And that should have been the end of her business with Kankurō of the Sand and his chronically single Kazekage brother.
However, rumors spread fast in the matchmaking world.
When word got out that the Kazekage was looking for a wife, and that should he not find one, the Kazekage's brother would be looking for one next-her shop door was near busting off its hinges with girls from every which clan and village, starry-eyed for an interview and a chance to tie the knot with one of the Suna brothers.
"I'm gonna need more copies,'" the matchmaker murmured, as she scanned the jittery and chatty line wrapping around outside her shop door. Absently handing over her last application to the 546th candidate today, a promising girl from the Land of Rain who wouldn't stop bragging that she was the obvious choice because she was the daimyō's niece's cousin's aunt's third best friend's dog-sitter.
"What's so great about this Kazekage guy anyway?" the stunned matchmaker asked.
"Have you been living under a rock?"
"The Kazekage is so quiet, and strong, and hot, and cool!"
"And elite!"
"Really, is there anything hotter than a Jinchūriki in bed?"
And with the dust of that argument thus settled, the snowy-haired matchmaker blew gently on her scroll of record, drying the last ink character with the 5864th name of the Kazekage's potential bride.
Staying up all night analyzing each candidate's profile for compatibility, before narrowing down her final three picks for the Kazekage's soul-match.
Matsuri, shinobi of the HIdden Sand.
Akari, granddaughter of the Sand elder, Ebizō.
Suigetsu Hōzuki, swordsman of the Hidden Mist.
And just as she lifted her brush again to make her ultimate decision on the match, a single honeybee buzzed in through her open shop window, stalling the matchmaker from making her selection.
"Akirabachi-sama is asking for me?" the matchmaker furrowed her brow curiously, after the honeybee buzzed his message.
It was rare when the Grand Matron Bee summoned her in the middle of her work, except to find occasional fault with the quality of a match. Her young student having a naively sentimental habit of prioritizing love over practicality in her matchmaking decisions.
And with so many important village celebrities asking to be matched in the shop lately, she wondered if Akirabachi was getting inpatient with how much time it took her to match them all.
But upon leaving her sandals outside the Great Queen Bee's honey hive for their tea ceremony, and taking her first sip of honeysuckle tea sweetly blended with sake, nothing could prepare the matchmaker for what came next.
"Forgive me, Akirabachi-sama, the sake is very strong," she pardoned herself politely. "For a moment, it sounded as if you believed I'm a possible match with the Kazekage."
Great Akirabachi's black and golden lion mane for a thorax heaved with laughter.
The matchmaker laughed too...Nervously.
"I'm only disappointed that you haven't considered yourself for the match already," Akirabachi went on chirpily. "Of course, I endorse any daughter of the Kamizuru Clan. And being my most exceptional student, it is now up to me to correct this glaring oversight for the sake of your reputation as a matchmaker."
"But this is so..." The young matchmaker began to protest.
Though catching that abrupt little twitch in Akirbachi's left antenna, she quickly decided it was in her best interests to replace her intended phrase 'utter banana slugs!' with-
"Sudden."
"News flies like a beeline. Once we took on the Kazekage as a client, chatter hasn't stopped in the village. We must fly twice as fast as the other candidates," the Matron Bee informed her. "Your father consulted with me immediately. We agreed that it is to our advantage that we seize this rare opportunity and make ties with the Sand Village. You must do this, for the good of our clan."
"I-I-I-forgive me, but I am not prepared to take on such an honor." she pardoned herself. "I've never even met the Kazekage. I'm sure there must be someone else who is a better match for-"
"You foolish child. Have you learned nothing under my tutelage? You have been chosen by your elders for the honor of participating in my matchmaking jutsu. Meeting the Kazekage isn't a requirement to be matched. Love, like people, change with time. It is the most unreliable foundation for a successful match. What makes a true strong alliance is-"
"Power?"
"Precisely!"
"How very convenient then that the Hidden Sand already has so many powerful tribes to choose from," the young matchmaker pointed out, trying again to wiggle her way out of the spotlight. "The Sand elders would never agree to an outsider as a match for the Kazekage."
"And how very convenient that being an outsider has placed you in a unique advantageous position," the Queen Bee countered. "For one belonging to an obscure clan with no identity to make you recognizable, assuming a new alias is as simple as honeycakes."
