The last mission, huh? I wonder if Kiba and Hinata will even remember me when it's over...Just like that time Naruto couldn't remember my name...It seems everyone always forgets me...I'm always the last one they see...
But just like every other time when he'd talk, Shino's thoughts were abruptly trampled and cut off by Kiba's bark shattering the serene, natural harmony of the Sora-Ku forest.
"First, I'll track this guy down with my nose," Kiba rambled on. "And then when I find him, send in your insects!"
Shino opened his mouth to say something again, but Kiba dashed on to a new topic, leaving his demure teammate in the dust again. "Hey, do you think that girl we met is talking about us?"
"Why, you got a crush on her?" Shino remarked.
"Come on! Have you lost your mind?" Kiba downplayed his interest with a dismissive wave. "Nah, it's nothing like that. This is a crucial time for me to become Hokage. There's no time for love!"
"You're too easy to read, Kiba," Shino shook his head.
Or maybe it was he who just cared too damn much. Always the first one to guess what his teammates were thinking. Could anyone look at him and name what was on his mind now?
What was it they called him back in the Hidden Leaf? Stoic? Quiet and off-putting? Emotionless? Unreadable?
A creep.
Maybe that was the burden of being a good shinobi. Maybe stoicism was exactly what it took to get his missions done. What good was he to the Leaf or to his teammates if he wasn't so good at hiding the real Shino? How formidable of a shinobi would he be to the enemy if he wasn't the cool, calculating Aburame his clan was notorious for? Would powerful shinobi like Kankuro of the Sand still be shaken at the thought of fighting him in the Chunin exams?
Shino had to admit, he kind of liked it when people ran from him, and when they said things like, "I wouldn't want to fight that bug guy".
After all, he was a Leaf shinobi warrior, not a pageant contestant.
But still...How could they call him stoic and matter-of-fact when the very force driving him as a shinobi was love?
Love for his clan, his teammates, his village, and his sworn loyalty as a ninja to protect the weakest of the Hidden Leaf, even at the cost of his own life.
But the only ones who understood all that were Shino and his bugs, and Shino resolved to keep it that way. It's just like what he told Hinata and Kiba during their game of rock-paper-scissors. The less your enemies know about you, the less they can use against you.
Thus, Shino was content to shoulder the burden of his reputation. He could be cold and ruthless, if it meant protecting everyone he cared about in the end.
That was his ninja way.
"Eh, what did you say?" Kiba asked.
Shino sighed. Of course Kiba wasn't listening. Who could get a word in when Kiba was around? There was no point in trying.
But Shino tried anyway.
"Nothing...I just said that I envy you," he said quietly. And there it was again. That emptiness eating him from the inside out like a parasitic beetle. But this time it was heavier than just feeling invisible all the time. A feeling so painful and damning that not even Shino could lock it out of his consciousness.
It almost felt like...
"Oh, really? You do, huh?" Kiba replied half-heartedly, as he sniffed in the direction of every rock and tree that crossed their path. Unsurprisingly, he didn't seem interested in knowing more about the torment his teammate was going through. In fact, what Shino had said was completely forgotten as Kiba leapt ahead from tree to tree, trying to pick up the scent of the beekeeper they were tracking into the Sora-Ku forest.
But Shino was used to it, and he expected as much from Kiba. Sometimes, he liked it when Kiba got distracted and left him alone to his own thoughts.
Besides, Shino was about as good at explaining his feelings as Kiba was at listening to them anyway.
Kiba always talks big...Maybe I've dismissed him too much because of that. However...who am I to criticize anyone?
"Shino! You gonna keep up or do I got to leave you behind?" Kiba called back to him. "I told you I could take this beekeeper down myself anyway! Wait, do you smell that?"
"Smell what-"
"It smells a little like (sniff, sniff)," Kiba cut him off again. "Like honey, but it's.(sniff, sniff)..human."
"You picked up the beekeeper's scent before my bugs could track him?" Shino asked his fellow rival in disbelief.
"No," Kiba sniffed the air around him. "I doubt it's that beekeeper guy. It's someone different. Soft like a girl."
"Don't tell me you're still daydreaming about those girls from before," Shino said to him. "If you can't keep your head clear out here, Kiba, how are we going to find the beekeeper?"
"I am not daydreaming! I already told you, I can't think about women at a time like this! I'm the next hokage, understand?" Kiba defended himself.
"Over the top as usual," Shino thought to himself.
"Hey, don't look at me like that, Shino!" Kiba changed the subject.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You always think you're so cool behind your hood and your sunglasses!" Kiba went on. "At least that girl actually liked me! That's more than we can ever say about you, Shino. What girl would like a guy who carries around a bunch of bugs?"
"One who knows she will be protected," Shino answered him. "And you can say what you want about me, but leave my insects out of this. Unless of course, you're brave enough to tell them yourself."
"Sheesh," Kiba shuddered, not for the last time at the nightmarish idea of facing Shino in battle. "Never mind. Let's just find this beekeeper and get this honey wine back for Naruto and Hinata's wedding."
The wedding...of course...
"I mean, once Hinata is married, we won't be able to work with each other the way we used to..." Shino thought.
But his thoughts were interrupted again when a small swarm of his insects descended like onyx raindrops around him. A female Kikaichū caught the knuckle of his thumb, fondly brushing her tiny black legs against the warmth of Shino's skin. Content once again at finding her way back to Shino, her favorite home.
And when she did, Shino remembered again that he wasn't really alone after all.
