has his junk food, everybody's got something.  Yep, nothing wrong with a little addiction.  Not that Kiba would ever call himself an alcoholic, oh no.  It was just something he needed to slow things down and push everything away to arm's length and breath for a while.  He was only eighteen, but he felt twenty-five, now there was the real crime.

Being a Jounin wasn't all that he thought it would be.  There were lots of solo missions, usually search and destroy or tracking in Kiba's case, and he'd always come back and drink himself into a stupor.  Kiba came to the conclusion that a week's worth of drinking did the same psychological and emotional damage as a single A rank mission.  Going out with Akamaru did make things easier; Kiba couldn't imagine what he'd be like without the huge dog by his side.  Probably much worse, the Inuzuka decided.  He was lucky; Kiba'd had Akamaru his whole life.  But, then he'd made friends--human friends.  Dogs were great and amazing and all, but Kiba found that there was a part of him that dogs couldn't please.  He wanted to see people, talk to them, work with them.  Man was a social animal after all.  This never happened though.  It seemed like every time he got back from a mission, half the people in his age group had just left, and the other half Kiba wouldn't want to spend his time with anyway.

The streets of Konoha were desolate and empty, simply making Kiba's isolation feel even worse as he shuffled toward home.  'No one said being a ninja meant having lots of friends,' Kiba thought. 'In fact they kind of implied the exact opposite,' his intoxicated mind slowly came to this fact.  'I never get to go on missions with them anymore, talk to them, or, God, even see them.'  As if a gift from the gods to the lonely boy, Kiba faintly caught a whiff of someone over his own sake ridden smell.  It was earthy but clean; Kiba only knew one person who smelled like that.  Tripping over his own drunken feet, Kiba stumbled through streets and back alleys and dragged himself over fences following the smell.  Then just a little ways inside the western gate, Kiba got a visual.  Usually his dark clothes made him difficult to see in the dark, but the light dusting of white in the streets outlined him perfectly.

"Shino!" Kiba slurred, jogging up to his friend, who had stopped walking but hadn't turned around.  "How's it goin', buddy."  The drunken boy made an attempt to throw an arm around his friend's shoulders.  "Woo!"  He slipped and fell face first into the snowy, dusty street and rolled around laughing.  Shino looked down at him.  Something was off, but he couldn't tell what; perhaps Kiba had simply become more of a goof in the months since the two of them had spoken.  Kiba eventually came to lay on his back in the street; he sighed and stared up at his friend, who remained unreadable behind his high collar and glasses.  "Whatdya doin' out here so late?" He grunted from the ground.

"I just came back from a mission.  If you'll excuse me, I must get to the Hokage."  Shino began walking again, leaving Kiba in the dust.

It took the dog-nin nearly a whole minute to really comprehend that he'd been blown off.  "Hey, wait up, Shino."  Kiba stumbled to his feet and shogged after his 'teammate,' once caught up, Kiba went in stride with Shino's steady pace.  "What's the rush?  I haven't seen you in forever; we need to catch up."  On his second attempt, Kiba succeeded in putting an arm around Shino's neck.  Shino promptly removed the arm, but Kiba wasn't the least bit deterred.  "Wanna go get a bite?"

Shino didn't bother to point out that everyplace in Konoha was no doubt closed by this time of night.  Instead, he addressed the strong smell of alcohol wafting from Kiba's mouth.  "Have you been drinking?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" Kiba gasped, Shino's eyebrow inched closer to his hairline, "Yes," Kiba confessed, "Yeah.  A bit."  He trailed off and focused on walking in a straight line for a while.  Shino took a turn; Kiba had a bit of difficulty following and wound up on the ground again.  It seemed to Shino that every time Kiba hit the dirt, a new thought came to his head.  As Kiba was bounding behind Shino, he called, "Just what mission is so important that you can't talk to me for five minutes."

Shino stopped in the middle of the road.  Kiba didn't notice until he had gone almost two yards further than where the hooded ninja stopped.  Shino dug inside his coat and took out a very small plastic container with about five one inch long green butterflies inside.  "Oh," Kiba gasped, pressing his nose against the box, "Shino, those are pretty."