"You mean lie to him?" the matchmaker questioned her. "Renounce my own clan name just to impress the Sand?"
"Only a temporary and necessary sacrifice to infiltrate the Sand and earn the Kazekage's favor before you reveal your true name-"
"How could I ever do something like that?" she objected. "I'm working to redeem my clan name, not bury it in more shame-"
"As if you haven't already perfected the art of dishonesty about who you are," Akirabachi challenged her. "Your father is the most powerful ninja in the Kamizuru Clan, yet you deny the shinobi in your blood and waste your time living the lie of peace as a matchmaker. One failed mission in the Leaf as a young ninja, and you've been hiding like a scared little house cricket ever since...Though, I suppose...if I had watched my entire team murdered by the Aburame Clan and did nothing to stop it, I'd wish to live in denial too...What's one more little white lie, hm?"
Biting back her lower lip to keep her nerve steady, after it was struck so mercilessly, the young matchmaker persisted, "I am not the Kazekage's soul-match. I am a sworn nakōdo. When I became your student, I made an oath that I would never marry, so that I could focus on rebuilding our clan and dedicating myself to your matchmaking art."
"That was before the Kazekage failed to do his duty to his elders," Akirabachi remarked.
"The Kazekage's 'duties' have nothing to do with me."
"Your duty is to obey whatever order you are given that serves the interests of our clan," Akirabachi replied. "If that is no longer what you wish to do, I don't see a purpose for you anymore."
"With all due respect, Great Elder Bee," the matchmaker said. "If we want someone powerful like the Kazekage on our side, things will work better in our favor if we don't start by lying to him. Please do not include my name in your matchmaking jutsu and allow me to find the Kazekage his true soul-match. He would be very grateful to us, and wish to return the favor."
"How very diplomatic you've become all of a sudden. What a shame that you refused to follow your father's path and become clan head," Akirabachi considered her student thoughtfully. "Or perhaps...you've gotten so good at lying to yourself, that you almost convinced me you value the interests of our clan over your own...After all, how is it you're so sure you're not the Kazekage's true soul-match?...As far as I know, if you've been faithful in your loyalty to me, you have never been matched with my matchmaking jutsu before. Which means your heart belongs to whatever I order you to do, and is not wasted on idle thoughts of someone else."
Her student drew in a breath, forgetting to let it go again, as she studied the Great Queen Bee intently.
Did the Matron Bee already know the truth about why she'd chosen the lonely path of a matchmaker?
She had been so careful to be objective in this matchmaking business. Guarding that secret lonely yearning locked somewhere in her heart, as she recognized the light in her matched couples' eyes when their souls at last found and recognized each other.
How could Akirabachi possibly guess that the reason she could never open up her heart to the Kazekage was because she had left it behind years ago in the Leaf?
There was no way Akira could know what she hadn't even revealed to her dead teammates on 'that mission'.
The Great Bee was testing her.
Still, the matchmaker proceeded carefully.
"That is true, Akira-sama. I am yours to command," she said, with her face unmoved, as she gracefully held her yunomi cup again and took a slow sip. Her heart beating wildly as she did it. "I only worry that I won't be able to serve you well at the Kazekage's side."
"It was only a matter of time before your father, Dakubachi, dragged you out from under my wing," Akirabachi said. "Every daughter of the Kamizuru Clan must face me someday...Why should you be free to choose differently, simply because you are daughter to our Clan Head?"
And seeing that her quick-witted student had no further objections to counter her argument, the Matron Bee went on.
"Kankurō of the Sand expects an answer from us in only a week now. That doesn't give us much time to choose the match," Akirabachi informed her. "And so, you will not leave this hive until I have thoroughly tested your suitability for the Kazekage. As an official candidate, your cooperation in answering my questions is much appreciated. Starting with your dreams...The bees tell me that you are a vivid dreamer. I would like to know what brings you so much happiness when you dream...Perhaps dreamy sand palaces, or sandy beaches, or a merry swarm of sand flies, hm?"
Akirabachi tried to drop her a hint.
But the matchmaker was having none of it, setting down her yunomi cup with measured restraint. Officially ending the tea ceremony with the Great Queen Bee in protest of a rather unceremonious betrayal.
"So...you refuse?" Akirabachi questioned her.
"Was this my father's plan all along?"
