Shino Aburame

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.

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.

During a training session at the Academy, he watched on alongside Kiba and Akamaru as Shikamaru and Chōji 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, he was cut off by Kiba who had become annoyed with the young Aburame's nitpicking.

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 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.

Appearance
Shino is regularly seen sporting the same style as the rest of his clan, consisting of dark sunglasses and a sea-green jacket with a high, upturned collar. While Shino was in the Academy, he wore a similar outfit to the one he does now in Part II except his jacket then was of a light grey colour. Shino is a fair-skinned man and the tallest member of his graduating class. He has dark, bushy, brown hair and dark, narrow eyes (which has only been shown in the anime). In all of Shino's appearances, he has been shown wearing his signature round and dark glasses. Even Hinata, his teammate, did not know what his eyes truly looked like. However, for a brief moment, Shino's eye profile was shown.

During Part II, his appearance became even more mysterious, with his jacket hanging down to his knees and the addition of a hood that obstructs his face even more and a satchel on his back. This current appearance makes it harder for people like Naruto to recognise him right away. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he wears a flak jacket under his jacket.

Two years after the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Shino sports a flak jacket with his regular shinobi attire and a new set of sunglasses. His outfit consists of a grey shirt with matching pants under his light-grey button-up jacket. The jacket also has a hood which he keeps over his head. He also changes his forehead protector to a bandanna-style.

As an adult, he wears a flak jacket with two bug-like emblems on the neck, and a full-body suit underneath. While on duty he wears a three-strip optic visor which wraps around his head, and while off duty he wears sunglasses.

Abilities
Shino showed great potential as a shinobi since early age, having drawn the attention of Danzō, a man with exceedingly high standards, in the anime. As a genin, he easily managed to defeat Zaku Abumi, and later fight Kankurō, a skilled shinobi to a stalemate. In the following years he was promoted to chūnin, and a decade later was acknowledged by several individuals as being jōnin-level.

Ninjutsu
Shino has shown considerable skill in shurikenjutsu, able to manipulate his shuriken's trajectory midflight. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, he possessed the nature transformations of Earth, Fire, and Yang Release. He also could also use the Summoning Technique, which in the anime, he used to summon a Giant Insect.

Aburame Clan Techniques
As a member of the Aburame clan, Shino was infused at birth with a special breed of insects, called kikaichū, that use his body as a nest and feed on his chakra, living in a form of symbiosis. In return, they attack and do other tasks as he commands forming his main fighting style: in battle, he boxes in opponents with his bugs and then consumes their chakra once they cannot escape. In the anime, Shino is able to transfer chakra his insects have accumulated through them into a new target. The insects also protect him from most genjutsu.

Shino has shown to be able to create insect replicas of himself, which can reform once struck. Offensively, Shino could encase his enemies in a cage of insects, preventing them from moving and depriving them of their chakra; as well as could use a special breed of insects called kidaichū to devour the chakra and even flesh of their victim. In the anime, Shino could also use his bugs defensively by having them swarm around himself and his allies, creating a dome.

Shino could use his bugs to spy and gather information. Since the bugs make little to no noise, Shino have them scout an area and return with any useful information. Shino could also leave a female bug on his target to track them down by the scent picked up from a male bug. To stop himself from being tracked, Shino could use his clan's Insect Jamming Technique to create false chakra patterns, which would confuse sensor-type opponents.

While the kikaichū only have a lifespan of a few hours, their life-cycle ensures that there will always be females with eggs. In the anime, it was demonstrated that his bugs are always undergoing evolutionary adaptation through mutation and natural selection; so to cultivate for this ability, Shino has could accelerate the growth of his insects.

Also, having bred insects with the rinkaichū of Torune, Shino cultivated insects that can simulate the same toxic effect as Torune's, or even produce antibodies against the said potent toxins.

Taijutsu
Although favouring the use of his insects in battle, Shino is shown to be quite capable in taijutsu. During the Chūnin Exams preliminary matches, he calmly blocked an incoming strike from Zaku with only his arm and later defeated him with one punch, sending him backwards several feet. Shino was also fast enough to avoid poison-tipped darts launched at close-range from Kankurō's Karasu puppet, as well as get into striking range and nearly hit Kankurō after distracting him with an insect clone. In the anime, after training more with Kiba and Hinata to better handle close-combat situations, Shino's taijutsu greatly improved to the point where he could fight on par with and defeat Suika, a proficient taijutsu user, in their second encounter. He even created the Iron Mountain Leaning technique, where he and an insect clone knock the enemy high into the air.

Intelligence
Shino has shown himself to be quite intelligent, being able to use his analytical and observational skills to make shrewd decisions with pinpoint reasoning. Like Shikamaru, Shino prevails in battles by systematically staying several steps ahead of the enemy, as well as keeping a good distance away to avoid his enemies' attacks. Shino can also tell the number of people in an area by putting his ear to the ground. Since becoming an Academy teacher, Shino has become well-versed in the various basic attack patterns and battle methods of shinobi combat, able to easily anticipate most tactics his opponents launch on him.

