Shibi hoped he wasn't too late to find his son.

The forest hummed with the buzzing of insects scouting for information and analyzing every disturbed leaf, every broken twig on the path, and every subtle drag in the mud that might belong to a recklessly fleeing interloper.

Rumors swarmed around the compound that Shino still hadn't returned home, and like a colony of wasps answering the distress of their hive, the foraging Aburame swelled in number as the hunt dragged on.

Unhappy as he was about his classmates, it wasn't like Shino to neglect his academy homework, or wander the village so late on a school night.

And when Shibi's insects alerted him to the abandoned bug cage smashed and hidden among the forest ferns, he immediately recognized it as one of Shino's.

The golden tears of hardened beeswax coating the broken glass, confirming Shibi's worst fears.

Without a doubt, the golden-eyed ninja he'd coincidentally walked by after dinner at Yakiniku Q had been a Kamizuru.

But how could that be possible?

Generations before Shibi, every member of the Kamizuru Clan had been hunted down by the Aburame Clan and executed for leading an invasion by Iwa against Konohagakure.

The few Kamizuru stragglers that had survived the Iwa-Konoha Insect War were dismissed as weak unworthy opponents, who would be so brutally disgraced by Iwa anyway, that allowing them to live and face their village was a far greater humiliation than dying in battle.

So confident were the Aburame in denying the Kamizuru any chance to redeem themselves, that it was assumed the bee users would exterminate their own clan from the ninja world, as the Samurai do, in order to preserve what little scrap of honor they had left.

But Shibi had seen firsthand how wrong that assumption was when "Operation Spider" came to their village.

It'd been arrogant to underestimate the bee clan, and to assume the surviving Kamizuru weren't still a dangerous threat. After all, it was not the nature of wasps to take their defeat humbly. And enough of Shibi's closest friends had been mercilessly assassinated in "Operation Spider" by a Kamizuru rogue ninja, who to this day, still remained at large.

And wasn't it only some years ago that Shibi was given orders by Lord Third to lead the Aburame back to the Stone Village to hunt down "The Spider", and squash this insect feud once and for all?

For the sake of saving the strained alliance between the Leaf and the Stone, it had been for the good of everyone to eradicate the feral Kamizuru Clan. And Shibi had obeyed the Hokage's order to the letter, tracking down and slaughtering any bee user known to the Hidden Stone.

Every last Kamizuru, that is...except The Spider.

Shibi knelt down to inspect Shino's bug cage for clues, soon joined by Torune, Muta, and Shibi's father, Shinta Aburame.

"They're gone," Muta reported to Shibi, surveying the fist-sized hole left behind by Nao in the tree trunk. "But they're not far."

"It seems you were right, Shibi," Shinta said to his son, his sunglasses tracking a lone bee buzzing by them. "The number of beehives in the forest have grown more than usual this past week. It looks like we may be dealing with...them...If Hansukebachi Kamizuru is reallyThe Spider, as we suspected, then we can only assume he's behind this attack. We must find Shino. The reason is because, if Hansuke has returned to fulfill his promise in taking his vengeance against you, Shino will be his first target."

"It seems Shino has already met the Kamizuru in battle," Shibi murmured, his eyes still fixed on the shattered bug cage at his sandals. "I must find my son."

"I'm here, dad," Shino answered him, staggering out of the bushes and thickets of the forest.

His mouth was hidden by his red-buttoned upturned collar, but his face was as gray and cool as his little inner jacket. A troubling contrast to his dark sunglasses, which were cracked in one lens and sat slightly crooked on his rounded nose. His beige hoodie had fallen back, revealing the sticky paste of yellow honey that left his habitually bushy hair slick around his ears and forehead. His cheeks smudged with a black sooty residue, which made Shibi conclude that he'd been attacked by some kind of...bee bomb?

"Shino, are you hurt?" Shibi asked his son, deeply concerned.

"No," Shino replied. "I'm fine."

"You were attacked in the forest," Shibi said. "Who did this to you?"

But Shino, standing in the heated gazes of his father, grandfather, and brother, knew he couldn't just say that he'd failed them. That after all their training and high expectations for him as a member of the head family, he hadn't been quick enough to stop Firefly's beeswax jutsu.

For all the lectures they had given him on being faster, keener, more observant as a ninja, he had failed to recognize his own enemy because he was so eager to finally have a true friend.

