Shino Aburame

**Shino Aburame** (油女シノ, *Aburame Shino*) is a shinobi of Konohagakure's Aburame clan. Quiet, and at times off-putting to some, Shino puts his clan's insect-based techniques to use on Team Kurenai. In later years, Shino became an Academy teacher.

## Background

Shino at one time grew up alongside Torune Aburame as his family took him in under guardianship after Torune's father, Shikuro Aburame, passed away. Despite their different views about friendship, Shino grew close to Torune, viewing him as an older brother. Torune even revealed to Shino his unique breed of microscopic insects. One day, Danzō Shimura approached the two young Aburame with the desire to recruit another young member of a secret technique-using clan for Root. While Danzō had the authority to do so and expressed interest in Shino, not wanting Shino to live a life of loneliness, Torune offered himself, appealing to Danzō by revealing who his father was. Knowing that he would probably never see Torune again but wanting to remain close to his brother-figure in some way, Shino harvested some of Torune's insects and spent years refining his bug breeding technique to produce new beetles that inherited traces of Torune's insects.

After enrolling into the Academy and being placed in Iruka Umino's class, he met Kiba Inuzuka, whom he numerously became irritated at due to the pair having polar opposite personalities. During breaks in between classes, he would let his bugs walk on his desk. During a class training session, he watched on alongside Kiba as Shikamaru Nara and Chōji Akimichi refused to fight each other even during training. When Kiba commented that Shikamaru, who had found the process to be too troublesome, would be a genin for the rest of his life, Shino noted that that may not be so as Shikamaru could go on to live a long life and many things could happen, but before he could finish his statement Kiba cut him off.

## Personality

Since his early childhood, Shino has been a calm, collected, and solitary person, who is quite mysterious. Shino is portrayed as being somewhere between merely stoic and matter-of-fact, rarely ever smiling or showing emotion at all; rather than thank his teammates for congratulating him on his victory in the preliminaries, he told them that he expected them to do the same. He also has a tendency of holding grudges and being rather intimidating, such as seen when Naruto failed to recognise him at the start of Part II (which is fair as the only visible part of his face were his sunglasses), but easily recognised Kiba and Hinata regardless. He still holds that grudge to this day.

Shino seems to be aware of these odd personality traits; in the anime, when he ate food poisoned with a chemical that forced him to laugh, he menacingly told Naruto to forget it had ever happened. His interest in insects only helps him strengthen this viewpoint; by spending most of his spare time watching them, and often making analogies to insects when talking, people have come to identify Shino as "creepy", and tend to dislike being in his company for prolonged periods of time. In his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, Shino dreamt that he found a new giant-sized species of bugs and tamed it as his own.

Despite occasionally arguing with Kiba due to their personality differences, Shino has a very strong sense of connection with his teammates and allies. This was first seen when he promised Sasuke Uchiha to help him fight Gaara after dealing with Kankurō, but regretted not being able to uphold that promise after being poisoned.

Shino is also very brave as he and his teammates were terrified after seeing Gaara's powers during the second stage of the Chūnin Exams, but he still resolved to help Sasuke in any way he could with Gaara. He also regretted being unavailable and therefore unable to help with retrieving Sasuke. From that point onwards, he resolved to work on his teamwork skills with Kiba and Hinata. He even helped Hinata to improve her abilities, and is one of the few people, besides Naruto, who openly professes confidence in her. The fruits of his efforts are seen in the anime, where Shino was able to carry out a mission successfully while also keeping others safe. He also proves to be able to understand his teammates' inner workings, sensing when the slightest of things is wrong with either of them. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he also went out of his way to keep his teammate's chakra flow active through the use of his insects.

Shino speaks in a curious fashion, as noted by both Naruto and Kiba. He speaks in a manner most simply described as "nitpicking" and uses the word 'because' (なぜなら, *nazenara*) a great deal. To others, his manner of speaking seems like over concern with the trivial points of a conversation which could be left unsaid, or, providing information that will leave questions that could possibly be asked — already answered.

Shino is fairly confident in his abilities and that he will win a battle, and tends to try to communicate this to an opponent for their own well-being. Still, Shino enjoys fighting, and dislikes being denied a chance to battle a skilled opponent, as seen when he went out of his way during the Konoha Crush to fight Kankurō, after the latter had forfeited to avoid revealing his puppets' secrets.

In the anime, it was shown that Shino will panic when confronted with insectivorous animals or plants (with Shino himself likening it to psychological torture). He will also fall into despair showing saddened expressions — atypical of him — to the point where he almost cries and even refuses to continue his mission to avoid losing any more insects. Similarly, in adulthood, Shino's passion for teaching shows a noticeable distress when his students fail to listen to him or damage happens to the Academy. Also, while still generally maintaining a composed and straightforward attitude, is shown able to relax and enjoy himself in more common activities. As a teacher, Shino is very compassionate with his students, as he insisted on caring for Sumire Kakei despite her actions that harmed many people.