Chūnin Exams
While Shino originally made several background appearances during Prologue — Land of Waves in the anime, his official debut was just before the beginning of the Chūnin Exams arc when the Rookie Nine came together. In the first part of the Chūnin Exams, Shino used his insects to read the answers on other people's tests. During the second part, his knowledge of insects allowed his team to take another team's scroll with little effort; when leeches attacked another team (from the Amegakure in the anime, from the Konohagakure in the manga), they stumbled into a net trap. Kiba wanted to acquire yet another scroll but Shino and Hinata disapproved, however they went along. While keeping cover, he and his teammates soon spotted the Three Sand Siblings confronting some Ame-nin. They watched as Gaara killed the Ame-nin's leader and despite the other Ame-nin surrendering, he killed them as well. Gaara apparently knew they were there but his siblings persuaded him to move onwards. Later, when his team reached the tower, they saw the Sand Siblings once again leaving a chilly vibe as they walked by.

During the preliminary matches of the Chūnin Exams, Shino was matched against Zaku Abumi. Because one of Zaku's arms was in a sling, Shino advised him to forfeit the match. Zaku refused, and instead attacked Shino with his one good arm. In attacking Shino, Shino was given an opportunity to box in Zaku with bugs, forcing Zaku to choose between attacking him or attacking the bugs, leaving the other to attack Zaku from behind. Zaku chose to attack both, and pulled his other arm out of its sling. As Zaku prepared to blast the two opposing forces, his arms detonated, making them unusable and putting him in immense pain (in the manga, his right arm was even blown off of his body). As Zaku writhed, Shino revealed that the tubes in Zaku's arms had been filled with his bugs, causing the pressure of Zaku's attack to go inward when it couldn't escape.

Shino was scheduled to fight against Kankurō in the final rounds, but Kankurō forfeited before their match began to avoid revealing the secrets of his puppet Karasu. The Konoha Crush started soon afterwards.

Konoha Crush
When Kankurō fled the village, Shino followed him, apparently having managed to dispel the sleep-inducing genjutsu that spread throughout the stadium and wanting the fight he had been denied. Shino caught up with Kankurō about to fight with Sasuke, allowing Sasuke to continue on pursuing Gaara while they had their match. Kankurō attacked Shino from a distance with his puppet, and Shino used his bugs to make otherwise impossible evasions. A poisonous gas attack, however, caught Shino by surprise. Although he was able to avoid the worst of it, Shino breathed in some of the gas by accident. As the battle progressed, Shino used his bugs to eat away the chakra strings that Kankurō used to control his puppet, forcing Kankurō to relinquish and reacquire control of his only weapon. All the while, Shino directed his bugs to the scent of a female bug planted upon Kankurō's forehead protector, and upon reaching Kankurō, they consumed his chakra. As Kankurō collapsed due to the sapping of his strength, Shino collapsed too, the poisonous gas taking effect on his system. After regaining consciousness, Shino found his father, Shibi Aburame, standing over him, using his own bugs to draw out the poison in Shino's body.

He is later seen at the Third Hokage's funeral alongside the other villagers, mourning his death.

Sasuke Recovery Mission
Shino regretted being away with his father on a mission and therefore unable to help. Shino felt that, had he been able to help, the mission's outcome might have been different, and Sasuke might not have been able to abandon the village. Putting the past behind him, Shino resorted to working on his teamwork skills with Kiba and Hinata, helping the latter to improve her abilities.

Bikōchū Search Mission
In the anime, Shino led Team 8 along with Naruto to find the bikōchū beetle, a rare insect with legendary tracking abilities, in the hopes that it could be used to find Sasuke although this was in part due to Hinata, who before displayed very little confidence for any mission, strongly encouraging the idea. During this arc, he displayed his improved teamwork skills, recognising how much effort Hinata was putting into her training. Despite their best efforts, defeating the Kamizuru clan and even finding the bikōchū, Naruto passed wind on the bikōchū, causing it to follow his scent, and rendering it useless.

Academy Student Lead Mission
In the anime, Shino was assigned to lead a team of three Academy students on a survival exercise. His time with them was not covered much except that he was doing better than Naruto.

Kaima Capture Mission
In the anime, Shino was paired with Naruto and Ino under the command of Anko Mitarashi. They were ordered to find out what was terrorising the country, and defeat it if possible. Shino engaged Yoroi Akadō in battle during the group's raid on the laboratory, and fought him alone so that Naruto and Ino would be able to reach Amachi. His battle resumed outside, during the battle over the ship carrying the payment, and he defeated Yoroi with Ino's help.

Akamaru Monitoring Mission
In the anime, Shino's bugs suddenly begin attacking Akamaru who unbeknownst to the rest of the team had contracted a disease. As Shino tried to stop the insects, they refused to obey his commands forcing him to use a technique to forcefully stop them. After Kiba left, Shino bewilderedly wondered why his insects had attacked Akamaru like that.

