The bees...their buzz-song is different now...Someone's coming.
Shino stopped suddenly, his insects confirming his suspicion.
He wasn't alone.
He gazed around the fog expectantly, his insects gathering in a swarm around his hands.
Ready to take on the beekeeper in another fierce battle.
"It's pointless hiding. That's because it's over for you. I've already found you, " Shino warned his onlooker. "Whatever you hold against the Aburame clan, I will bear the brunt of your anger. She has nothing to do with it. Return my prisoner, and we will settle this ourselves."
He waited for the beekeeper's answer, but his challenger remained stubbornly hidden and silent in the forest.
"So, you prefer I came to you then. So be it," Shino said. "If you're here to fight me for her, I will not back down."
Then he heard footsteps emerge from the bamboo forest.
But they were not the footsteps he knew as the beekeeper's.
Stunned, Shino lowered his bugs and relaxed his fighting stance, as he watched Hotaru walk out from the fog.
"It's you," Shino said, surprised. "Where is the beekeeper? Are you feeling alright?"
Hotaru nodded.
But somehow, she wasn't the same.
Her face seemed different to Shino.
He wasn't sure if it was the glow from the fog, or just her complexion that appeared brighter.
And her honey eyes...they were different too. Softer and warmer. Making him suddenly crave honey loaf cake and Bee's Flower tea.
Shino barely recognized her eyes without their usual fiery and hot-blooded bellicosity.
And despite how much more beautiful she looked to him, Shino was guarded against that hint of melancholy in her golden eyes.
"Did he hurt you?" Shino asked, worried that the beekeeper had made her suffer.
Hotaru smiled reassuringly at him...even if inside she was heartbroken, knowing what laid ahead for both of them.
Were you really looking for me this whole time?...it makes me wish it really were true then...Any girl would've been lucky to be your match, Shino...But it couldn't have been me...If Akirabachi really had matched us as soulmates, it wouldn't be this hard to be with you...If we were meant to be, somehow the universe would've made it that way...Yet it feels like everything is working against us, even as just friends...I must have been wrong about the match then...Maybe we were never meant to know each other...at least not longer than a little while...
"I knew you'd find me, Shino," Hotaru spoke.
Her smile confectious and bashfully dainty.
Leaving Shino breathless.
She talks?
They were the first words Hotaru had ever spoken to him.
Nothing like the bratty voice he imagined for her in his head.
"In fact, it's pretty cute too," Shino thought, silently melting.
Her accent was almost...Iwagakurian. Like the Earth shinobi from the Hidden Stone Village he'd fought alongside in the war.
"If that's true, then she's a long way from home," Shino thought.
"I know you're surprised to see me, but there's no time to explain," Hotaru told him. "I know how to break this jutsu."
"What?" Shino asked. "You know how to break it?"
"I found the beekeeper," Hotaru said. "I guess you were right."
"Where is he? Can you take me to him?"
"That doesn't matter anymore. It's time you went home, Shino," Hotaru said. "You still have so much to offer your village. You belong out there, not here. You have to go back."
"How can you be sure breaking the jutsu will work for both of us?" Shino said. "I won't leave you behind."
"Don't worry about me," Hotaru assured him. "Isn't it obvious, bug boy? If we break this jutsu together, we'll both come out on the other side ok."
"Right," Shino said. "But is that what you really want?"
"What do you mean?" Hotaru asked. "Isn't leaving this fog and finding your teammate what you wanted all along?"
"I lost track of how long we've been here," Shino said. "The reason is because I'd gotten so used to it being just us...I hope we'll still see each other on the other side. Do you think breaking the jutsu will make us forget everything?"
Hotaru had worried about the same thing.
"I don't know," Hotaru answered him. "I can't say exactly how the beekeeper's formula works. For all we know, we could both be just illusions of each other created in this jutsu. Maybe when we wake up, it will all feel just like a dream. That wouldn't be so bad, would it?"
"Then no. I don't want to know the beekeeper's answer," Shino said. "If that's what happens when we break this jutsu, I won't take that risk. Why, you ask? Because at least here, I still have you. Even if it's just a dream."
Hotaru smiled sadly, knowing she needed to convince him otherwise.
