I unsheathed a kunai and held it tightly in anticipation of a possible attack. The bugs said that there were intruders, so I readied myself into a defensive stance. I scanned the landmarks around me, only to see nothing in sight.

“Where are they?”

The kikai buzzed inside me with excitement. This was their first battle with me as their vessel, and perhaps their first combat experience since the incident with Shino. I surely didn’t want to disappoint them, so I readied my mindset to follow their orders.

“Sentries. The scouts have reported a band of four setting up camp from within the tree line.”

“What do we do?”

“Wait.” The buzzing paused for a moment. A few seconds later, a small squad of kikai scouts emerged from the distance, floating in a formation in front of me.

“They do not appear to be a threat, but should we proceed any further, they will be provoked and attack us.”

I certainly preferred to not get into confrontations so early into the mission, but it occurred to me that Shino and I had no other choice but to follow our only lead. Eventually, we would have to find a way past them. In my condition, the only way to do so was with Shino’s help.

I ordered the scout group to relay a visual of the enemy. They concurred, and flew off.

I closed my eyes in anticipation of their mental transmission. A vision of the landscape appeared in my mind. It was of them. The trees drew closer and closer, while the ground flew underneath the perspective with great speed. Past the tree line, the view weaved in and out of the foliage above, eventually settling on a branch. It panned downwards, revealing a trio of sleeping bags. Leftwards, it panned again towards a pair of ninja squatting alertly.

“Ino! On your guard! One of them is missing!”

Shit! What if they had found out that we were nearby? My legs reacted faster than I could think. I jumped down from the top of the hill back to where Shino’s tent was, sticking my head inside to discover that it was empty.

“Shino? Where’d he-”

“Over here!” A gruff voice interrupted. I flinched into a battle stance, and saw Shino on the floor, tied up with a dagger held to his neck. The third ninja sat on top of his body, giggling with a sadistic tone.

“Little ninja girl, were you looking for this boy? Tee hee!”

The enemy was draped by a dark brown cloak, and a hood covering the top of his head, save for the metal-engraved insignia tied around his forehead. The symbol was a pair of rocks, the smaller one layered on top of the other.

He continued, “We don’t know why you come this far, but if you truly value your life, you will turn away!”

I grasped the kunai already in my hand even harder. “Let go of him!”

He laughed again. Soon, the other two suddenly appeared behind him.

“Guests, we have?” Snarled one of the ones that joined.

“Yes, brother!” exclaimed the other.

Shit, I thought. Guys, we need to come up with a plan.

“We agree. There are enough of us to take care of the one holding Shino hostage. You will have to distract the other two.”

Agreed.

The bugs began to vibrate in synch at different parts of my body, finally centralizing on my left hip, underneath a small container where I kept my shuriken.

“Use these, Ino! Throw them at the middle one, then try and distract the other two.”

I nodded. I reached in quickly and conjured up two stars and tossed them at the face of Shino’s captor. The ninja vanished quickly, reappearing at a spot where the shuriken landed just a few steps from his feet.

“Too slow, ninja girl!”

I sighed, but saw the projectiles dissolve into a small swarm of bugs. They began swarming the ninja, attempting to find an opportune moment to strike and absorb his chakra.

“Whoa! Bug user! Zaki! Tetso! Don’t just stand there!”

The other two, presumably Zaki and Tetso, clenched their fist, and darted towards me. I rolled sideways, dodging their attack. I jumped into the air, throwing a pair of kunai at them.

“Don’t dodge her projectiles!” The ringleader shouted, still struggling with a swarm of kikai. “They might be bugs!”

The leftmost ninja threw his kunai at one of my own, knocking it into the other. I landed a few feet away from my opponents.

“Ino,” my left arm vibrated, “Give us a try!”

I raised my left hand, revealing an opening hole near my wrist. A squadron of bugs flew out and raced towards the ninja on the right. The other parried through the swarm and aimed a quickly withdrawn blade at me. I flipped backwards to avoid his thrust.

The squad of bugs that came from my left arm flew towards their target. The ninja grinned and performed a seal. The ground shook, and a pair of square pillars emerged from the rocks, slamming against each other as the swarm got caught in the middle. The attack was nullified.

I landed back on my feet, readying an uppercut on the other ninja attacking me. My right fist connected with his jaw, sending him flying off to my right. I charged at the remaining foe, unsheathing a kunai from a compartment tied to my ankle.