Funeral Proxy Mission
In the anime, Shino was sent on another mission with Naruto alone to Motoyoshi Village, where Shino was to be a stand-in for a man named Fūta. The goal of the mission was to not laugh during a funeral. Fūta 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, unable to play his original role, learned that the man the funeral was for wasn't actually dead, and conspired 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 threatened Naruto to keep him quiet about his discovery of Shino's sense of humour, though he never actually mentioned what he would do if Naruto told anyone.

Yakumo Kurama Rescue Mission
In the anime, while Kiba complained about Kurenai leaving the team, Shino suggested that it was her decision to do so. He also correctly guessed 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. His bugs proved useful against the genjutsu used by the Kurama clan members and Yakumo, as according to him, insects' simpler nervous systems are harder to manipulate. Shino sent his bugs into the room where Yakumo was holding Kurenai in order to save his sensei, only to see them come back. He reunited with Kurenai after the Ido's defeat.

Sunagakure Support Mission
In the anime, Shino, Hinata, and Neji helped clear the areas for Shikamaru and the rest to continue. Shino was later seen with the rest of the team, as Naruto and Gaara fights with Seimei. He complimented about not going close to the enemy learning about the armour that absorbs chakra. The team watched Gaara continue to fight. After the mission, he, Kiba, and Chōji watched Tenten as she argues with Lee of she being the only one left out in the last mission. Shino somewhat tolerates Tenten, presumably because he was left out during the mission of retrieving Sasuke. He, Chōji, Kiba, Akamaru and Lee promised to get stronger in time of Naruto's return.

In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths
In the anime, about two years after Naruto left the village to train with Jiraiya, Konoha decided to host an early Chūnin Exam alongside Sunagakure. Once entering the exams, Shino and his teammates were randomly split into different rooms to take the written test. He was placed in room 2 with Ino and Lee. On a monitor, Shikamaru as proctor explained that everyone only needs to answer one question on the test, but their team's combined score must equal exactly 100 points to pass. While Shino subtly had one of his insect survey the room, he noticed that one of the participants, Fū, had a chakra essence similar to a bug-user, but showed no signs of being one. After hearing vibrations through the wall, Shino figured out that someone was trying to deliver a message of what question to pick by the number of vibrations. After time was up, Shikamaru revealed a bonus question, asked which teammate you would sacrifice as a decoy and the answer had to be unanimous. The person picked however, would be disqualified. He and his team decided not to answer, and ultimately his team passed the first round. However, since there were more participants than expected, a preliminary round had to be issued which involved a race to Sunagakure where only the first 30 teams to arrive at the destination would qualify for the second phase.

Ultimately, his team were among the first 30 teams to make it. The following night, as all the genin were ready to eat dinner, everyone grew nervous about the overly-sweaty Burami ruining the food, which caused the genin to quickly try to stop him, resulting in Neji using the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven and accidentally destroying the food. As tension grew between everyone over the recent event, an all-out brawl began. Eventually everyone lost their desire to fight when Fū arrived with her optimistic ways. The following day, the second exam began. Like the last exam in Konoha, the teams were each given either a Heaven or Earth scroll and were required to obtain the missing scroll within three days. They were then required to bring the set to the main building in the centre of Demon Desert.

Following a simple plan by Kiba, Team Kurenai began talking loudly for all to hear, waiting for someone with a Heaven scroll to come after them. Ultimately, the Kusa-nin team came after them. Shino faced off with Muyami, too which the two equally-quite ninja stared each other down. As Shino began dodging Muyami underground assaults, the enemy was able to steal the Earth scroll from Kiba and retreated with it. While escaping Hinata's sight and blocking Kiba's smell respectively, Shino set one of his female insects on the enemy to track. While pursuing the enemy, Shino and his teammates fell into a quicksand pit. Akamaru, however, was able to use his Dynamic Marking to solidify the sand enough for the team to escape. Once recovering, Team Kurenai resumed their pursuit of the enemy. As Kiba and Akamaru continued following the scent, they soon found it multiplied and scattered throughout the area. When Shino's bugs failed to find the enemies as well and suggested going after other enemy scrolls, Kiba, finding to his annoyance thinking about Naruto again, became determined not to fail. Then realising that Burami's scent was his clothes from their earlier scuffle, Kiba used it to find the real enemy. While back on the trail again, the enemies ambushed Team Kurenai. While initially overwhelmed, the team swapped out of the predicament with Shino's insect clones, allowing them to regroup. Seeing through the enemies' tactics, Team Kurenai quickly pressured the Kuso-nin before Kiba finished them off with his Three-Headed Wolf technique, earning Team Kurenai a Heaven and Earth scroll. Later, Team Kurenai was caught in a massive sandstorm. Ultimately, the team was rescued by the Suna-nin proctors and brought to a building to wait out the storm before resuming the exams.