"You'll only regret giving up your life to stay in this dream," Hotaru said. "We've been living in a different world in here, Shino. It won't be the same as out there. I don't know what we'll be to each other when we reach the other side. I just know we have to go back. Because the people we left behind are counting on us. We still have so much to give them. We have to believe in that."
"I guess you're right," Shino said. "Even so, I hope I never forget our time here."
"It's ok if you do, you know," Hotaru said softly to him. "It's probably better if you do actually."
"It's not possible," Shino joked. "Because how can I forget someone who makes honey loaf cake as good as you do?"
Hotaru smiled too.
"I guess I couldn't ever forget those bugs of yours either," she admitted lightheartedly.
Then she sighed.
"Well...I guess we should give this a try then," she said. "Are you ready to go home?"
"What did the beekeeper tell you?" Shino asked her. "How do we actually break the jutsu?"
"The secret is..." Hotaru began.
"You see," the beekeeper had told Hotaru in his honeycomb. "The nasty thing about the jutsu is that it takes the doubt inside the victims and turns it into fog, making it thicker and thicker...Haven't you noticed? This fog makes people lose their way. And when the jutsu is activated, the thicker the fog, the more it confuses them. In other words, this jutsu has no effect on someone who does not harbor doubt within themselves."
"Forgive me for doing this, ok?" Hotaru said to Shino.
And then without warning, Hotaru leaned into Shino, standing on tip-toe against his lofty height.
Pulling him in to leave a soft kiss on his cheek.
Shino turned instantly pink from ear to ear.
"Did you just...kiss me?"
"For courage," Hotaru said, smiling as she gazed at him. "Because I believe in you, Shino. Maybe we were both lost before, but I know you can beat this fog. I know you're destined to become a great shinobi. Because I've already seen how amazing you are. And I know, no matter what, you will find your place and always give your best to it. And I hope we do meet again out there someday, so I can see just how right I really was about you."
And then the beekeeper's words came back to Shino.
"This mist contains a special component that makes people go astray. It feeds on people who are lost...ultimately, whatever answer you find to beating this fog, will be the right answer."
"Wait, are you saying that I am filled with doubt?" Shino asked, as the depth of his most complex emotions finally came to light for him. "In that case, I get what it all means now...I've really been questioning just how to live as a shinobi once my team breaks up after Hinata marries. To always be together with my friends and teammates, that was my once cherished dream. Now my path isn't so clear...I see now I've doubt myself. I cling to this fog because...because I'm unsure about the world out there and what path I'm supposed to take now."
"Isn't that the irony about getting lost?" Hotaru said to him. "It's the only way to find what you're missing."
"And what I'm looking for instead is...to be with my friends who keep moving forward. Not to keep the same pace as I have," Shino said. "And so, I think you're right. That's because I can't allow myself to get stuck in a place like this forever. I have to return to my village right away. I'm definitely going to find my path in life, and I have no doubt about that at all. I know people who live every moment striving as hard as they can to reach their goals, even when it seems so far out of reach. I know I will reach mine too."
"And so, the answer to the beekeeper's riddle is-"
"Hope," Shino finished her sentence at the same time as her.
They both blushed, and waited for each other to continue politely.
"You go first," Shino allowed her.
"Against all odds, we have hope," Hotaru finished. "I think it's time we both accepted our paths."
"But what happens next?" Shino asked, glancing at the heavy fog hanging around them. "Is the jutsu broken now?"
"Maybe you have the beekeeper's answer, but you don't want to believe in it yet?" Hotaru wondered.
Shino thought that over for a moment, studying the girl in front of him.
"I guess I can't," he said. "I can't leave this place just yet. Not until I know you'll be ok."
"Please don't worry about me, ok?" Hotaru assured him. "I'll be fine."
"Where will you go?" Shino asked her. "Is your path far away from mine?"
"I'm sorry, Shino," she answered him gently. "I can't tell you where I'm going."
"So you still don't trust me, huh."
"It's just..."
"There will come a time when Shino Aburame will hear everything you wish to tell him. But now is not that time," Hotaru remembered the beekeeper's words. "It will only put him in danger if he learns what I told you. For the same reason I couldn't tell Shibi about Misaki, Shino can never know about you."
"I have unfinished business in my village that I need to fix," Hotaru said. "And I can't allow anyone else to get hurt because of it."
"I see. It sounds dangerous," Shino said. "In that case, I'll come with you."
"What?"
