Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Concept: What if a minor noble from the Earth kingdom wound up infested with kikaishu beetles and was accepted into the Aburame clan?

Accidental Aburame

Beaten, stripped, left for dead. She lay unmoving on the forest floor. The passing of time meant little to her in her haze of pain and betrayal. Perhaps eventually her mind would begin to fill in the blanks, but for now she honestly couldn't say how she'd actually come to this.

Off to her right she heard a chittering sound. Opening her remaining good eye did little to inform her of the nature of her visitor due to the darkness. Any other day it might have sounded ominous, but just then she was far too injured to be intimidated. With any luck, it would be something dangerous come to put her out of her misery.

A few moments later she could feel the legs of hundreds, possibly thousands of tiny insects making their way up her limbs. She briefly wondered if they were a carnivorous type of beetle. The pin pricks of pain followed by the incredibly creepy feeling of their moving under her skin seemed to answer that. Being eaten alive was certainly not the way she wanted to go. Still she was far too broken to object.

Her tenuous grip on consciousness failed her and she slid back into the darkness.

When she woke it was daytime. Her body was in less pain then before but it felt far stranger. No longer were the majority of the beetles crawling on her. Instead she could feel masses of them moving inside of her. It was certainly the queerest thing she'd ever felt, but she preferred it to the pain of near death.

Careful not to put too much pressure on her left arm, which she was fairly certain was broken, she levered herself up into a sitting position. Now that she could finally get a good look around the clearing she was in it became even clearer that she had no idea where exactly she was.

Certainly she knew in a political sense she was in the borders of Fire country. Geographically she knew that this was a forest that faced the Eastern edge of their nation and the sea. None of that told here where she was, right that moment, and which way she'd need to go to find a village.

Her mind finally identified the sound of a river nearby and she decided to put off any ancillary concerns for the moment. Instead she stumbled the few hundred feet to the bank of the small river and fell to her knees. Small was almost an understatement, she could probably have crossed the river in a good jump. Right now it was a blessing that her parched throat forbid her to make light of.

She drank her fill immediately. Any thoughts of decorum were abandoned as she plunged her mouth into the river to drink. The water felt wonderfully cool against the scratchy heat of her throat. When she was finally satisfied enough to slow down she caught sight of her own reflection in the water. With an angry snarl she scrubbed at the remnants of the expensive makeup left over on her face. It was a reminder she didn't need right now of a life she'd never get back.

The bugs seemed to have caught on to her agitation and it made them move around more aggressively. Grimacing at her object lesson, she brought her emotions back under control. She'd always been reminded to project serenity, no matter the situation. Apparently it would be just as important for dealing with these bugs as it was in her previous life.

A sound out in the forest caught her attention and she threw herself to the ground. Lying prone in the mud wasn't especially comfortable, but she was taking no chances of their returning to finish her off. Luckily the bank was inclined enough that it would probably hide her from direct view. Still she held her breath as her heart thumped in her ears.

"Well someone went down here. Most of the blood is dry though," a young boy said.

"We need to hurry. Something has put their companions on alert. They are nearby, but their companions are refusing to talk for the moment," a more monotone boy's voice replied.

"Are you sure you don't know who this is? Your clan is pretty close knit from what I've observed," a woman added.

"It is unlikely, but I have not met every member of my clan," the monotone boy replied.

"Hinata, get a look with your Byakugan," the woman said.

Her blood suddenly ran cold. If the legends and rumors were to be believed a Byakugan user could see everything in a full three hundred sixty degree radius even through objects. She clawed at the dirt in frustration and silently wept. This was to be her end, after everything she had survived and overcome… it ended here. There was nothing she could do against even a single ninja on a good day, and this was not a good day.

"Over by the river, there's someone," a young girl said.

With her doom now certain all the tension left her body. It seemed, however, that it was that tension which had kept her conscious. This time she willingly embraced her descent into blissful oblivion.

She jolted back to wakefulness in a single awful moment of insane pain. A blistering scream tore out of her throat and her eyes shot wide open.

"Oh my god! Remove the seals! Get them off right now!" A voice said off to one side of her.

It was meaningless to her. She couldn't understand anything beyond the pain wracking her entire body. Something was wrong with her heart as well. Its rhythm was sporadic and unpredictable. Her vision was stained white by the pain preventing her from seeing the world around her at all.

"What's going on!?"

"We don't have time for that right now! Get the damn seals off!"

"We'll need permission from-"

"If you don't get them off she dies right here, right now! I'm attending physician, take them the fuck off! Now dammit!"

Something changed and the pain began to abate. It didn't melt away completely, but rather reduced in excruciatingly slow increments. She didn't need to scream anymore, but she whimpered as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Finally the pain had receded enough that she could once again fall into darkness.

This time she awoke within what was clearly a cell. The bed was surprisingly comfortable and the clothes that she'd been dressed in were clean, so perhaps it was better than before, but not by much. At least her wounds had been tended, if the cast on her left arm was anything to go by.

She began a silent prayer to whatever deity may be listening that this was not a ninja prison. Nobody had ever really given her a specific rundown of how ninja and regular prisons were different, but she'd heard enough horror stories during her infrequent visits to Iwagakure to know that people rarely left ninja prisons intact. Or sane for that matter.

If this was a civilian prison maybe they'd just give her a good lecture and let her be on her way. Maybe she could drop a few names and get a little help for the journey home. Not that she'd go there, that place could never be her home again. Not anymore.

The door opened and an imposing man dressed in all grey walked in. Her mind didn't even register the features of his face or the particulars of his dress. Instead her eyes settled on the forehead protector with the icon of the hidden leaf etched onto it. Her heart fell into her stomach. Before he could even say anything she broke down and cried.

"I want to go home…" she said mostly to herself. Not the place, that wasn't home anymore. No she wanted to be back where she could smell her mother's baking. Where her father's servants would occasionally stop by to talk with her mother while they discreetly watched her. That never again time and place where she knew she was loved and everything was warm with that love. "I want to go home," she repeated even quieter.

"And where is home?" A masculine voice asked.

She didn't look up. Instead she brought her knees up to her chin so she was curled into a tight ball on the bed. Where had it all gone so wrong? What had happened to turn everything on its head? Why was she here now instead of in that wonderful heaven that had been her home? A faint fluttery feeling in her stomach reminded her of her strange cargo, and where she was now. "It… isn't there anymore… I guess."

"What's your name?" He asked in a surprisingly kind voice.

"Tsukino. Matamero Tsukino," she replied.

"And why were you out in the woods like that, Tsukino-san?" He continued his questioning.

"They chased me. After…" she faltered, "after they killed mama they chased me. I ran for so long… It had to have been hours, the sun went down during the chase. But I wasn't fast enough; they always caught up… and… I… I fell. They were all around me. I couldn't get up. I was so tired, too tired to get up."

Mercifully he seemed to back off for a moment to consider what she'd said. She shivered, but tried to just stay in her ball. Maybe if she just stayed like this he'd just ask her some questions and then let her out. He opened the door behind him and let in someone with a tray. She could smell the food from her bed and it made her mouth water in the worst way. Probably because she hadn't eaten since before the attack.

"Tsukino, I'm going to leave now while you eat. I'll be back to ask you a few more questions later," he said. She could only nod in assent. He made good on his word and left soon after the person that brought in the tray had.

Certain there was nobody around to witness her, she dug into the food without a single care to etiquette or decorum.