After the storm passed and the second exam was concluded, it was learned that the Chūnin Exams were ended early due to controversy happening in the second exam. Instead, it was decided by Gaara that a report on each participant would be sent to their respective village leader for them to decide if they would be promoted. Upon returning to the village, Shino and his teammates were all promoted to chūnin status.

Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission
After Naruto's two and a half years of training was done, he returned to the village. Shortly after Naruto's mission to rescue Gaara, he went looking for help in another mission to find Sasuke. He ran into Shino, who he at first failed to recognise, only remembering him from his "annoying way of talking" as Shino does not seem to notice his outfit makes it hard for people who have not seen him in a while to recognise him. When Naruto immediately recognised Kiba and Hinata, however, Shino took to sulking with his back turned, apparently hurt that Naruto hadn't recognised him. Neither Shino nor his teammates were able to help Naruto, as their team had already accepted a mission.

Akatsuki Suppression Mission
In the anime, Shino is seen at Asuma Sarutobi's funeral mourning his loss along with the rest of the village.

Three-Tails' Appearance
In the anime, Team 8, under Kakashi's leadership, was sent to investigate one of Orochimaru's hideouts. It was destroyed upon their arrival, and they searched the surrounding area in search for clues. When they found a number of people encased in crystal, a fate shared by some of Shino's bugs, they sent a sample to Konoha for analysis. While waiting, Shino discovered that some of his bugs were resistant to the crystal, so he bred them to increase their numbers. Doing so required that he separated from the team.

Later, he reunited with his team in time to help them avoid a trap. Though the enemies retreated, Shino discovered that his bugs had yet to develop a complete immunity to the crystal. Soon afterwards, they were trapped by Guren, the source of the crystal, and Hinata was captured and encased in crystal. When back-up arrived and saved her, she revealed that she survived the crystallising process by encasing herself in chakra. Shino's bugs had done the same, which was why he had been unable to selectively breed an immunity. The team pursued Guren, but were distracted by the appearance of the Three-Tails.

Shino was then assigned to Team One in an effort to keep the enemies from stopping Team Three to seal the beast. He was introduced to Sai, who was revealed to know more about Naruto than he did, dispiriting him. When Guren attacked in an effort to stop them, Shino, knowing his bugs were the best chance at defeating her, stayed back to prepare his insects. Once giving them enough chakra to coat themselves in, the bugs were able to completely overpower Guren's crystal techniques. Shino continued to protect the sealing team after defeating Nurari. With continued disruptions, the sealing task failed twice and they returned to the village.

Itachi Pursuit Mission
When Kakashi needed to build a squad for the hunt for Itachi Uchiha, he added the members of Team 8 to his Eight Man Squad.

Fated Battle Between Brothers
When the Eight Man Squad encountered Tobi, Shino took charge of the fight to make up for not having been available to retrieve Sasuke the first time. Even though he was able to completely encase Tobi in his bugs, Tobi escaped, and was subsequently able to get to Sasuke before them.

Six-Tails Unleashed
On his way back from a failed mission for locating Itachi Uchiha with the rest of the Eight Man Squad, Katsuyu stopped them in their tracks. He, Kakashi and his teammates returned to the village while Team Yamato went to fulfil their new mission given by Katsuyu from the Fifth Hokage.

Pain's Assault
During the initial assault, and the chaos created by Pain upon assaulting the village, Shino along with his teammates watched in shock. Shino later left them to meet up with his father and other clan members.

He joins Muta, his father and another unnamed member of his clan in confronting Konan. They use their kikaichū to eat the paper that Konan had wrapped several shinobi in while Katsuyu healed them. Shino then tells his father that he would give his all to eradicate the enemy. The anime expands on this battle and the Aburame can be seen launching a surprise overhead assault on her, however this turns out to be just a clone.

As they look up they realise that they are surrounded by clones of Konan who descend on them. Shino and his clansmen send their bugs to destroy the clones who, to their surprise, detonate. They later realise that explosive tags had been placed in the clones. As they narrowly escape the explosion, Konan, who had drenched herself in water to counter the effects of fire and mixed herself in with the clones can be seen walking out of the flames. Later, in the anime, the four Aburame have been seen emerging from underneath rubble after Deva Path completely levels the village. Later, he went back to celebrate Naruto's victory over Pain with the other villagers.

Five Kage Summit
After Sasuke has been branded an international criminal and is marked for death, Shino wonders if they should tell Naruto and Sakura about the situation between them and Sasuke if Ino is in a tough situation. Shikamaru then decides that he will tell them. As the other members of Konoha 11 are determined to kill Sasuke to prevent him from descending any lower and dragging the village into a terrible international war as a result, Shino is also prepared to do so. Shino was later seen with the rest of the Konoha 11, hearing Naruto's decision about Sasuke, arguing about how they can't always just let Naruto handle things on his own, especially since Sasuke's criminal actions have cause all of Konoha to be involved.

