Whatever attack Beekeeper had used against her, she soon wished she'd died from it instead.
Death was certainly more merciful than the burning pain she now felt in her throat and chest.
Even breathing felt impossible after such a blow, and she struggled to catch her breath again as the Beekeeper approached her from the honeycomb halls of the great beehive prism he'd trapped them both inside of.
"Forgive me for snatching you away so unceremoniously, Lady Kamizuru," Beekeeper said, as if it were only an inconvenience. "It was never my intention to take you by force, but you almost left me no choice."
The Bee kunoichi steadily rose to her feet, pushing herself through the pain as she took an offensive stance against her new opponent.
"By all means, speak freely. I may not be as quick as you young ones in battle, but my wisdom in seals and poisons is unrivaled," the Beekeeper told her. "Even so, breaking a cursed tongue seal is never a gentle business. Pain is something we despise in the moment, but anything worth having or doing in this life is made more precious by the pain we endure for it. And I have been waiting to meet the daughter of Dakubachi for a very long time."
"You're kicking over the wrong hive if you think I'll just stand by and let you kill that Aburame," she warned him. "If you think Aburame is your enemy, then you have yet to faceme. I am an exile ofthe Kamizuru clan, which means I have no loyalty to anyone who stands in my way. I follow my own rules now."
"That is precisely what I was hoping you'd say," Beekeeper approved. "Exiled or not, you are still a Kamizuru shinobi and daughter of the head family. I did not expect you to sit here and look pretty until you were rescued from this beehive by that Aburame boy."
"Why wait when I can finish you off myself and save some time?" she said. "After all, it would be useless to bring a beetle to a bee fight. There's no contest."
"There's no need for us to engage in uncivilized melee like the ones on the outside."
"Uncivilized?" Her brow peaked in amusement at his problematic word choice. "You kidnapped me. Were you expecting a thank you first?"
"I apologize for my dramatic introduction, but the politics of the Kamizuru clan are no business of outsiders. That Aburame can't trace us inside this beehive jutsu," the beekeeper said. "We're on the same side, Lady Kamizuru. So get comfortable."
"I find that hard to believe, since you've been trying to kill us since we first got trapped in this bamboo grove," she pointed out. "And it didn't take much to guess that you have something to do with this fog too."
"A mere diversion," he admitted, offhandedly. "I would never turn my jutsu against a fellow beekeeper. Call it a little experiment of mine, if you will. What happens when you force an Aburame and a Kamizuru together in a container like this? Will they kill each other? Or will they turn themselves into a formidable force like the insect ninja world has never seen? It seems you two have gotten close since you came here...How misfortunate."
"So, trying to kill us was a game to you?"
"A test of your readiness," he corrected her. "Under the right conditions, you performed just as I knew you would. Had you become my student, as I intended you to be years ago, I would have been proud."
"If you're not going to explain yourself," she told him with measured patience. "Why keep talking?"
The Beekeeper chuckled.
"Of course, how ungracious of me," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Hansukebachi Kamizuru."
"The traitor?"
"An exile, like yourself," he said. "And like yourself, I too was thrown out as a threat to our clan."
"What do you mean?" she demanded. "You started a war within our own clan. I was sent to stop it."
"Of course. Daku would want you to believe such a lie, wouldn't he?" Hansuke commented. "Better that than to watch his daughter repeat the tragic events of history, leading to the very destruction of what the Kamizuru stand for."
"You're wrong. I would never turn against my own clan!"
"The day you saved Shino from being found by your teammates, Nao and Kenzou," Beekeeper said. "You abandoned your allegiance to that clan."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Or rather, you simply can't trust another Kamizuru. After all, if anyone knew about the day you protected an Aburame boy in the forests of the Leaf, there would be no hope of you ever returning home to our clan," he revealed her innermost struggle. "But even after taking such a risk, it seems you still can't help but to protect your beetle friend. If Shino's death were truly your mission, you had every chance to accomplish it when he faced my Queen Bee summon."
"My mission was to kill him with my own skill," she said. "Your bee got in the way."
"And why, might I ask, did it have to be Shino Aburame?"