And yearning so desperately for companionship, Shino's foolishly sentimental feelings toward Firefly had lowered his guard, making him an easier target for her attack.

But more damning than anything else was that shameful dissatisfaction with himself, having been completely useless when he realized Firefly's beeswax cocoon was not meant to hurt him at all...but to protect him.

She had betrayed him, only to make sure he couldn't follow her anymore and be discovered by her teammates.

Firefly had only been trying to save him from walking into a battle he couldn't win, if he blindly charged in trying to defend her.

And wasn't that the true meaning of friendship?

But the Kunoichi's sacrifice only added another stone to Shino's shame.

Had Firefly doubted his skills, assuming Shino was too weak to protect her otherwise?

Shino couldn't sit with himself, knowing that he, an Aburame, was now in Firefly's debt and that he could do nothing to repay it now that she had escaped the Leaf.

And without a name or village to track her down by, Shino was forced to accept that his debt to the Kunoichi would go unpaid, as he might never see Firefly in the Leaf again.

"I was working on my ladybug experiments in the forest," Shino finally said, choosing his words carefully, so as not to lie to his elders, or put Firefly in more danger. "I did not have a reason to fight them, and they did not have any to challenge me. Who are they, dad? Why would they come here to the Leaf?"

A burning curiosity that Shino hid well in the matter-of-fact tone of his question. Firefly had been careful not to give him her real name, or a clear explanation as to why she'd wandered into the forest in the first place.

Could she really be an enemy ninja behind the lines of some sinister operation against the Leaf?

If that were the case, why hadn't she killed Shino when she had the chance?

She didn't seem at all like a killer.

Shibi said nothing, knowing he didn't have the time or the words to explain it all to his youngest son.

Shino was still too young to understand the brutal ongoing history of hatred between the Kamizuru and the Aburame.

And the Aburame had lived in such quiet bliss after the fall of the Kamizuru, that Shibi had never imagined a moment when he would have to explain their dark past to his son.

But that could wait for later.

Shino had been attacked, and Shibi's first priority was to find the ones responsible.

"Torune," he instructed Shino's brother. "Take Shino home. Neither of you are to leave the compound until I return, understand?"

"Yes, dad," Torune nodded.

And just as Shibi turned to rejoin the hunt for the rogue Kamizuru Clan, Shinta spoke again.

"Shibi...Shino is your successor. The next Head of the Aburame Clan. He is also my grandson," he told his son gravely. "Therefore, if that spider, Hansuke, is behind this, and he refuses to accept his defeat, now is not the time for the Aburame Clan to show mercy. It is clear that compassion has not solved anything. Now is the time to put an end to this feud by making sure these unforgivable trespasses into our village never happen again."

And though he didn't completely understand the hidden subtleties behind his grandfather's cryptic words, Shino's brow furrowed opposingly at the callous misunderstanding they were making about his kind bee friend.

But what could he actually do to protect Firefly, now that his clan had decided she was an enemy?

The entire Aburame Clan was 100 times stronger than he was.

And though it would be a cruel lesson for a young ninja, the clan would make Shino endure it, for the good of teaching him hardheartedness and loyalty to his own people.

Because after all, despite the kind person Firefly had been to him in the forest, this girl belonged to a foreign village that had trespassed into his for reasons unexplained.

Which made her his bitter rival.

And it wouldn't matter to his elders that she had been his Firefly-chan first, before she became the enemy.

If it meant the safety of the village, Shino would be expected to follow orders and swear his life over to protect it, like every Aburame before him.

And Shinta's word was neither warning nor suggestion, but a formidable order neither Shino nor Shibi would oppose.

"I understand, father," Shibi nodded. "I will do what I must to protect Shino and put an end to The Spider once and for all."

"Wait, dad," Shino began. "There's something you should know about-"

But Torune held out his gloved hand to stop his younger brother, knowing that they had already gotten themselves into enough trouble tonight, and that their grandfather would surely be visiting them for it.

Shino didn't understand exactly what his father meant by the "feud" or who this man called Hansuke was, but whatever it was, it couldn't mean that all along, Firefly could never be his.

But as his father turned back to the Aburame trackers, Shino was forced to keep his silence about Firefly, just as he was told to do by nii-san and the others, as he watched Shibi dart after his comrades back into the forest.