Power
In the anime, Shino was one of the Konoha-nin who arrived as backup for Team Kakashi and battled Kabuto's reincarnated ninja. When Naruto's clone grew to great proportions, Shino and the others took cover. Later, he battled Kabuto's puppets again. After everything was dealt with, he and the other Konoha-nin returned to their village.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation
Shino was placed in the Fifth Division. He stated that his team should avoid drawing attention to themselves, to which Ino assured him that it won't be difficult. After Kitsuchi and Kurotsuchi blew the White Zetsu Army out of the ground, Shino used his Secret Technique: Insect Sphere to attack them. Shino states that not only are the White Zetsu Army strong, but they're "durable as well and says that if this keeps up, it'll end up being a war of attrition." After the first day of fighting, Shino is seen alive along with Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata, and Neji. Later, while Neji rests and Hinata takes on Neji's duties as a lookout, Shino tells her not to overexert herself as well as he had his bugs scattered all over the area.

In the anime, when the White Zetsu Army had infiltrated the Allied Shinobi Forces and began assassinating each member one by one, Team 8 were sent to a cave that was a hole to the allies' defences. Team 8 encountered the White Zetsu clones but an explosion occurred and everyone had scattered. Afterwards Shino found that one member of the accompanying Sealing Team was stabbed with a kunai after the explosion had occurred. Knowing that the White Zetsu could absorb the chakra of their enemies to impersonate them, Shino (who did not have any physical contact during the fight) was the only one who could not be impersonated. Team 8 distrusted each other as the imposter but Shino figured out a way to discern the imposter with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Shino and Kiba (who had figured out the signals during that game) rooted out the White Zetsu clone impersonating Hinata and defeat it. They later found Hinata lying unconscious. Once outside the cave, Shino discerned that the Zetsu clones had already collected personal data on each Allied Shinobi member courtesy of Yamato, meaning that the clones already knew of Hinata's love for Naruto.

Later the next morning, in the anime, the Sound Four were also summoned to the field. Despite the Otogakure ninja being defeated by Neji, Shikamaru, Chōji and Kiba, the Sound Four were able to place a strange technique on the Konoha ninja. When Shino found Neji unconscious and with a weak pulse, along with Kiba and Akamaru, he had Hinata look at their bodies. After Hinata discovered that their chakra flow was halted, Shino deduced that they were put in a state of suspended animation and won't last long. Determined not be left out again, Shino used his insects to transfer his chakra into his friends, despite the strain of it not being a natural ability of his insects. Inoichi, contacting telepathically, deduces that the technique removes the victims soul and transports it to another location. He also explains that this technique can be dispelled like genjutsu, by pouring chakra into the actual technique. However, it has a seal that prevents even Inoichi, equipped with special enhancement tools, from being able to detect or communicate with them. Eventually, Naruto found the barrier and destroyed it, allowing Inoichi, telepathically, to dispel the technique and free the Konoha ninja. Upon awakening, Kiba and Akamaru thanked the indifferent Shino for his assistance in saving them.

Later, Shino's insects notify him of another Aburame appearing on the battlefield, appearing to be another reincarnated shinobi. Upon finding him, Shino is shocked to find out that it is Torune. Torune explains that he is nearly finished forcibly completing his most forbidden technique which will poison a great portion of the Allied Shinobi. Torune begs Shino to get help, but Shino insists that only he can stop his childhood friend. As the two battle, they find themselves catching up on each other's lives, Torune genuinely glad how Shino turned out. One of Naruto's clone's then arrives to help. As Torune nearly hits clone-Naruto with his toxic punch, Shino steps in to take the hit, revealing that his newest insects can repel the toxins of Torune. Using them to pin down Torune, Shino then applies a sealing tag to finally subdue him. Before joining clone-Naruto to help their allies, Shino thanks Torune for all his help.

Upon hearing that Hinata was in trouble, Shino heads towards her alongside Kiba, Akamaru and Neji. He later mobilises with Naruto and the others to finish the rest of the enemy forces.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax
After being informed by Inoichi from HQ that Naruto and B were fighting the "masked Madara", Shino and the rest of the Konoha 11 rush to his aid. As he runs, he states that he would flawlessly support Naruto with his power and that this time, there was no because. Upon arriving at the battlefield, Shino and a few other Aburame immediately use the Insect Jamming Technique in tandem with the Kiri-nins' Hiding in Mist Technique to obscure their position on the battlefield. He, and the other members of the Allied Shinobi Forces later stood to face their opposition.

After the failed attempt to immobilise the Ten-Tails, Shino and the others braced themselves as the beast emerged from the hole it had been trapped in. He later listened on as Shikaku Nara imparted what would be his final battle strategy to the Alliance. Shino later looked on in shock after learning of Neji's death. He would later rally to Naruto and Sakura's location after Sasuke Uchiha arrived on the battlefield to confront his former comrade. Utterly shocked by the Uchiha's declaration that he would become Hokage, Shino brought up the point that his crimes that he had committed would not be easily forgotten nor forgiven. Later, he followed Kiba's determination to join the fight after watching Team 7's display, and used the Parasitic Giant Insect — Bug Bite technique, defeating several of the Ten-Tails' mini-clones. Afterwards, he watched Naruto and Sasuke attack the Ten-Tails, while silently willing them on in the background.

Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki
With the situation looking grim as the Alliance was trapped in a barrier with a Tailed Beast Ball-firing tree, Shino and the other shinobi soon found themselves shrouded in the previous Version 1 mantles again. He and the others subsequently found themselves on the outside of the barrier, escaping the near-fatal attack thanks to Naruto and Minato's action. As he stood with his teammates, Shino noted that it appeared that they had been teleported. When a recovered Shikamaru later made his ambitions to become the next Hokage's adviser, Shino informed Akamaru that it was all right as the Hokage could have up to three advisers when Akamaru seemed disconcerted by Kiba's expressed intention of having Shikamaru become his adviser if he takes the position of Hokage.

Responding when Naruto called for them telepathically, Shino, the other Konoha 11 (excluding Neji and Sakura) and Sai are shocked when Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode mantle forms around them as well when he enters one of Kurama's tails. With his directives clear, Shino and the others used the Rasengan, which Naruto had formed to break down Obito's defence and give Sasuke and Naruto a clear shot at attacking their opponent. Shino and his comrades who had reverted to their Version 1 states later aided Naruto is his attempt the extract the tailed beasts' chakra from within Obito in order to stop the tree form of the Ten-Tails from blooming.

After Madara was revived, Shino and the others were confronted by Tobi. When the battle ended abruptly, a perturbed Shino questioned Kiba when he looked into the moon after noticing Akamaru's franticness. When the Infinite Tsukuyomi was activated, Shino and the others fell victim to the genjutsu. Inside the genjutsu, Shino dreamt of finding a new giant-sized insect species that he tames.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes
Later, Shino and the rest of the world are freed by Naruto and Sasuke after ending the war.

The Last: Naruto the Movie
Shino makes an appearance in this film, set two years after the event of the Fourth Shinobi World War. He is seen eating ramen with Kiba amongst Naruto's fan girls at Ichiraku. During Toneri Ōtsutsuki's attack, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru were assigned to a search and rescue team.

Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding
Shino appears alongside Kiba as they plan to get their teammate Hinata a great wedding present, but realise they cannot come up with a proper idea. Needing Kurenai's advice, they pay her a visit and Shino is startled that the young Mirai Sarutobi sees him as "Uncle Buggy" making Shino wonder about his image. Kurenai suggests the two get the couple some mead which is found in Sora-ku despite the fact that Naruto and Hinata are non-alcoholic. With no other ideas, Shino agrees to the idea and heads off (not before Kurenai requests a bottle for herself).

In Sora-ku, Shino sits aside as Kiba and Akamaru get into fights with a Ninneko, Momo until he is shocked to see Kiba in a lovestruck stupor with Tamaki's arrival. As she agrees to take them to the Bamboo Forest that houses the enigmatic Beekeeper, Shino comforts the saddened Akamaru who is horrified by Kiba's obvious intense mutual affections for Tamaki.

In the Bamboo Forest, Shino is separated from the others in the magic fog and is attacked by the Beekeeper. However, Shino reveals he is immune to poisons thanks to breeding a new breed of kikaichū from Torune's bugs. After revealing he is not an Iwa shinobi sent to kill them, the Beekeeper apologises and gives Shino the mead free of charge. As the two fellow bug users discuss things, the Beekeeper admits they have been "lost" for sometime and upon realising Shino is actually very insecure about his future (since Kurenai, Hinata, and now even Kiba have found love while he hasn't), offers Shino a place in their beehive operation.

While Shino considers the offer, he realises that since this is the last mission of Team Eight and he must complete it for Hinata, he is given renewed vigour. Seeing through the magic fog, Shino pleads with the Beekeeper to see through their pity, escape the fog, and live amongst humanity again. Inspired, the Beekeeper acknowledges that Shino is very much like a teacher, which appears to set him on his future path. He later attends Naruto and Hinata's wedding with Kiba.

Academy Arc
Ten years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Shino becomes the homeroom teacher for the new year's Academy students. During the entrance ceremony, he and the other instructors were left mortified when Boruto Uzumaki crashed a train into the Hokage Rock. Two weeks later, after Boruto's suspension was over, Shino put Boruto through a series of practice drills to having him catch up with the rest of the class, ultimately ranking him as second in the class. Later, as Shino began to start class, he was shocked to see all his students were missing, having gone to watch a fight between Boruto and Iwabee Yuino. Later, Shino began teaching his class shurikenjutsu only to be discouraged when they weren't listen to his instructions and merely began throwing around their shuriken. After Boruto caused a commotion with a Fūma Shuriken, which he ultimately dragged Inojin Yamanaka, Shikadai Nara, Metal Lee, and Iwabee into, Shino decided to send the students to perform community work on aiding repairs to the Hokage Rock.