"I don't care what his name is, really," she said. "I was given an order. As Shibi's son, Shino was classified as an imminent threat to the Kamizuru, and I needed to prove my loyalty to the clan after almost going rogue. It could've been any Aburame, for all I cared. My mission would've been the same."
"And yet, how could it ever be the same?" Hansuke said. "Watching you two fight in battle together...it's almost as if you might've been soulmates."
"How dare you even suggest-"
"The feelings you know within you to be true?" Hansuke boldly finished her sentence. "You're in love with him. You have loved him since that day you first found each other in the Leaf Village. And it is that love that still protects him, even from the Kamizuru that you are now."
"I never knew a Beekeeper to be such a romantic. What you call love is only a necessity to me," she corrected him. "To break your jutsu, I needed the Aburame alive. At least for the time being."
"If you really wanted to fight Shino, one of you would be dead by now," Hansuke said certainly. "After all, this has all happened before."
"Whatever you mean by that, I'm not interested in changing a past I can not fix," she told him. "I'm only interested in what I can do with my own hands, and that includes finding a way out of this bamboo grove. I know you have the key to breaking this jutsu."
"I have no control over the fog," the beekeeper answered. "It is Shino who keeps himself trapped here. He is free to leave any time he wants."
"Enough of your useless riddles," she said. "What does any of this mean?"
"Only Shino knows what it means," the beekeeper replied cryptically. "I do not have the answer."
"Don't you have anything useful to say?" she questioned him in frustration. "Or did you really wait all this time to find me so you could say absolutely nothing?"
"You were lied to, Lady beekeeper," he said. "The reason you were sent on this mission is because Shino Aburame is your match."
"Of course I know he's my opponent! Why do you keep telling me things I already know?"
"No," Hansuke declared. "The reason Akirabachi abandoned her search for a soulmate was because she had already named a match for you. But to accept such a match would undo everything your father has worked for in the clan. You were sent to kill Shino, not because of the danger he presented to the clan, but because of the danger a love like yours posed in challenging Dakubachi's plans for the Kamizuru."
Confounded and still, her face glowed as pale as her moonlight hair. His words hitting her like a rock solid lump of beeswax to the face.
"But...that can't be true," she whispered. "How could it be? Shino is from the Aburame clan. How could I ever be matched with him?"
And then she was suddenly sick to her stomach, as Matchmaker Akirabachi's own words slowly came back to haunt her.
"What haunts your dreams is a Kikaichū beetle."
"The Kikaichū beetle...why didn't I recognize it sooner?" she whispered, as she remembered every painstaking detail of Shino's bugs crawling across his face.
The way Shino had stepped in to protect her with them from the Queen Bee with his bug wall technique.
The gentle way his bugs brushed against her skin when he gave her his chakra.
"Those bugs are exactly like the beetles from my dream," she realized, her skin crawling with goosebumps. "Why wouldn't Akira just tell me the truth?"
"I have no match for you," Akirabachi had said. "You will never find a husband in this village. There is nothing I can do for you."
"Now that I think about it," the Kamizuru couldn't make the revelations stop now, even if she wanted to. "It was right after I told Akirabachi about my dreams that I was sent on this mission."
"These dreams you keep having," Akirabachi had said. "It is important that I know everything. When you say bug, what exactly do you mean?"
"How many times are you going to ask me the same question? Why is me dreaming about bugs so important? It has nothing to do with anything, let alone finding-"
My husband?
Could that really mean that me and Shino were meant to...
She couldn't make herself finish that thought.
"Out of the question!" she declared. "Why would Great Matchmaker Akirabachi match me with someone from the Aburame clan? Our worst enemy!...No, there has to be another reason. Akirabachi called me 'unmatchable'...That was the only thing she made clear to me."
But it didn't add up.
If under some definitely impossible and definitely hypothetical situation, shehad been matched with an Aburame, it would mean anarchy!
It would mean chaos!
...Just like the chaos of her being suddenly dumped into exile...
Could it really be...that all this time...the reason I was sent to kill Shino was because...he is my soulmate?
"It is your will of fire," Akirbachi had convinced her. "Refuse to marry your match and you will bring bad karma to our clan! You know the Kamizuru curse. It is a bad omen to reject your dream-soulmate. Every time it happens, a terrible tragedy comes to the Kamizuru clan."