"Southern Clover butterflies, named so for their bright color and their common habitat in clover fields where they blend in perfectly." Shino explained.  "Tsunade sent me to get them."  He slipped the container back into his coat and went on, stepping around Kiba, who slowly turned and followed.

"Why d'you need to get them to her now?" He asked after a minute.

"They'll die in the cold." Shino replied curtly.

"Oh, why'd she want them anyway?"

"They supposedly bring good luck to those that find them, much like four leafed clovers."

"Oh, yeah, she needs 'em, alright."  Kiba chuckled at his own joke.  Shino remained silent.

The two walked without talking for a while; Shino in his normal stoic style, and Kiba simply trying to walk right.  Kiba didn't feel right.  Sure, it was great to see his old teammate again, but something was definitely different.  Shino seemed the same, maybe Kiba had changed, or was it the other way around?  Kiba studied his friend for shows of how he felt, but as always saw nothing.

When focusing on something other than walking straight, Kiba was quickly taken off guard and tripped over himself for a third time.  He rolled over with a groan and found that Shino had stopped walking and was standing over him.  "What happened to us, Shino?" Kiba slurred, spreading his arms wide in the dust.

"What do you mean?" Shino asked.  He knew full well what Kiba was talking about but could also tell that this had been bothering the younger boy for a while.

"I mean, what happened to our lives."  His voice was barely above a whisper, "What happened to training with Kurenai and-and going on missions with Hinata.  I've barely talked to Hinata a year, and I haven't seen her for months."  Kiba shut his eyes tight as he felt tears start to well up.  He couldn't believe that he was acting like this.  What even brought this up?  "What the hell happened to us?" Kiba cried, pounding his fists in the dirt; he felt tears run from the corners of his eyes but didn't do anything about them.

Shino crouched down by his friend.  "We grew up." He stated.  "That's just what happens."  The concept of growing older seemed to punch Kiba in the stomach.  He made a little noise like a kicked dog and breathed heavily as though the wind had been knocked out of him.  Kiba watched the clouds of his breath rise into the clear night sky.  Shino looked down at him; Kiba was so fragile sometimes, so vulnerable.  "But we're always friends." Shino said quietly.  "Always teammates." His voice got progressively lower and softer, "No matter what happens, we'll always..."  The older boy looked away and was silent.

After what felt like a really long time, Kiba spoke up, "Shino, are you crying?"  The bug boy didn't answer.  "It's okay if you are." Shino sniffed softly.  Kiba smiled a bit; Shino would never admit to it, but he knew.  "We're family."  Kiba concluded.  "You and Kurenai and Hinata and me, together."

"Yeah." Shino murmured, raising his head.  Kiba could see the faintest tearstreaks on the small amount of pale skin Shino left exposed.  The two were quiet again for a minute, just savoring each others' presence.

"Hey, Shino," Kiba whispered.  Shino turned his head to face Kiba.  "Can you walk me home?" He asked with a little smile, "I don't think I'll get there on my own."  Shino nodded.  He took Kiba's hand and put it around his shoulders.  The two shinobi slowly rose and set off, with Kiba leaning against Shino for support that he'd always felt was there but had never appreciated.



The next morning, with a terrible headache, Kiba made his way to the Aburame compound riding on Akamaru, hoping that Shino hadn't left on another mission.  He found Shino sitting in a large garden just inside the compound walls.  "Hey, Shino." Kiba called from behind the gate.  The bug boy approached the gate.  "Listen, about last night--"

"If what you're about to say includes the phrase 'I was drunk' then I don't wish to hear it." Shino said flatly.

"Alright," Kiba laughed, "I'll just stop there then." He sighed, "Hey, you wanna go find Hinata and, I dunno, hang out or train or something?"

Shino looked back to the garden, then opened the gate, "Sure." He said in a tone that Kiba could have sworn was friendly.

"Great!" Kiba grinned from ear to ear, "Race ya to Hinata's!  Go, Akamaru!"  The dog bounded down the road with Kiba laughing the whole way.  Shino began calmly following the dust cloud that was his friend.  They hadn't changed at all; it just seemed that way.