"I see," he said to her, receiving the scavenging insect's report through the entwined connection they shared in his chakra. "Someone is following us. Kiba sensed her too...Looks like she's out here alone...Is it another one of those girls Kiba was talking to? Why would she be following me and Kiba anyway?...If she's not a shinobi, who is she?...We'd better keep an eye on her. Go." He released the Kikaichū again. "You know what to do."
Shino's eyes followed his insect in the direction of where the stalker had been detected. But before he could make a good assessment of where the mysterious onlooker was hiding, the air around him changed.
Out of nowhere, the green leaves in front of him faded to a dull cool mist that thickened and cornered him from all sides. In a matter of seconds, Shino was surrounded by it, as it grew dark enough to make him lose track of Kiba ahead of him.
Unusual behavior in weather. Fog does not act this way. But where did it come from? Is this genjutsu?
How could he have unwittingly walked into a trap without detecting it?
"Kiba?" Shino called out into the fog. "Hey, Kiba! Where are you?"
Excited and buzzing with agitation, swarms of his insects came flying back to report to him.
"What? Really? You guys don't know where he is either?" Shino said, surprised. "This is most definitely due to somebody's jutsu."
"That dog ninja said honey...Do I really smell like honey?"
Hotaru smiled, blushing relentlessly, still hung up over the idea.
But the enchant was short lived.
"Pull yourself together," she scolded herself back into concentration, gripping her kunai tighter. "That Aburame guy knows I'm here. I have to take him out."
And suddenly remembering that she was probably about to die, she held her breath, too terrified to move, or make a sound, or even open her eyes as she pressed her back against the tree trunk that housed her stakeout above ground.
Had that ninja seen her? Why did he stop walking when that beetle landed on his finger? Did those annoying, itchy little bastards actually blow her cover to him?
Is this what Hachimitsu Sensei meant about the Kikaichū taddle-tells of the Aburame clan?"
"Hey, where did that bug guy go?" Hotaru scanned the mist in vain. "And what's the deal with all this fog? Is this genjutsu? Release!"
Still, the fog darkened around her, making it harder to see the ground and her target below.
"Damn! Nothing. Hachimitsu Sensei said that would work if the Aburame guy tried to pull any mind tricks on me. Does this mean all my training with him was for nothing?" she thought bitterly, squeezing the kunai in her hand tighter as she desperately searched for the shinobi she was tracking. "That bug ninja was Shino Aburame, right? I'm sure the dog boy called him by that name...But I've never met anyone from the Aburame clan...I have no idea what I'm doing! That Aburame guy is going to kill me when he finds me!...No, think positive...He hasn't come after me yet, so for now I'm safe...Ok, breathe...Focus...Try not to think about dying. Go where you're happiest...where home is...Except I don't have a home anymore...I can't go home unless I take this Aburame guy down...So much for relaxing...Still, I can do this...I have to do this...for myself and for my clan...I have to kill Shino Aburame. That was the deal."
But first she had to catch him.
And the sooner she did that, the safer she'd feel that he couldn't come after her first.
Was this freak fog a way for him to throw her off his trail? Nobody said anything about the Aburame using mist jutsu too!
Who were these people anyway?
"The Aburame. Your sworn enemy," Hachimitsu Sensei's voice buzzed back into her head. "That is why you must kill him. It is the only way you can ever face your village again. And after all our training, if you are still stupid enough to lose track of him on your mission, don't even think about summoning me for help! He'll likely track you down with his bugs and kill you before you did anyway," Hachimitsu had warned her. "But if you do manage to stay alive longer than that, use this bee jar to hunt him to the far corners of the Land of Fire. She will not fail you. Your survival depends on it, Lady Hotaru. You must find your strength to fight. After all, I fought the Aburame in the Iwa-Konohagakure war, and a scared little honeybee like you won't stand a chance against them."
Blood simmering to prove herself, Hotaru's hands tightened around the bee jar in her hand, where a tiny female bumble bee buzzed in a warm glow against the darkness of the fog.
"I am not a scared little honey bee," she fought Hachimitsu Sensei's demeaning voice out of her head. "I am Hotaru Kamizuru, avenging daughter of the honorable bee clan, and I will show that Aburame no mercy."
Breaking the seal on her bee jar, she lifted the female tracking bumble out of the jar on the tip of her finger, its fluttering blonde wings illuminating the golden honey glow of Hotaru's eyes.
"Go. You know what to do," she said to the queen bee. "I'm counting on you."
Upon Hotaru's order, the bumble bee darted in the direction where the Aburame shinobi was last seen, lighting a path for her mistress to follow him.
"Found you," Hotaru whispered. "I'll make you pay for what your clan has done, Shino Aburame. This is for the Kamizuru clan!"
And before she could second guess herself, she leapt out of the tree, free falling into the fog as she positioned her kunai in attack to slit Shino's throat.
But just as she swung at her opponent with her attack, Shino Aburame disappeared into the mist. Gone without a trace.
Before Hotaru could break her fall and dodge the path of the jutsu that had evaporated Shino, she was cut down by what felt like a thousand needles stabbing under her skin.
A thousand bee stings.
Through the blurriness of her vision, a swarm of yellow jackets aggressively trapped her in their circle, and she stumbled to get away from them, fighting to stay conscious.
"I've been poisoned. This is the Kamizuru 1000 Bee Stings Technique. But how did that Aburame ninja know to use our techniques? How could this happen? This can't be how it all ends for me," she whispered, her head spinning and pounding as she kept trying to crawl out of the swarm. "I won't die like this...I have to make it back home...Whatever it takes, I have to...be..."
But the poison ravaged her senses mercilessly, knocking her out cold.