“Ino-sama, be on your guard. The enemy is a formidable opponent!”

A trickle of sweat rolled down my bare neck, and evaporated into mist before it reached my purple top. I zoned out the ambience of the surrounding thicket, and all I heard was silence, waiting for the foe to make their move.

I never fought a Kamizuru before, but Shino did. I left it to him to devise a fitting battle strategy.

“Shino! What do we do?”

“Be calm. We need to find out how many we’re up against.”

This was the first time I fought alongside Shino when he was without his glasses. In the afternoon sun, I could see his face clearly through the pair of shades that I was wearing, which up to this point felt naturally a part of me.

His expression was serious, as usual. His brows were drenched in sweat. His eyes were narrowed to near slits, but I could still see the sparkle of onyx coming through. His nostrils flared wildly. His lips crooked to the side in disgust, perhaps inconvenienced by his minion-less situation. He was in a position of weakness, but he didn’t look the part at all.

“I’ll send a few scouts,” I said.

“Don’t. They will die. All we can do is brace the initial onslaught.”

I nodded. I remained in my defensive stance. The kikai fluttered underneath with a murderous intent like I have never seen.

What’s your plan, guys? I thought, reaching out to them.

“Ino-sama, we’ve fought the Kamizurus before, just follow our cues and dodge accordingly, and we’ll handle the rest.”

My body remained stiff, save for my face, which turned back and forth trying to visually scan the canopies above me. The bark of the trees seemed weak, so I remained careful of possible falling debris as a result of the upcoming battle.

My left leg vibrated.

“Shino! From the left!”

A violent buzzing appeared from nowhere, and a squad of bees nearly a hundred strong swooped in from the left. I jumped backwards to dodge, while Shino rolled forward and to the right, separating the two of us by several meters.

“Shit!” I yelled. “They’re trying to isolate us!”

“Stay calm. Keep dodging.”

More groups swooped in one at a time from different angles. I quickly judged the angle of their attacks, and rolled accordingly, each successive time drawing me further away from my partner.

Guys, we can’t get too far away from Shino! He’s vulnerable!

“Don’t worry about him, Ino-sama. He’s very strong, even without us.”

I dropped my focus a small bit to peek over at Shino’s side of the battle. He dodged each swarm gracefully, fending off the enemy with quick sequences of jumps and lightning-fast swipes with his kunai. His lips pursed into a more confident grin, as if he enjoyed the thrill of the battle.

This time, multiple squads started coming in at once. A cloud of bees about ten meters wide encroached on my position, then surrounding me on all sides. Their movements were coordinated, tight, and ruthless. There was no escape from the cloud until I killed each and every one of them. There were perhaps five or six thousand in all.

“We’ll watch your back. Kill as many as you can! Use your chakra blades!”

The kikai learned of my ability to wield chakra blades while I mentally cycled through my available repertoire as I dodged the incoming waves. They surrounded fully now, so all that was left was use my trump card right away.

I stood still in the middle of the cloud, reaching into a hidden pocket for a pair of brass knuckles. As I slid them onto my hands, the swarms began attacking from all angles. My kikai intercepted each individual offender gracefully, taking each of them down one by one.

I diverted the flow of chakra to my fists, and concentrated the flow into thin points jutting out from the brass knuckles, Asuma’s brass knuckles. They started to glow a bright blue, until its surrounding aura began to stretch out in one direction, forming a thin point approximately the same length of a standard-issue kunai.

Almost there guys, keep watching my back!

“Got it, Ino-sama!”

The kikai swarmed even faster around my body, creating a dense barrier of their collective masses. Numerous stingers attempted to breach the barrier, but the momentum of the kikai swarm blocked their entry, killing many at once.

As I gripped hard on the brass handle, I infused the chakra with as much wind element as I could. The bluish blade that stretched out blended into a pale aqua-green transition, then finally ending in a deep emerald hue. The energy of the knife-like shapes intensified, causing the blades to protrude even further, reaching out nearly three times as far as before, but half as thick. What started off looking like knives turned into a pair of wind katanas.

Ready. Let’s do this!

“We’ll protect you!”

As soon as the kikai barrier loosened, I broke out through the weak point and honed my blades at the airspace through which the bees swarmed. I brought each katana down one at a time with a speed that ripped through impeding swarmers as if I were cutting through air. I brought both up at once in a pair of upward slashes that eliminated a few hundred at once in the same arc. I twisted and turned throughout the cloud like a choreographed dance, slicing in every angle, bringing down their numbers rapidly.

With each bee that fell, more took its place, ready to calculatedly strike at my blind spot. I felt the vibrations in air of a backside attack, but a squad of kikai flew in and intercepted the swoop, dive bombing most of them simultaneously. Their interception broke up the incoming formation, leaving me free to continue striking at all angles.

They began falling faster, and the pile of miniature corpses grew centimetres at a time. The enemy swarm cloud thinned, and my vision beyond the cloud became clear. I immediately looked for Shino in my periphery as I continued finishing off the remnants of the bee offensive.