"And so, they decided, better that I was dead than to ever be matched with my enemy," she came to the damning conclusion.Her world yanked from under her feet once again. "But didthey really believe I'd actually go through with marrying Shino? ...That I'd ever risk falling so much in love with him, that it'd make me turn against my own clan?"
"As I said before," Hansuke answered quietly. "It is most misfortunate. But it seems, it is your fate to decide. Will you use your alliance with Shino as an advantage to restore our clan? Or will you allow this doomed love story to tear it apart again?"
"I can't marry him," she said certainly. "Soulmate or not, allowing my feelings to grow for Shino would only mean suffering for both of us."
"Despite the will of fate, it does seem that a marriage between the Aburame and Kamizuru clans would only aggravate clan politics. Perhaps now isn't the season for a wedding," Hansuke said. "It seems that in order to obtain the peace needed for such a match to happen, there's more work to be done."
"There will never be peace between the Aburame and Kamizuru."
"Not if you continue to accept your father's way of doing things," Hansuke pointed out. "I brought you here to ask you to abandon your mission. Reject the dark fate Dakubachi has chosen for our clan, and fight for true peace. Even if that peace means never revealing your identity to Shino. At least for now."
"You mean, he can never know my name?"
"If he knew it, he will always come looking for you," Hansuke said. "As soulmates, you possess an innate desire to find and protect the other. An attraction that might lead to more harm for each other than good. And so, he can never find out why you were assigned to kill him. If word of your assassinaiton attempt gets back to the Aburame clan, it will only make tensions worse between our clans. Destroying everything Etsukobachi worked for to bring peace."
"Do you really mean the Etsukobachi?"
"You remind me of her," Hansuke said quietly. "Almost as if history can't help but to repeat itself. But that is the tragic thing about history, you know. No matter how hard we try, we always forget what we learn."
Hansuke faced her again through his heavy beekeeping mask.
"So I beg you," he pleaded with her. "As the daughter of our clan head, do not drag Daku's war into this bamboo grove. Forget your mission to kill Shino. Enough people have lost their lives in this merciless hatred between our clans."
"Why were you exiled from our village?" she asked him. "Why does it matter to you whether I kill Shino or not?"
"Your father and I were old teammates," Hansuke began his story. "Dakubachi, Etsukobachi, and I were close since our academy days."
"You were on a team with Etsuko?" she asked in awe. "She's a legend in our clan!"
"She was apart of the head family back then. The one in power before your father, Daku, took control. Matchmaker Akira chose Daku as her soulmate. And then Daku was obsessed with only two things: becoming our clan head and his love for Etsuko.
"A love that would forever be unrequited.
"Etsuko was not interested in marriage, and went against the matchmaking tradition, vowing to become our clan head without a soulmate to help her lead. She swore to me that Daku would never become leader of the Kamizuru, so long as she had anything to do with it."
"What reasons did she have for stopping my father?" Hansuke's listener wondered.
"I asked her the same question. Going against Akirabachi's Scroll of Fated Souls has always led to something terrible happening in our clan. It should have only been considered in unavoidable situations."
"The clan still calls it a bad omen," she agreed. "Every time a matched couple can't be together, something bad happens. It's the Kamizuru curse, they say...So if Etsuko rejected her match, what price did she have to pay for it? Would it really be the same price, if I were to reject mine with Shino?"
"Whatever Etsuko's reasons were for not marrying Daku, she couldn't tell me. All she could say was that too many lives would be lost, if she didn't become clan head first. Etsuko wanted peace for our clan, but your father wanted revenge and power. She and Daku could never agree on how to live peacefully with other insect using clans.
"And soon, Daku lost support in the village. The Kamizuru were tired of fighting our rivals, especially the Aburame clan. Daku's dream of becoming clan head was at stake. And he couldn't bear to let his crusade go.
"But the only hope Daku had of becoming clan head again was to ensure that war with the Aburame clan continued. So Daku went out on his own mission to make sure it did.
