"Do I really smell like honey?"
Hotaru blushed, still stuck on Kiba's comment about her scent.
But now wasn't the time to let flattery distract her.
"Stay focused," she reminded herself, squeezing her shuriken tighter. "That Aburame ninja knows I'm here. I have to take him out before he gives away my position. I can't afford to take them both on."
Because whether her target knew it or not, this was war.
And only one of them would walk away from this fight.
Hotaru took a deep breath, leaning back against the tree that housed her stakeout.
Did her target know she was there?
Why did he stop walking when that bug landed on him?
Did those annoying, itchy little bastards blow her cover?
"That's gotta be the Kikaichū, which means he's the one I'm after," she confirmed. "But he's so...'bug-ish'...How could this dorky little beetle kisser be a threat to our village?"
She looked around at the fog darkening around her, making it harder to track her prey.
"Is he using genjutsu to throw me off? Hachimitsu Sensei forgot to mention that in my training...like so many other things they wouldn't tell me," she thought bitterly, scanning the fog desperately to relocate the target. "Still, I can't lose track of him. If he finds me first, I'm dead. I may be a genin now, but he's stronger...I can't lose this fight...I have to take him out first...Killing him is my only way back home."
And the sooner she did that, the sooner she could prove herself to her village.
Nobody said this would be easy.
But nobody said anything about the Aburame clan using mist jutsu too!
Who were these people anyway?
What had this Shino Aburame done that she had to risk her life to take his?
"And above all, never show him mercy. The Aburame clan is your enemy," Hachimitsu Sensei's voice buzzed back into her head. "You can expect no mercy from him either. That is why you must kill him first. Prove your strength, and you can return to the clan. But 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 kill you before you could anyway.
"But if you do manage to stay alive longer than that, use this bee jar to hunt him down. She will help you track him. Your survival depends on catching him off guard. With your level of training, do not make the mistake of thinking you can face him directly in battle. After all, I fought the Aburame in the Iwa-Konohagakure war, and a scared little honeybee like you won't stand a chance."
Shaking 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, daughter of the honorable bee clan, and I will show that Aburame ninja no mercy."
Breaking the seal on her bee jar, she coaxed the tracking bumble bee to battle, its fluttering blonde wings illuminating Hotaru's golden eyes.
"You know what to do," she said to the bee. "I'm counting on you."
And with her orders, the bumble bee darted in the direction of Shino's scent, lighting a path for Hotaru to follow him.
"Found you," Hotaru whispered, finally pinpointing Shino in the fog.
Before fear could hold her back again, Hotaru descended from hiding, falling into the fog to take Shino out.
But just as she landed on the forest floor, Shino Aburame disappeared, gone without a trace into the mist.
Instead, she was ambushed by a swarm of angry bees, like a thousand kunai stabbing into her at once.
The swarm of yellow jackets aggressively trapped her in their circle, making it impossible for her to escape as they went in for the kill.
With every bee sting, Hotaru felt dizzy, her burning veins rushing with poison.
"This is the Kamizuru 1000 Bee Stings Technique," she thought, betrayed, as her world became darker and less focused. "But how?...I can't die like this...I have to survive...I was so close to..."
But no matter how hard she fought to stay awake, the poison was all that would take her pain away.