Beetle In The Shadow (A Shino Aburame love story)

Hope

Shino's Point of View

I leaped through the forest, trying to keep myself from worrying about Shikai. It was hard, but I knew that she would want me to be focused for the mission, no matter what. My heart pounded as I jumped through the trees, my thoughts wandering to Shikai.

She couldn't have been awake. If she was, she would've gone on the mission to get Sasuke back from chasing the sand jinchuuriki, so she had to have been asleep, but Shikai's too smart to get trapped in that genjutsu... I thought, furrowing my brow.

Since my insects had led me to a quicker path, I soon caught up with Sasuke. "You can keep going, Sasuke. I'll hold him off." I smirked, hiding my worry for Shikai, "We never had our fight after all."

Shikai's Point of View

I groaned as I began to get up, my head throbbing and my body sore. The last thing I remembered was that mysterious Anbu knocking Kiba and I out. My mind quickly put together the pieces, about how the Anbu was an imposter. I silently cursed, wondering how I could be so dense.

Pushing myself to my feet, I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. Maybe I should just lay down and go to sleep...Being awake is a drag anyway. I thought, my eyes beginning to close. I knew it was odd for me to suddenly feel tired, but thoughts of sleep clouded my mind. Thoughts of my sudden will to sleep being a genjutsu invaded my mind. Forcing my eyes open, I could hear the sounds of multiple weapons clashing.

I quickly formed the correct handsigns, "Release," I said softly, and it felt like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. My head was still pounding, and my body wasn't any less sore, but I felt slightly more awake. I looked down next to me, seeing Kiba and Hinata unconscious. I slowly got up, making sure I stayed crouching down so I didn't draw attention to myself as I tried to shake my exhaustion. I didn't have a plan yet, but I assumed that their must have been others that were awake. Shikamaru was too smart to get caught in that genjutsu, but there was always a chance that he was too lazy to actually get up. Shino on the other hand, had to have been awake, somewhere. He was smart and definitely not lazy, so I was sure that he was awake and okay.

The number of enemy ninja began to decline, but there was still a good amount of them. I couldn't do anything, not with all the enemies attacking from all sorts of different directions; I was surprised none of them saw me yet. Although I had just recently woken up from being unconscious, my body was still exhausted. My best guess was that the pressure points that the Anbu hit caused my fatigue, it was a poor explanation, but I didn't know what else it could be. Part of me thought it had something to do with the fact that my body was still recovering a bit from the fight Shikamaru and I had, and my pressure points being hit certainly didn't help the healing, but I wasn't entirely sure.

Exhaustion crept up on my and I felt my eyes beginning to close. I wanted to help, I truly did, but I was stuck here, basically surrounded by enemies and tired. Even if I did find a way to go out, I was much to tired to be of any use, and I didn't have all my chakra. I had more than half of it, but still not all of it.

I let out a soft sigh, and waited, planning to come out when the fighting died down a bit. This could take awhile...