"It's...well, um...it's a bug."
Hotaru knew the moment she said it, it would make her more enemies than friends in the Wisteria village, but talking was the only way she could escape being trapped in this honeycomb with Matchmaker Akirabachi.
"A bug?" Akirabachi buzzed, her towering antennae quivering to contain her temper. "How fearless you've become all of a sudden. Have I said something to make you think I'm an indulging, patient honey bee, who will let you forget you're in her nest?" She chuckled coolly. "My mistake."
"And whatever you do," Hotaru's father had forewarned her before her session with the matchmaker. "Do not for any reason mention the word 'bug' in Matchmaker Akirabachi's presence? She's sensitive."
"Well, what I mean is..." Hotaru lost her words again. It was so hard to concentrate with a giant grumpy queen bee staring her down.
"Let's try that again," Akirabachi resumed. "What is it you dream about, Lady Hotaru?"
"Is this a trick question? " Hotaru thought anxiously. "What kind of question is that for a matchmaker to ask? What does she want from me? Father would never forgive me if I mess this up. I already told her I dream about bugs. Isn't that creepy enough?
"You're probably wondering why I'm questioning you about this dream you have, and why it's even relevant to matching you with a husband?" Akirabachi seemed to read her mind. "Why do I seem to be more interested in these nightmares of yours than in asking about personal details I don't really care about, like what your favorite tempura roll is?"
Well she didn't have to put it that way, but yes, for 3 weeks straight, Matchmaker Akirabachi had locked Hotaru in this honeycomb and interrogated her about nothing else but this bug from her dreams. Hotaru never expected much out of a matchmaker, but wondered if Matchmaker Akirabachi should've asked her more useful questions related to marriage. Like whether she even wanted a husband? Or if she thought she'd make a good mother? Or why her father was making her do this in the first place?
"The matchmaking ritual is tradition for daughters of the leading family, and highly crucial for building the strength and power of the clan," Akirabachi informed her. "You are not helping your father by prolonging my assessment. He is depending on you to get this right. Marriage to an outside clan was never ideal, but circumstances have changed. An alliance by marriage can only benefit the Kamizuru clan in restoring our village to its former glory and avenging our ancestors. Power and recognition of the Kamizuru name is the promise your father made to his father, and the father before him. He has shown you great patience, especially with your reluctance to participate in clan politics. As his only heir, it is your duty to find a way to be useful to him. For once, Lady Hotaru, he is counting on you."
"But I didn't ask for this!" Hotaru objected...but remembering every tragedy that had led up to this point, every act of violence by enemy clans toward the Kamizuru, she shrunk away from resistance. "But I guess neither did father. This burden was passed down to us. Our will of fire."
And even if it meant a little discomfort by marrying a complete stranger, Hotaru would do it if it promised her father a hundred armies in his name, because it was he who carried the tragic history and suffering of the village. To know you are a Kamizuru, but be forbidden to speak about it. To be the brunt of a joke. To live like ghosts in obscurity, where shame and self-hate are your only identity. Forever cursed to invisibility by an enemy clan's tyrannous exertion of power.
She hated them for discarding her as weak, for assuming they could keep her clan chained to a reputation of weakness. Hotaru wanted nothing more than to be recognized and prove the true strength of the Kamizuru clan.
But was this really the only way?
Wouldn't marriage outside the clan only complicate things?
"Like I told you before," Hotaru painstakingly tried to recall the fuzzy details of her ominous dreams. "I thought it was some kind of parasitic ant...But now that I think about it, it had pincers...more like a beetle."
Akirabachi's buzzing wings slowed, her body tense, but Hotaru couldn't stop now.
"Every night, for a month now, I dream about a honey bee resting on a white lotus flower, working hard to collect pollen from the nectar and carry it back to the hive," she continued, as Akirabachi hung on her every word. "And just as it fans its wings to fly away, the beetle attacks, stabbing the bee through its thorax and ripping it in half with its pincers. And as the bee trembles in agony in its dying breath, the beetle eats it alive slowly until there's nothing left but a violent stain on the lotus petals. And that's everything...Just please don't tell my father about this. He gets superstitious about dreams, and he's got enough to worry about in the village right now."
"What an unbecoming and aggressively rebellious story," the Queen Bee finally answered gently. "Bees are sacred to the Kamizuru, you know. To take a bee's life without good cause is to forfeit your own. What you're describing is treason against the Kamizuru clan. Are you willing to face those consequences?"
"Don't you think I know all that?" Hotaru answered. "I know what risk I'm taking by telling you this. But you're the clan's matron bee. If these dreams are meant to be a warning for us, you're the only one who can help me understand them. If our clan is in danger, then I can't worry about some marriage right now. I need to find the reason behind this omen before it destroys everything we've worked for to restore our clan."
"Hmm, seems to me that what is haunting you is the Kikaichū beetle," Akirabachi informed her. "Where have you seen it before?"
"I don't know," Hotaru replied. "I'm sure I've never seen a Kika...whatever-you-just-said in my life."
"I see," Akirabachi said in deep thought, though her five bee eyes looked more worried than stern this time. "Then that is all the useful information I can get from you now. You are free to return to the village. We're done here, Lady Hotaru. But for your sake, I hope you keep this dream between us for now."
"Wait, what do you mean?" the girl in Shino's arms whispered faintly. "You haven't even told me who I'm matched with yet..."
"That's because," Akirabachi had began to answer her...
Puzzled and confused, Shino's inquisitive brow rose above his shades as he looked down on the mysterious kunoichi he'd caught in his arms, when the swarm of yellow jackets ambushed her.