When Dakubachi had agreed to her becoming a matchmaker, it was clear now that it was not in consideration of her own happiness, but as a way to buy his time. To use her oath to the Matron Bee as a protection against marrying her off to just any old clan. Only to save her as insurance, should he ever spot an opportunity for pocketing a more powerful son-in-law. And who better for the promise of power and restoring a clan's name than a Kage?
And she was running out of loopholes to talk her way out of marriage this time.
Even as she was absolutely sure she wasn't the Kazekage's match.
Therefore, it wasn't Gaara of the Sand she was most afraid of being named her destiny.
It was the final unveiling of that mysterious name belonging to her true soul-match that she wished to avoid. Knowing that such a match would likely belong within her own clan, and that there was no one in the Kamizuru Clan who had captured her heart in that way. Despite Akirabachi-sama's teachings that power makes the strongest alliances, she wanted more than anything to fall madly for the one she gave her heart to. She wanted to feel butterflies...like the one she had made with that boy in the Leaf.
But was refusing to cooperate with the matchmaking jutsu worth pitting the Queen Bee and her father against her?
No matter the soulmate this path eventually led her to, it seemed that she had no other choice but to submit, or be stalemated in a hive with the Grand Matchmaker Bee for all eternity.
"If this is what it's come to, then my oath to you is still my oath," she gave in. "When it comes to my dreams...I guess the best place to start would be that it's...well, what I really dream about is... um, well...it's a bug."
"A bug?" Akirabachi buzzed, her towering antennae quivering to contain her temper. "Why you cheeky little centipede! Do you really think I'm the sort of honeybee that would ever let you forget you're in her nest?"
But there was no taking it back now.
Her father had warned her about this, long before she became Great Akirabachi's student.
Whatever you do...Do not, under any condition, mention the word 'bug' in Matchmaker Akirabachi's presence...She's sensitive.
The matchmaker blushed and quickly bowed her pardon to the Honorable Mother Bee.
"Please forgive me! I didn't mean...I was only trying to say...What I meant was..."
But it was hard to get a word out with a giant grumpy queen bee staring her down.
"Once again," Akirabachi resumed, massaging her antennae with her front legs in straining patience. "In order for me to make a final decision about your match, it is important that I know everything about these dreams you have. When you say 'insect', what exactly do you mean?"
'I mean bugs! Creepy little demon bugs!...Is this another trick question?' the matchmaker wondered to herself.
"Why is me dreaming about an insect so important?" she asked the Great Queen Bee. "It has nothing to do with anything."
"How can you be so impossibly ignorant?" Akirabachi groaned. "It has everything, absolutely and precisely EVERYTHING to do with your qualifications as a match."
"But that's ridiculous!" her student blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Ridiculous?" Akirabachi cried, appalled. "I have brought dream-soulmates together since long before your time! How dare you insult a clan elder like this!"
"Respectfully, Honorable Mother Bee," she softened her tone, but did not rescind her words. "I don't see how some dream has anything to do with the Kazekage. Wouldn't your decision be easier made by asking me more useful questions? Like whether I even want a husband to begin with? Or if I even see myself as a good mother? Or if I even have any actual experience running a whole earwiggin' village-"
"Oh I see," Akirabachi snubbed her. "You think my decision is based on things I don't care about, like what your favorite color or tempura roll is? You are green as grasshoppers. None of that ever matters in a real marriage! You are not here to find a lover. You are here to make an alliance for the Kamizuru clan and guarantee the preservation of our hidden jutsu for your children and their children."
"There has to be another way to do that without marrying a complete stranger," the young matchmaker insisted. "Arranged forced marriages are so old-fashioned! There are plenty of willing Kamizuru waiting to be matched and pass on our hidden jutsu. Why should I be pressured to marry rather than focus on helping them with my matchmaking art? All because I'm a daughter in the head family?"
"It's tradition!"
"It's sexist!"
"Refuse your match and you will bring bad karma upon our clan!" Akirbachi declared. "You know the Kamizuru curse. It is ominous to reject your fated soul-match. Every time it happens, a terrible tragedy has come to the Kamizuru clan!"
"That's just superstition."
"You brazen brat! How can you be so selfish!" Akirbachi wailed. "It is your duty to accept your match! And your insolence is only prolonging the inevitable for you!"
"I've got time," she remarked.
"For the love of flowers! Tell me the name of the bug in your dreams or face my wrath!"