Later during a class designed to introduce students to summoning techniques, Shino had Konohamaru Sarutobi summon a giant toad to demonstrate the more advanced applications of this technique. After getting their attention, Shino began instructing them on the more basic tool-storage method of summoning. As boy students began bickering more with the girls, Konohamaru broke up the squabble. Later Shino voiced his dismay at the students' continued bickering, Konohamaru noted that Shino's own fellow students had a similar squabbling back in the day, Konohamaru also noted that such drive helps one mature. This inspired Shino to organise a combative race to capture a flag pitting the girls against the boys. During the contest, Shino began assessing students' respective progress. By the end of the competition, while it succeeded in making peace between the students, much to Shino's dread, the Academy suffered great damage.

Later, the class gained a new transfer student from Otogakure named Mitsuki. As tension started to rise between Mitsuki and the other students, Shino went to Kurenai for advice. She assured him that while teaching isn't his specialty, he knows from experience that one must persevere using their own strength. Inspired by this, wanting the students to warm up to Mitsuki, Shino organised a welcoming party for the new student the following day. When Shino's efforts for the party backfired with his insects, the class began to freak out, with Denki begging someone to make the insects go away, which Mitsuki did with his Wind Release: Breakthrough, causing even more damage to the Academy. As the students began absentmindedly belittling Shino's worth as a ninja and teacher, a distraught Shino took the day off. Upon his return, he was horrified to see that the Academy suffered even more damage. As Shino continued to doubt himself, wondering how he can effectively teach the students, a dark spectre suddenly possessed Shino, making him give into his darkest impulses. The following day, he told Mitsuki, Boruto, and Shikadai to meet him in the training field. Once all there, he voiced his plan to get rid of them.

Shino then encased the entire area with his insects, forcing the students to flee. After a prolonged chase, Shikadai devised a plan to stop the rampaging sensei. While Shikadai and Boruto distracted Shino and lured him into the water, Mitsuki ensnared Shino and electrocuted him, expelling the spectre. The events proved too taxing on Mitsuki, who began drowning in the lake, along with Boruto who tried to save him. Shino, coming to his senses, quickly went to save his students with his Giant Insect Later, as Shino voiced his decision to resign as teacher despite being possessed, the students convinced him to reconsider, apologising for their earlier statements. Afterwards, Shino reported to Naruto and Shikamaru about the experience. He noted that while he remained completely aware of his actions, he felt and overwhelming desiring to attack his students. This caused concerned to the Hokage, deciding to start an investigation. Later, Shino assigned his class choose a workplace within Konohagakure to better understand non-shinobi life. Knowing that Boruto, Mitsuki, and Shikadai were determined to continue patrolling the village for their own personal mission, he subtly convinced them to try the postal service.

Later, Shino checked on some of students after learning that they were hospitalised from a recent attack. While blaming himself for putting his students in that situation, Chōchō insisted there was no way of knowing this would happen. Afterwards, as Naruto realised that his son and his friends were conducting their own investigation on the attacks, he insisted that they stay out of matter. Shino however, having seen firsthand how capable his students were, insisted that Naruto trust them as kids have a way of surprising adults. After Naruto finally agreed, Shino added that his students not be reckless in their efforts. When the culprit behind the attacks on the village was revealed to be Sumire, a unit was deployed to apprehend her. The rogue student unleashed Nue onto the village. While Kakashi organised the unit to defend from its attack, Shino worked with a unit to treat the injured.

Several weeks later, Shino decided to change up the three-man teams for their next challenge to determine the optimum pairings for graduation. After class, Shino went to talk to Iruka about Sumire's fate, as she turned herself in as the culprit behind the attacks. While Shino insisted to let her return under his supervision, Iruka noted that even with the leniency she got, the choice to return is ultimately up to her. Shino afterwards went to meet with Sumire, who was still in a detention cell. While Sumire was ashamed to look at her teacher, Shino made clear he holds no ill feelings towards her. He encouraged her to find her own path now and offered to help. The following day, as the new teams in class began a challenge of capturing a flag, Shino was then called aside concerning Sumire. He happily reintroduced Sumire to his class.

Later, Shino began preparing his class for the Tree Climbing Practice. On the day of the test, Denki and Iwabee were late for the test. When they finally arrived and explained how they helped save children from a burning building, Shino was amazed at the story. Proud at how the two so effectively applied their studies of chakra-induced climbing, he chose to pass them without any further testing. The class moved on to Water Surface Walking Practice, Shino stirring the water to simulate river and ocean currents.

Sarada Uchiha Arc
As graduation exams approach within a week, Shino begins explaining to his students the significance of it.

Field Trip Arc
In the anime, to improve relationships with other villages and symbolically show the warring era was over, the Seventh Hokage set up an official class trip for the Academy to go to Kirigakure. Upon arriving, they were met with Kagura Karatachi, who was appointed by the Mizukage to act as the class' tour guide. Much to Shino's chagrin, once the students arrived in the village and saw its dazzling appearance, they all quickly scattered to see different sights.