"She's still unconscious," he said. "Is she having a nightmare or something? I thought the poison would've killed her by now. Same girl who tried to kill me with that kunai back there...Such a careless attack. Did she really think I wouldn't see her?"
"That's because I have no match for you," Akirabachi had finished her say, in Hotaru's memory. "You will not find a husband here in the Hidden Wisteria Village, nor will you marry into any of the surrounding clans around our village."
"What?" the girl's words were so soft, Shino could barely hear them over the buzzing of yellow jacket bees around him. "You mean to tell me this was all for nothing?"
"She's definitely dreaming. I think she's out for good this time," Shino said, as the girl's head of snow white hair fell against his firm chest. She didn't move again, and Shino made sure of that by commanding his insects to restrain her out of harm's way. "Now I can focus on the beekeeper. Yellow jackets, huh?"
Summoning another hive of insects to his will, Shino gave them the order to attack, "We need to get these bees under control."
The Kikaichū charged toward their larger opponent, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in numbers and hungry aggression. Shino was sure he'd have the yellow jacket swarm exterminated in less than 15 seconds, and still have enough chakra to protect and bind his captive if she tried to attack him again.
At least by his calculation.
But the moment his bugs clashed antennae to antennae with their yellow jacket contenders,they were swallowed whole by the bees at a rate Shino couldn't stop fast enough. And he felt their life force disappear through his chakra, every single time a Kikaichū fell in battle to a bee. Like tiny but meaningful holes punctured into his own psyche, leaving him cold and empty with loss, where a Kikaichū had once existed with him but now would never return to him again. Tiny parasitic holes of grief tearing another piece of his soul, like a beloved family member gone before you're ready to let go.
Shino pulled back.
He would not risk losing anymore of his precious bugs. They had done enough to protect him in this fight, and now he would protect them, taking every aggressive bite and sting against his own body while the rest of his Kikaichū colony remained shielded inside of him.
"What is this jutsu?" Shino said, using Taijutsu only this time to play defense as he tried to shake the yellow jackets off with quick moves and jumps out of the swarm.
"You're from the Aburame Clan of the Hidden Leaf," the beekeeper finally showed himself, stepping out from the fog into the battle with Shino.
"That's right," Shino answered.
"Then you're an intruder here," the beekeeper's words darkened. "I have no hatred toward you, Aburame. Why have you come here with your Kikaichū to attack me?"
"Wait, I'm not come here to-" Shino tried to stop him, but the beekeeper wasn't listening as he summoned another swarm of yellow jackets.
Within seconds, Shino's body was overpowered by double the swarm he was fighting before, and the beekeeper was sure he had him this time.
Until-
"I don't want to hurt you," Shino's composed voice came suddenly from behind him.
"A substitution jutsu?" the beekeeper declared, offended. "Why do you disgrace yourself by running away, Aburame? I know the Aburame clan has more power than this. Are you doing this to mock me? If you came here to finish me off, why don't you fight? Let me prove myself!"
And in his determination and fury, he swung around to attack Shino again, but Shino dodged every blow he could throw at him. "I said it before. I'm not here to fight you!"
But the beekeeper's eyes were on Hotaru, still unconscious and restrained by Shino's bugs against a tree trunk nearby.
"Not here to pick a fight, huh?" the beekeeper answered, suspiciously. "Was that what you called peacekeeping? You don't think I know who she is, and why they sent you to kill her? You Aburame ninja are all the same. Merciless, spineless, heartless killers! And all for what?"
"But wait, she's-"
Shino was forced to save his words in order to evade the next desperate attack the beekeeper threw at him.
"You're quick on your feet," the beekeeper acknowledged him. "And you're skilled if you can keep deceiving me. But the yellow jacket poison-"
"The poison did get me," Shino answered him. "But the poison isn't a problem for me. The reason is because your power is weakened, and this small amount of poison isn't enough to kill me."
The beekeeper dropped his next attack then, knowing that it was hopeless, and that even if he had the power to do so, Shino could not be beat. The Aburame kid was too strong for a lost and purposeless ninja like him, and there was no point in fighting the inevitable.
"Is this your vengeance? Well then, this is my loss. There aren't many of us left in my clan. I have failed them all. But I guess I can't be helped," the beekeeper said, dropping to the ground and bowing to Shino. "At any rate, I'm honored to die by an insect user of your caliber."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Shino said. "I didn't come all the way in here to kill you. I just want your honey wine."
"My honey wine?" the Beekeeper looked up at him again, surprised. "You're only here for honey wine?"
"That's right," Shino answered. "I promised to find it as a gift for a friend."
The beekeeper's head turned back to Hotaru. "Well then, why is she here?"
"I don't know. Before this fog happened, she tried to kill me by attacking me from behind. I grabbed her wrist to take the kunai in her hand, and I guess when I did that, she got dragged into this fog with me," Shino said. "She passed out before I could interrogate her."
"What's to be done with her?" the beekeeper asked.
"For now, she's my prisoner. She stays with me. At least until she wakes up and answers my questions," Shino replied, dismissing the bugs watching Hotaru as he gently lifted his battle prize into his arms again. "I really should be getting back to find Kiba though. By now, he's realized I'm gone...Or not."
"I see," the beekeeper said, taking a moment to consider the unconscious girl in Shino's arms. "But it'll be nightfall soon, and it's dangerous in this fog after dark. Rest and find your friend in the morning."
"But I don't have time to-"
The beekeeper walked ahead of him, giving Shino no choice but to follow. "You better keep up. I meant what I said about the dark."
Shino sighed, trailing behind the beekeeper as he held Hotaru safely against him.
"Kiba was right," he thought to himself as he looked down at his sleeping captive. "She really does smell like honey."