"Even if I knew it, I couldn't tell you," her student answered. "This insect isn't native to our village. None of the Kamizuru shinobi use it in battle, which means you're wasting your time, because it won't tell you anything about who I should marry."
"Do you understand how serious our matchmaking jutsu is?" Akirabachi questioned her. "An alliance by marriage is how you will gain power and recognition for the Kamizuru name. Power and honor is the promise your father made to his father, and the father before him."
"But I didn't ask for this."
"You are a Kamizuru," Akirabachi declared. "An attack on one bee is an attack on the whole hive. Therefore, our ancestors' suffering is also your suffering, whether you choose to accept that fate or not. There is tragedy in your blood, and you can not run from it. Nor can you continue to leave it unavenged."
And remembering every devastation that had led up to this point, every act of hateful violence against the Kamizuru clan, every excruciating humiliation she'd endured within her own village, her dewy honey eyes melted away from their long-held resistance.
If she didn't do something to change this, would every Kamizuru girl after her continue to be subjected to the same degradation Denkichi had shown her only yesterday?
"Can this really be the only way?" she whispered.
"It is your will of fire," Akirabachi reminded her. "A burden passed down to us through the generations. You must help your father achieve justice. Our enemies will pay. That is your duty as a Kamizuru Head daughter."
Therefore, if it meant a loveless marriage, she would learn to endure it.
If calling a stranger her soul-match meant a hundred armies for her dying clan, she couldn't say no.
She couldn't forget the tragic history and suffering behind her fallen name.
But wouldn't marriage outside the clan only complicate things?
These dreams, for instance...
"They're not always happy," she admitted to Akirabachi. "Sometimes, they seem very sinister."
"I will be the judge of that."
"Well...if I tell you the insect I saw in my dream...you must promise me father will never know about it," she said quietly. "He's had a lot on his mind lately. I don't want to be a burden."
"Go on?"
"I don't remember the name of this insect, exactly," she continued resignedly. "But it wasn't a bee...Actually, it looked a lot like...a beetle?"
Akirabachi's buzzing wings slowed, her body tense.
"A beetle?...Are you sure you're not mistaken, and really saw a sand fly resting in endless flowing sand dunes instead?"
"There was no sand."
"Not even a little?"
"It was a beetle...smaller than a sand fly, but with the appetite of a caterpillar...especially for bees," she confessed gingerly, as Akirabachi hung on her every word. "In my last dream, I saw a honeybee on a flowering bamboo leaf, collecting its precious pollen for her hive. Then the beetle attacked, ripping the bee apart with its pincers. And as the bee fought for its last breath, the beetle swallowed it whole, leaving nothing but her blood violently staining the bamboo leaves."
"Bees are sacred to the Kamizuru clan," Akirabachi said, deeply concerned. "To take a bee's life without good reason is taboo. What you dream of may be questioned as treason against our clan."
"I know how it looks, and I couldn't risk telling anyone about it," she answered. "But you're a clan elder. If these dreams are an omen warning that everything we've worked for is in danger, please help me understand them better."
"It's not that simple...What haunts your dreams appears to be the Kika beetle," Akirabachi informed her. "Where have you seen this insect before?"
"I...I don't know," she quietly lied, dropping her eyes to avoid the matron bee's intense gaze. "I'm sure I've never seen an insect like that before...But what's so special about it?"
"Never mind," Akirabachi replied, though her five bee eyes looked more worried than ever. "We're finished here. I have everything I need to know. Return to the village and continue your work until I summon you again. And for your sake, I suggest you keep this dream between us for now. Understood?"
"But," she couldn't help but stop the Queen Bee before she banished her from the hive. "Does this mean I am not the Kazekage's match after all? Could it be that my soul-match is someone else?"
"I'm sorry," Akirabachi's voice was cold and unforgiving. "It appears my jutsu will not accept you as a candidate...For anyone...I have no match for you. You are unmatchable."
The word felt like a fatal blow to her heart.
Unmatchable?
How could Akirabachi, the Great Matchmaker Bee, declare her unmatchable?
"I-I don't understand."
"Do not look so heartbroken. After all, it's what you hoped for, is it not? To never learn that you have a soul-match and be forced to marry someone you believed you could never love? The truth is, that someone never existed for you. Your destiny is such that you are beyond even my power of intervention," Akirabachi informed her. "There is nothing I can do for you. Return to the village. And say nothing else about this."