Shino Aburame

Shino Aburame (油女シノ, Aburame Shino) is a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Personality
Shino Aburame is a cool, collected, and solitary Chunin who is quite mysterious. He is portrayed as being somewhere between being 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 tells them that he expects them to do the same (both Kiba and Hinata lose their matches). He also has a tendency of holding grudges and being rather intimidating, such as seen when Naruto fails to recognize him in Part II, but easily recognizes Kiba and Hinata, despite him wearing clothing that covers much of his body.

Behind his reserved demeanor, though, Shino places a lot of value on his friends and teamwork. While he can often be stern with Kiba over his impulsiveness, Kiba holds his abilities in high regard. Shino gets along well with Hinata, appearing extremely concerned as she goes into cardiac arrest after her match, and believing that she has the potential to become strong.

Shino is extremely intelligent and consistently makes shrewd judgments and pinpoint reasoning which confirm his excellent analytical and observational skills. Like Shikamaru Nara, Shino prevails in battles by systematically staying steps ahead of the enemy.

Shino's favorite food is vegetable salad, and his least favorites are tofu balls and strong-smelling foods. His hobby is observing bugs, and his favorite phrase is "Trump card" ("Ace in the hole" in the English version).

Part In The Story
Shino Aburame is a Chunin from Naruto's graduating year (originally from Kurenai Yuhi's Genin Team 8 along with Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka). As a part of Aburame clan tradition, Shino was infused at birth with a special breed of insects that feed on chakra. In return, the insects attack and do other tasks as he commands.

Unlike most of the other characters in the four central teams, the sole exception being Tenten of Team Guy, Shino's backstory has never been divulged. In fact, other than brief appearances in flashbacks focused on other characters, Shino has yet to appear in his own flashback from before the start of the series.

Chunin Exams
In the first part of the Chunin Exams, Shino uses his insects to read the answers on other people's tests. During the second part, his knowledge of insects allows his team to take another team's scroll with little effort; when leeches attack another team (from the Rain Village in the anime, from the Leaf Village in the manga), they stumble into a net trap.

During the preliminaries of the Chunin Exam, Shino is matched against Zaku Abumi, whom he defeats by plugging up the air tubes in his arms with bugs, rendering them useless. (In the manga, Zaku's right forearm is blown off completely when he tries to use the air tubes; in the anime they are merely riddled with holes.) He appears very confident in his abilities, and demonstrates his strategic thinking in this battle. During most of the fight, he simply recommends that Zaku forfeit for his own good, a recommendation that turned out to be genuine, as well as a distraction tactic.

During the third stage, he was set up to fight Kankuro, who forfeits the battle in order to keep the abilities of his puppet, Karasu, a secret. When the Sand and Sound ninja begin their attack on Konoha, Shino overhears Might Guy and Kakashi telling Naruto and Sakura to find Sasuke. Shino decides to help by following Sasuke. He catches up just as Sasuke is about to battle Kankuro. He then challenges Kankuro in Sasuke's place, claiming that Kankuro is his opponent, allowing Sasuke to continue chasing a fleeing Gaara and Temari. During the fight, Kankuro manages to poison Shino with some gas from Karasu. Shino, however, had placed a female insect on Kankuro beforehand, allowing his insects to track down Kankuro and drain his chakra. Shortly after Kankuro is defeated, Shino loses consciousness as well, regretting that he wasn't able to follow Sasuke. His father, Shibi, later arrives and uses his bugs to draw out the poison from Shino's body.

Shino was the only male of the Rookie Nine left out of the mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, having been on a mission with his father at the time. Shino felt some bitterness and guilt over the matter, considering the eventual outcome might have been different had he been sent to help them as well.

Anime Filler Arcs
In the anime, he and Kiba help Hinata to train herself and develop her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms ability.

Shortly after Naruto's confrontation with Mizuki, and a subsequent lack of any information on Orochimaru's whereabouts, Shino leads Team 8 and Naruto to find the Bikochu, a rare insect with legendary tracking abilities. During this arc, he demonstrates his intelligence and cunning in battle, as well as his hobby of observing and collecting bugs. He also explains a former rivalry between his clan and another insect clan from Hidden Rock that uses bees, the Kamizuru clan.

This arc shows how well their team works together and how much they care for each other. It also shows that he is good friends with both Kiba and Hinata, despite him being so mysterious. Although he and Naruto don't get along at first, they do become good friends. During the last confrontation between the Kamizuru clan and Hinata, he explained and understood every step that Hinata took to change herself. In addition, he believed in her, allowing her to fight the bee-users alone while Naruto attempted to intervene. Despite this, Naruto flatulates on the Bikochuu, causing it to follow his scent, and rendering it useless.

Shino also appears in the Land of the Sea arc, this time being paired with Naruto and Ino under the command of Anko. They are ordered to find out what is terrorizing the country and defeat it if possible. Here, they meet two old enemies from the Chunin exams, both of whom were working for Orochimaru. He and Naruto get along a lot better in this arc. He's shown having more confidence in Naruto, and worries about him when Naruto is separated from the group, but knows that Naruto will be fine. He engages Yoroi Akado in battle during the group's raid on the laboratory, and fights him alone so that Naruto and Ino will be able to reach Amachi. His battle resumes outside, during the battle over the ship carrying the payment, and he defeats Yoroi with Ino's help.

Shino is sent on another mission with Naruto alone to Motoyoshi Village, where Shino was to be a stand-in for a man named Fuuta. The goal of the mission was to not laugh during a funeral. Fuuta would lose his inheritance otherwise, and the ever serious Shino was sent as the perfect weapon for this task. However, due to sabotage (being drugged with a poison that causes one to faux-laugh), Shino had to sit out - leaving Naruto to attend the funeral in his place. Shino, despite his condition, learns that the man the funeral is for isn't actually dead, and conspires with him to get everyone at the funeral to laugh, posing as the old man and using bug clones to take the form of the man's children when they were young. The man had staged the funeral to get his family to laugh once again. At the end of the mission, Shino threatens Naruto to keep him quiet about his discovery of Shino's sense of humor.

Shino has a supporting role in the Kurama clan arc, as while Kiba complains about Kurenai leaving the team, Shino suggests that it was her decision to do so. He also correctly guesses that Kurenai was lying when she said that she sealed Yakumo's abilities out of jealousy, noting that while her hands were trembling when talking about her past, they stopped when she gave her reason. Shino sends his bugs into the room where Yakumo is holding Kurenai in order to save his sensei, only to see them come back. He reunites with Kurenai after the Idou's defeat.

Part II
Shino reappears when Naruto leaves to recruit someone to replace Kakashi for their mission to meet with Orochimaru's spy in the Sasuke and Sai arc. Neither Shino nor his teammates are able to help Naruto, as their team had already accepted a mission.

Shino returns in the current arc as part of an 8-man team assembled to find Sasuke.

Quotes

 * "Ace in the Hole."

Other Media

 * Shino Aburame is a Playable characters in the video game series Naruto "Clash of Ninja", "Ninja Council 3", and "Ultimate Ninja". He appears only in 4 out of 7 games.

Trivia
"Shino" is the given name of the samurai Inuzuka of Hakkenden, a novel about a dog samurai. Aburame means "Oil woman" and the complete name "Aburame Shino" bears a close resemblance to the Japanese word for cockroach, aburamushi.