"He left the village without permission from the clan elders, and went on a killing rampage, taking out key members of the Aburame clan and raising hell for Shino's grandfather, Shinta. The Aburame head at the time. Shinta was pressured to make a move, as Daku sparked more hatred and outrage over the unprovoked violence.
"But back in our village, I worried for Etsuko's health when we heard the news about Daku's rogue missions. She didn't seem well at all. Everything she'd worked for to bring peace between our clans crumbled with Daku's massacres. It took everything I had to stop her from going after Daku herself.
"And that's when I found out the truth. Etsuko confessed to me that she was secretly pregnant.
"She told me the father was a shinobi who had died in battle, and begged me to keep her secret until she decided what to do about her unborn child.
"The night after I discovered Etsuko'ssecret, the Leaf Village named Daku a terrorist and declared war against the Kamizuru clan. The Aburame were sent to meet us in battle.
"Shibi Aburame was a young leader then, training with his father, Shinta, in coordinating an insect battle.
"Shinta Aburame defeated Hirotobachi Kamizuru in battle. Etsuko's father.
"And watching her father die, Etsuko challenged Shinta to avenge him. I tried to stop her, knowing her condition. But Etsuko wouldn't stand down. How could she? Her father was dead, and all for nothing.
"None of it should've ever happened. Everything she fought for fell apart before her eyes.
"I had no choice but to let her go and take her revenge. Etsuko put on her father's beekeeper armor, her face hidden for battle behind the mask.
"She met Shinta on the battlefield, but Shibi stepped in to fight her instead, taking his aging father's place.
"And with all the Kamizuru and Aburame watching, Etsukocould not back out of the fight with Shibi. Not without shaming our clan more.
"I couldn't protect her. Etsuko and Shibi were the pride of their respective clans. In their fierce battle, there was never an opening for me to jump in. I knew if I fought Shibi with her, we could defeat him together. But every time I tried to help her,Etsukothreatened to kill me herself if I went up against Shibi. I couldn't understand it then, but it felt like she was trying to protect me and Shibi from turning ourselves into enemies.
"But I couldn't bear to watch it, especially when I suspected that she was holding back her full strength against Shibi. It wasn't just herself she was protecting in battle, but her unborn child. Shibi had no idea who his masked opponent was. He didn't even know she was a woman under her armor, let alone pregnant.
"And so, the inevitable happened...We all watched horrified as Etsuko lost her fight to Shibi Aburame.
"Carrying my dying teammate from the massacre, I ran from the battlefield to find a medical-nin to treat her. Knowing I was running out of time to save her child too.
"I couldn't save Etsuko in the end...I could only save her son...Shino.
"And holding onto her last moments, Etsukoconfessed to me that the shinobi who defeated her in battlewas the child's father.
"She met Shibi Aburame in Loran, where he, Minato Namikaze, and Choza Akimichi were sent on a mission to stop Puppet Master, Anrokuzan, from terrorizing the city.
"Etsuko was taking a break from shinobi life in Loran at the time. While enjoying her vacation studying Loran artwork, Shibi tumbled into her life (quite literally) while snatching her out of harm's way of Anrokuzan's puppets.
Keeping her Kamizuru name a secret, Etsuko helped Shibi and his team to evacuate the city. It was during that mission that they fell in love.
"After countless attempts by Shibi to see her again, Etsuko finally agreed to seeing him, on the condition that they see each other only in secret. Shibi never understood why she wanted it that way, but he was grateful to get her to say yes.
"But rather than face exile for falling in love with an Aburame, Etsuko decided to take matters into her own hands and become clan headherself. So that she would have the power to change our politics, and create a peaceful world between our clans for her son, and the children like him.
"When she died, she named me her successor, and made me promise to always do the right thing for thatpeace. For both the Aburame and the Kamizuru clans.
"But peace was more complicated than I ever imagined after her death. Shibi never knew that he had fought and killed the mother of his child. But Etsukowas still our clan head, and she had to be avenged. Shibi would pay for his victory.
"Daku swore to destroy the Aburame clan without mercy. But I had Etsuko's child to worry about first.
"He could not stay in our clan. If Daku knew he was Shibi's son, the boy wouldn't be safe in our village. When he turned 3 months old, I knew it was time to smuggle him out of the village, as it was a critical time for Aburame infants to be infused with their kikaichū insects.