I saw Shino a split second later, already fighting with a Kamizuru ninja. They exchanged swift strikes that were blocked and parried by the other, creating a tactical stalemate between the two.

We got to help Shino!

“Understood, Ino-sama! Run out, we’ll cover you!”

The remaining swarm was evenly matched by the kikai in numbers, and an aerial dogfight formed between them, giving me safe passage out of the cloud. I took two steps out and escaped.

Or at least, for the moment. A pair of shuriken darted at me as I exited the cloud. I reacted with a deft cartwheel through the two projectiles, one of them barely slicing through the threads on my left fishnet sleeve. Landing on both feet, I turned my head around in the direction from where the shuriken were thrown. Standing on a high branch on one of the taller trees was a female ninja.

“Odd. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female Aburame before!” She cackled.

The woman was slightly older than me, but had a similarly slender body. She was draped in a jet black silk dress-skirt that looked like a kimono due to the honey-yellow obi tied at the waist, forming a bow at the back. The skirt was short, matched with dark thigh-highs, and the top had wrist-length, wide sleeves, and was open and exposed at the shoulders. Her chestnut brown hair was split evenly, leaving stray strands hanging in front. It was an attractive uniform for a kunoichi, but her peach-shaped head didn’t fit the ensemble at all.

Scoffing at her snide remark, I took a half-step before a kunai struck the ground where my foot would have landed. Tied to it was a rectangular parchment with writing on it.

Shit, an explosive tag!

The detonation was instant, and sent me flying back a few metres.

“Nuh-uh~hh!” She teased. “You’re my opponent now. And the great Suzumebachi never loses!”

Kamizuru Suzumebachi, heir to the Kamizuru clan.

“Little girl, I don’t know who you are, but just stay there, my brother is just about finished dealing with your fellow clansman.”

“You…got it wrong.” I stood up, groaning from the impact of the explosion.

“Your lover then? Don’t make me laugh! A girl as weak as you could never win the heart of an Kamizuru, let alone an Aburame!”

Her taunt worked. I was filled with hot-blooded rage at that moment. I just wanted to rip the hair off her ugly misshapen head. Instantly, I darted upwards at the branch. The instant shock on her face before I slashed at her torso with my katanas suggested she did not expect it.

She dodged at the last second, leaping off the branch. The follow-through on the slash ripped the entire cross-section of the tree like flimsy paper. I planted my feet at the trunk that remained after the attempt. So much for falling debris; I was the one creating it now.

“Fast and powerful! But unfortunately I’m done playing with you now.”

I didn’t even see it coming, but from what I could see, she shot something out of her sleeve. It wasn’t until it hit my right in the neck when I realized it was a bee’s stinger.

I felt slightly hazy. I lost control of balance, and fell several stories right to the ground. The blades of the wind-infused katanas disippated as well, leaving behind a measly pair of brass knuckles loosely gripped by my hands. I hit the ground with a hard smack, fortunately landing sideways, absorbing most of the shock. The impact was excruciating at first, but my body suddenly went numb from whatever it was that was shot at me.

“Good. Sleep tight for now, little girl. Suzume-chan needs to tend to Shino-kun!”

The kunoichi casually walked towards the fight between Shino and the other shinobi, which long since ended. Shino, unfortunately, was defeated. How he was defeated, I wasn’t sure. All I know was that I was able to see what was going on, despite losing motor control of my extremities.

Suzume peeked down at Shino’s defeated body, battered and bruised. She picked him up with her left arm, and raised the back of his shirt with her right, revealing the Spider Seal that still remained on his back.

“Looks like the seal worked. How is he, Jibachi?”

The male ninja, Jibachi, nodded in puzzlement. He wore what I could only describe as a male-appropriate version of what Suzumebachi wore. He draped a short cloak over his shoulders. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see blonde hair and a pair of glasses.

“He put up quite a fight. Didn’t use a single bug jutsu, as expected, Suzume-hime.”

The cocky-eyed Suzume crooked her smile as she stared back at Shino. “Time to finish what I started, then.”

She placed her free hand on Shino’s back, where the seal was. Her palm was held only a centimetre away from the skin, and it glowed a sinister red. Shino growled in pain.

“Argghhh!” He said, writed in agony.

“Now, now, dear. Just be thankful you only have to suffer now. Had I the time before, I would have completed the jutsu and took control of your bugs completely! Wait a minute…”

Her palm stopped glowing, despite her strained efforts to maintain the technique. Back to normal, she couldn’t do anything further, and shoved Shino back to the ground.

“This boy, his nest is empty! There are no kikai to be found! I thought you fought him, Jibachi! Why didn’t you tell me his hive was gone?”

Jibachi still stood there with a pathetic gawk on his face. “I’m sorry, Suzume-sama. I didn’t know either, I simply thought that he was unable to use his bugs because of the low-level seal you placed on him.”