Versus Momoshiki Arc
Several months later, upon being put in charge of the second phase of the Chūnin Exams with Tenten, they watch the competing genin from within the monitoring room.

Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds
Shino played a brief role in the movie. He came to aid Kakashi, Sai, and Shikamaru by singlehandedly destroying the enemy base with his insects. At the end, they watched Naruto destroy the ruins with the Guts Rasengan.

Naruto Shippūden the Movie: The Will of Fire
Shino was first seen when they celebrated for Naruto and Sai's recovery and ate barbecue.

At the Hokage's office, Tsunade orders the Konoha 11 to stay away from Kakashi, labelling him as a missing-nin for the sake of the secret mission. Meanwhile, Sakura comes to rescue Naruto from the cell that Shikamaru put him in, then they leave the village to rescue Kakashi. Shino was sent with the rest of Konoha 11 to retrieve them back.

Shino's team caught up with Naruto and Sakura, with the rest of Konoha 11. Shino and the others was caught by one of Hiruko's henchmen Ichi, and was freed by Tenten. Team Guy was left behind to take down the first of Hiruko's henchmen. Shino's team took the initiative and fought the second of Hiruko's henchmen, Ni and her chimera nin-dogs nin-dogs, Shino took down Ni's chimera nin-dogs, Ni became angry and used the Chimera Technique to fuse herself with a large beast, while Kiba, Hinata, and Akamaru delayed her before Shino built a large pit trap. After being teased by Kiba, Ni fell into Shino's trap and was destroyed by Shino's Secret Technique: Insect Sphere.

After Team 10 failed to defeat the last of Hiruko's henchmen, San then summoned his two teammates, Ichi and Ni, and used the Chimera Technique, which made them turn into a massive flying beast. Shino and the rest of Konoha 11 then arrives to back up Team 10, Shikamaru told Tenten to chain the beast wings to restrict its flight, while Shino and the rest of Konoha 11, except Shikamaru constricted the beast by holding the chains, Hinata and Neji then channelled their chakra through the chains destroying the beast, before it was re-summoned by Hiruko.

Shino later arrives at Hiruko's temple and engages the chimera that was summoned by Hiruko earlier.

Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie
Shino first appeared with his friends battling several Zetsu clones disguised as deceased Akatsuki members. Later, a different Shino appeared in the alternate world. Unlike the Shino that Naruto and Sakura know, is a huge plant lover and hates bugs and tries to kill as many as possible. However, his gloomy and familiar personality still remains.

Live Spectacle Naruto
Shinichiro Ueda plays as Shino in this stage play adaption.

Trivia

 * The name "Shino" means, which is also the given name of the samurai Inuzuka of Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, a novel about a dog samurai. His teammate, Kiba Inuzuka is also based off Inuzuka from the novel. His family name "Aburame" literally means , while it may also be a variation of "Aburamushi" which means , referring to his family's use of insects as weapons.
 * In Naruto character popularity polls, Shino was ranked 12th in the third, 25th in the fourth, 21st in the fifth. He finished 26th in the sixth and most recent.
 * In the anime, Shino has been shown to name his insects.
 * In the anime, Shino's eyes are momentarily seen.
 * Shino is the only one of the Rookie Nine not to be on a manga cover before the time-skip.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Shino's hobbies are entomology, and collecting new specimens for his insect collection.
 * Shino wishes to fight someone strong.
 * Shino's favourite foods are wild grass salad and winter melon, whilst his least favourite are foods that are strong-smelling.
 * Shino has completed 44 official missions in total: 17 D-rank, 17 C-rank, 9 B-rank, 1 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Shino's favourite phrase is.
 * According to seventh OVA, Shino's favourite colour is moss green and his favourite flower is chameleon flower.

Quotes

 * (To Zaku) "Fight me, and you shall never recover. Forfeit and withdraw."
 * (To Zaku) "This is what a real trump card is."
 * "Never underestimate your opponent, no matter how small they may seem."
 * (To himself) “The sky is too vast for a person to live life alone.”
 * (In his conversation with Kankurō) "You use puppets, so you're a mid- to long-range type. It looks like you're weak at close combat. Why you ask? Because you must concentrate on operating your puppet. So it seems that the Puppet Technique… can easily create a chink in the user's own defence…" (「お前は人形を使う中・遠距離タイプだ. 接近戦は苦手と見た. なぜなら 人形の操作に集中しなければならない. その傀儡の術とやらは…術者自体に隙が生じやすいからな…」, "Omae wa ningyō o tsukau chū-enkyori taipu da. Sekkinsen wa nigate to mita. Nazenara ningyō no sōsa ni shūchū shinakereba naranai. Sono Kugutsu no Jutsu to yara wa… jutsusha kitai ni suki ga shōji yasui kara na…")
 * (To Kankurō) "I hate explaining the same thing twice."
 * (To Naruto) "Even if it's been a while, you should remember your comrades' faces. Why? Because otherwise you will hurt their feelings when they call out to you."
 * (To himself)