It was the last thing Hotaru expected him to say.
"I promised the beekeeper I would protect you," Shino explained. "I have never gone back on my word."
"But Shino...you've already kept your promise to the beekeeper," Hotaru reminded him. "You don't have to worry about me anymore."
"It's not just for the beekeeper anymore that I keep that promise," Shino said. "Why, you ask? Because you wouldn't last a day on your own. That's because you're so reckless."
"Excuse me?" Hotaru demanded. "I dare you to say that to me again, you spineless garden slug!"
"I said I won't let you go alone," Shino answered her. "I'll be there to fight at your side when you need me. Ask me to do it. That's all you have to do. Just ask. And I'll come."
"No, Shino," Hotaru whispered, even though it broke her heart to push him away. "I'm sorry, but you can't come with me...In fact, us being friends like this must end here."
"But why can't I keep knowing you like this?" Shino asked. "Do you really think I'd let you face something so dangerous alone?"
But that's the thing, Shino...
Hotaru thought sadly.
By knowing me like this, you don't know me at all...You don't know anything about who I am. You don't know what knowing me like this will cost you later...It's too dangerous for us to be friends.
"I'm sorry, Shino. But I have to do this on my own," she said. "Please just accept that. No matter what we remember from this bamboo grove, it can't follow us into the world out there. Please forget me. Because after we break this jutsu, you'll be just a beautiful dream to me. That's the way it has to be."
And hearing those words stung like a beekeeper's jutsu, but Shino knew he wouldn't change her mind. He didn't have a right to, he decided.
If she wanted nothing else to do with him, then he would respect her wish.
Even if he didn't understand it.
He had to trust her to know what was best for her and her village. Wherever that was.
She would find her own way out of this fog, just like he had to find his.
"I'm sorry, but I can't forget you. It would be impossible for me," Shino said. "But I will accept this. Even if I can't forget you, I will never let you know that I haven't."
"Thank you for being who you are, Shino Aburame," Hotaru said, bowing politely to him. "One day, I will repay all of your kindness."
But Shino rose her chin up from her bow, drawing her gaze back into his eyes again.
"I wait for the day when you're ready for me to remember you," Shino said. "But how will I know the girl I'm waiting for, if I never know your name?"
"Shino, I-"
Hotaru never got to finish that thought.
The fog around them started to change, swirling in a kind of smoke thickening around them.
"What's happening?" Hotaru asked. "Is it supposed to do this?"
"Is the jutsu broken or is this another one of the beekeeper's tricks?" Shino wondered. "Why is it getting foggier?"
"The beekeeper promised this would work."
Shino pulled Hotaru into him, his arms shielding her from the questionable fog closing in on them.
Instinctively, his insects rushed from his sleeves, brushing pass Hotaru's snowy white hair to protect them from the fast-approaching ominous fog.
Shino's kikaichū spiraled above him and Hotaru, forming an insect dome in an attempt to block the potential threat.
But only in vain.
"Just don't let go of me," Shino said to Hotaru, as the fog slipped through his insect dome and wrapped around them. "We came in together like this. Maybe leaving is the same way."
"But shouldn't we be out of the jutsu by now?" Hotaru scanned the rising fog anxiously. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You said you wanted to forget everything. So just look at me," Shino comforted her. "Focus on my face and forget everything else."
The fog got thicker, but Hotaru didn't look away.
She kept her eyes on Shino.
Feeling evermore dizzy.
Until her fingers gripped against his sleeves slowly relaxed.
Weakened and light-headed.
Feeling her gradually slip away from him, Shino held onto Hotaru tighter.
Like some unseen force, outmatching his strength, was pulling her away.
And then Shino felt it too.
A gradual loss of consciousness. Like falling into a deep sleep.
"Shino," Hotaru whispered weakly. "I can...barely stay awake."
"Don't let go of me," Shino told her. "Whatever you do, don't let go."
But Hotaru couldn't fight against it anymore.
In her last attempt to not get separated from him, her fingers blindly wrapped around the chain of Shino's garnet necklace.
And against a force not even Shino could resist, Hotaru was ripped away from his arms.
Snapping the chain from around his neck, now entwined between her fingers.
Shino closed his eyes, surrendering to the seductive urge to sleep.
And when he opened them again, he was staring up at the treetops of the Sora-Ku forest.
Alone.