The upright one grinned, manipulating his pillars to dissolve into smaller rocks, and sent them flying towards me. I weaved through them carefully, slicing through a few of them with my kunai. I lunged at him as fast as I could, driving my blade into his chest. He gasped, letting out a few drops of blood from his mouth.

“NO! Brother!” the other ninja exclaimed through a broken jaw. He ran towards me from behind with a blinding speed that I could not react to. He landed a flying kick at my right shoulder blade, sending me tumbling a few feet away from his now-dead brother’s body.

Stunned, I tried to get back up to my feet, but the pressure placed on my right arm caused me to wince and collapse back onto the ground. My opponent removed my kunai from his brother’s chest and walked slowly towards my weakened form.

“You are going to pay for your treachery- GAH!”

He twitched and then doubled over onto the floor. Raising my head back up at him, he didn’t look like he was hit by anything, but I saw the cause of his injury.

“Don’t worry Ino! We got you!”

The scouting squad returned just in time to protect me from the vengeful ninja. His chakra was drained to the point of unconsciousness. I stood up and wandered over to Shino’s tied-up body.

“Shino! Are you okay?”

“…Yes.” He said, writhing inside the ropes wrapped around him securely. “What about the third guy?”

I looked over to see the ringleader, still struggling against the swarm of bugs that emerged from the decoy shuriken. I leaped at his body as he rolled around trying to fend off the bugs from absorbing his chakra. I landed on his back with a damaging impact, wrapping my arm around his head unbreakable submission maneuver.

“Kill me if you like! But you your kind will never take over Iwagakure!”

I tightened my hold on him, “Tell me what you know about- wait, what?”

“You heard me! We know about your clan’s goal to overthrow the Tsuchikage! We’ll never back down from you Kamiziru cowards!”

What? I relaxed my grip on his head, but still maintained control. One false move, and I would snap his spine easily. But did he really think of me as a Bee-user?

“I’m not a Kamiziru. I’m a Leaf ninja.”

The ninja scoffed at my remark. “Konoha? You’re just as despicable as well! Go ahead and kill me now! I’m of no use to either side.”

“No. I need to know more about your village’s situation.”

I twisted his head to the side, putting enough pressure to almost paralyze him. He writhed with pain.

“Argh! Okay, okay! Let go already! I’ll tell you everything!”

I untwisted his head, but pinned it down to the floor. The remaining straggling squads of kikai retreated back to my body, entering through holes scattered across the lower back area of my neck. A sudden wave of fatigue swept through my body. My arms felt numb for an unbearably long moment, and my vision started going black.

“Tell me…Ugh…Now…”

My grip loosened, but I could no longer support the weight of my upper body, so I haphazardly leaned into the hold, putting pressure on his neck anyways.

“AARGHH!! OKAY FINE!”

He struggled to breathe, but managed to begin his story.

“Two…ugghhh…two months ago, there was an attempt on the Tsuchikage’s life. A poisonous bee entered his sleeping quarters and attempted to sting him, but the village’s covert ops intercepted it and studied it. Of course, the Kamiziru were the suspected culprits. When the Tsuchikage was made aware of who was behind his assassination attempt, he decreed to the village to regard the clan with distrust. He couldn’t simply banish them from the village because of the lack of definitive proof…”

He groaned. “Augh, dammit! You’re going to paralyze me!”

I panted, struggling to maintain some semblance of control over my foe’s body. “No. If you die, you die. You might as well tell me the rest, if you want to be spared in the afterlife…”

He sighed. “Very well then. For weeks after the decree, rumors spread about a coup d’état. One of the village’s internal spies managed to confirm this, and reported the information to the Tsuchikage. He ordered all of the village’s ninjas to wipe out the clan, but as it turned out, many of them were secretly allied to the Kamiziru, and betrayed the Tsuchikage. He tried to send out messengers to alert our allied villages, but the Kamiziru sealed the village shut. Nobody could get in or out of the village without facing dire consequences, and it’s been like that ever since. I heard that even a squad from your village came too close earlier this week, and paid the price for it.”

I sighed heavily. So that’s what happened to Shino and his clan…

He groaned with pain under the increasing weight put on his neck. “Kunoichi, you’re a strong one. Especially for an Aburame. As much as I loathe you leaf ninja, I wouldn’t mind if you did me a favor and destroy every last one of those blasted Kamiziru…”

His neck stopped bearing my weight, and snapped. I rolled off of his body and onto the floor, and once again, my vision hazed away into nothingness.