"I kept him hidden as long as I could, before leaving our village secretly in the middle of the night, hiding the sleeping baby in a wrap tied around my shoulder.
"I haven't stopped hating Shibi for it since.
"Etsukonever deserved what Shibi did to her. And Shino never deserved to be without his mother. I didn't know what I'd do if I ever saw Shibi again...But I took care of his son for Etsuko. Because I made her a promise...And with that promise, I delivered Shino safely to his father in the Hidden Leaf."
"Did Shino ever know about Etsuko?" she asked. "Does he know he too is a Kamizuru?"
"No one knows. Not Daku, and not Shibi," Hansuke answered, shaking his head. "I never revealed Etsuko's real identity to Shibi. She wanted it that way. She thought it would be too unbearable, if Shibi knew that he was the reason she was dead. She kept such a secret out of mercy for him.
"But he wouldn't find me to be as forgiving.
"I could not take my revenge against Shibi the night I surrendered Shino to the Leaf. I walked away in peace, for the sake of Etsuko's son. But as a Kamizuru leader, I swore I would avenge the Aburame's attack on my village. Shibi and I agreed to face each other in battle in the future, once Shino settled into their clan and was introduced to his kikaichū.
"And when the time came, I showed Shibi no mercy, willing to die to take my revenge for Etsuko.
"But when I took the upper hand in the fight and had a chance to finally kill Shibi...I couldn't do it.
"I couldn't forget the promise I made to Etsukobefore she died.
"As much as I wanted Shibi to rot, I couldn't make an orphan out of Shino.
"For a second time, I failed to kill Shibi that day, in honor of him just becoming a father. And the reasons he failed to kill me in return are his own demons to wrestlewith. But we vowed to each other we would meet again some day and finish our fight.
"A day that again never came. When I returned to my village, I was ambushed by Daku, who wanted my place as clan head, now that Etsuko was dead. Weakened from my fight with Shibi, I didn't stand a chance to defend my title.
"Daku damned me to exile...I found this bamboo grove and set up my honey farm. I wanted nothing else to do with my clan...or the world out there," Hansuke said sadly. "Until now...Seeing you and Shino working together restored hope in peace for me. Maybe there is still time to honor the promise I made Etsuko. That is why I need you."
"What would you have me do?" she asked.
"There will come a time when Shino will hear everything you wish to tell him. But now is not that time," Hansuke said. "It will only put him in danger if he learns what I told you. I am not sure how anyone would take him as a half-blood in their ranks, whether Aburame or Kamizuru. But I know he is not one to take a bond with anyone lightly. I see that he cares for you. Just as his father deeply loved Etsuko. And just as Shibi might've taken on our entire clan to save Shino's mother, I fear Shino would do the same for you. And so, for the same reason I couldn't tell Shibi about Etsuko, Shino can never know your name."
"But that would mean finding a way to escape this bamboo grove," she said. "And even if I could, Shino is the most observant of shinobi. He will always find a way to plant a bug on me."
"You are his match, and a Kamizuru. You will find a way to keep him safe and distant," Hansuke said. "You must return to Iwagakure, and bring your father's reign to an end."
"You want me to challenge the Kamizuru head?" she said in disbelief. "He will kill me if I ever go back. How can I fight my father and his followers alone?"
"If anyone has the power to do it, it's you. You have the spirit of Etsuko within you. This is our true will of fire. That which is done for the good of the clan," Hansukebachi said. "What belonged to Etsukobachi now belongs to you. Maybe there was a reason Shino and you met in exile. It was your mutual fate to change each other's heart...Just as it is now your duty to leave this grove and find the strength to save both your clans."
"Then you must know the answer to getting out of this grove," she concluded. "If you believe so much in my mission outside of it."
"It is simple...I hear that the key to unlocking the jutsu is what we Kamizuru have never let go of," the beekeeper informed her. "Tell your Aburame friend that, and when he realizes the meaning for himself, I will have kept my promise to him."
The bee kunoichi smiled bittersweetly, as the meaning for her gradually sank in too.
"I understand youcompletely."