Shino Aburame

Shino Aburame (ñ˚èóÉVÉm, Aburame Shino?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto.

"Shino" is the given name of the samurai Inuzuka of Hakkenden, a novel about a dog samurai. Aburame (ñ˚èó) means "Oil woman" and the complete name "Aburame Shino" bears a close resemblance to the Japanese word for cockroach, aburamushi (ñ˚íé). Contents

Background One of Shino's Kikaichu bugs. Enlarge One of Shino's Kikaichu bugs. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Shino Aburame is a cool, collected, and solitary Chunin from Naruto's graduating year (originally from Kurenai Yuhi's Genin Team 8 along with Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka) who is quite mysterious and always wears sunglasses. He is portrayed as being somewhere between being merely stoic and matter-of-fact, rarely ever smiling or showing emotion at all. Behind his reserved demeanor, though, Shino places a lot of value on his friends and teamwork. 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. To be fair, Shino's style of clothing makes recognizing him somewhat difficult. 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.

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" (in the English version, it's "Ace in the hole").

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.

Part I

Chunin Exam arc

In the first part of the Chunin exam, 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, thanks to some rather large leeches that live in the Forest of Death.

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 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 assist Sasuke. His father, Shibi, later arrives and uses his bugs to draw out the poison from Shino's body.

Sasuke Retrieval arc

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. In the anime, he and Kiba help Hinata to train herself.

Anime filler arcs

Bikochu arc A Bikochu. Enlarge A Bikochu.

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 save her.

Ocean Country arc

Shino also appears in the Ocean Country 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 which were actually 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. With Ino's help, he is able to defeat Yoroi. Unlike the previous mission Shino went on with Naruto, this mission ends in success.

Laughing Shino arc

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. 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.

Kurama Clan arc

In a fight against a genjutsu user, Shino uses a bug clone to prevent the attacker from stabbing Naruto. The clone diffuses and reforms behind the attacker and notes, "Genjutsu doesn't work on insects."