“Of course I know that!” She rudely retorted, showing no class to a fellow member of her clan. “Unless his hive is actually…Ah, the girl!”

She turned her head back at me, still motionless on the ground several meters away from her and Jibachi. She instantly appeared above my body, looking down at me with malcontent.

“So you were the one who stole the nest, that which was rightfully mine? I see now. I hoped that Shino-kun would at least survive until the Stone Village’s invasion of the Hidden Leaf.”

“In-Invasion?” I managed to respond, in shock.

A hand slapped me across the cheek. I heard a fearsome buzzing above me; it was the swarm of bees returning to Suzume.

“Yes, you impetuous child!” She said. “Once I gain control of the Stone Village, I will reclaim the rightful position of Tsuchikage in the name of the Kamizuru clan! Then I will order my village’s shinobi to invade your pathetic little leaf village and wipe out the entire Aburame clan, starting with Shino-kun over there, their prodigy and heir!”

So the rumours of the coup-d’état were true. The Kamizurus were going to take over the village and end their feud with the Aburames once and for all!

I struggled in my spot, knowing that eventually, a killing blow would land, ending my pathetic life. I cried inside, regretting that I wasn’t strong enough to save myself, or protect Shino. Even if I got out of this spot alive, I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to Shino.

“So,” Suzume postulated, raising her right heel high above my head, “I suppose I don’t need Shino’s kikai anyways. My plan of personally infiltrating the village disguised as an Aburame was needlessly complicated anyways. Using the Bikochu to find grandfather’s scrolls was only useful to gain support for the coup. At least it led us to you. I’m going to enjoy ending you!”

I felt the air above me as it was pushed aside by the falling heel. I squealed as it was brought down at a fatal velocity towards my skull.

A thwack of a projectile knocked the heel slightly off, driving the foot down at the ground barely a few millimetres away from my face. I exhaled in relief. In my peripheral vision, a thumb-sized stone landed haphazardly a meter or so away from my body. Then I heard an unfamiliar voice.

“I think not, outsider!” The stranger’s voice was booming loud and charismatic, almost like Guy or Rock Lee.

Suzumebachi looked up at where the projectile came from, in a state of temporary confusion. I also heard Jibachi gasp out loud, wondering where the rock had come from.

“Who the hell was that?”

Jumping down from a hidden branch in the canopy, a mysterious figure landed with effortless grace in front of Suzume and I. I couldn’t see his full figure, but I could only make out the bottom of what appeared to be a jungle-green robe and open-toed sandals.

“I believe that is enough, vile offender! You will leave the gorgeous Aburame girl alone!”

With an unseen gesture made by the man, the ground shook. From underneath, a seemingly endless army of fire ants emerged from the shifted dirt, Crawling past me, and towards Suzumebachi’s feet. She immediately jumped in retreat to a distant position.

“Shit. Looks like I won’t be able to kill them today. No matter, the Kamizurus continue as planned. You better prepare yourself, Shino and the girl. I’m giving you a month, exact. Jibachi, we’re leaving.”

Jibachi appeared behind Suzume, and their bodies dissolved into a cloud of bees, flying off into the atmosphere beyond the canopy.

I exhaled in relief, only to hear the man laughing heartily. He looked down at me from his standing height, still chuckling.

“Good thing I came just in time, eh? Oh, but where are my manners? Let me help you out, young lady!”

The fire ants that had previously passed my body to attack Suzumebachi crawled back to me, climbing over my skin and engulfing it nearly completely. I let out a scream, feeling an excruciating pain at the process.

“Settle down! You women are a lot less cute when you’re yelling in pain.”

I held back my voice as I continued to writhe in the temporary discomfort, but the sharp pain quickly was replaced by a familiar ache, caused by my previous fall.

“That should get rid of the poison. Now get up, Kikai-chan~!”

“My name’s Ino, you damn pervert!”

I grunted as I helped myself get to my feet. Everything ached all over, but it didn’t feel like I suffered any major injuries. Hopefully Shino was the same. Suddenly reminding myself of him, I turned to the battered Shino lying face-first on the ground.

“Shino!”

I ran to his limp body. His bruises looked as if he had the snot beat out of him. I was worried, since he seemed as if he had the upper hand when I last saw him during that fight. I propped him to an upright sitting position, and waved a hand in front of his face.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

“…Ugh. Did we win?”

I let out a half-hearted chuckle. Once again, he had failed to secure a victory in combat, even though it was against a formidable opponent. I stood there, even more guilty that I was responsible. If that bee-woman was right, then it was my fault that things turned out this way.

“No, Shino.” I sighed. “But we were saved by someone. Someone who I was looking for. He should help us on our mission.”

The man, who I concluded was the sage mentioned in my dream, stood there, concerned at the scene he saw.

Shino groaned. “You should have told me sooner.” Then he collapsed from exhaustion.

I frowned. As I knelt down before his unconscious form, I conceded that he was right. As the few surviving kikai made their way back inside through a pore in the back of my neck, I couldn’t help but feel that they were just as disappointed.