Bamboo Hearts Firefly

Shino vs. Beekeeper

One by one, at day's end,

the birds take flight in all directions--

which could lead me to you?

--From The Ink Dark Moon

"I didn't come here to fight you," Shino's voice came suddenly from behind the Beekeeper. "I just want to talk."

But more insulting than the Aburame's endless dodges and his wacka-mole game of substitution jutsu was that once again, the Beetle User refused to finish this longstanding battle between them. 

What was the meaning of showing his damn face here then?

To toy with him?

To rub salt in the Beekeeper's wounds? 

To revive the fallen Bee User's hatred for the one opponent he could never bring himself to kill in the end?

"Shibi," Beekeeper spoke. "How much longer will I go punished before you finally settle the score between us?"

Because surely, Aburame knew that the Bee User hadn't dared to step out of the protective veil of the fog to face his shame in the shinobi world. 

Only the Aburame Clan had such an honor now. Ever since...

Bees' nest...had it really already been 20 years now since his last fateful battle with Shibi? 

The Beekeeper hardly noticed. 

What was time to a ghost anyway? 

Like forgiveness, the passage of time meant nothing to the endless dark. 

All that lived in the fog now were these maddening memories of how he had failed unredeemably to keep his name. 

Exile was such a demeaning and lonely place for those who have long lost the right to their name. 

And knowing that he was nothing now but a hollow of himself from the old days, Beekeeper laid a wager of his stamina against the prime of the mighty Allied Shinobi Forces.

Indeed, he would find the Aburame a nuisance for an opponent to keep up with.

But he no longer cared to be bled as prey for the mosquito of his revenge. 

Unable to enjoy even the privilege of taking his own life, knowing that he was the last of his kind, and that he was bound by a shinobi's oath to fight for his clan until his last breath.

A defeat that Shibi still refused to stake claim to, remaining an enduring mystery that even the Beekeeper failed to understand.

As the Bee User wasn't ever dumb enough to believe it'd been his own skill that costed Shibi every missed opportunity to kill him. 

Until now, he had managed to stay alive by countering Shibi's skills in battle through the grit of his rage alone, and not by any talent of reading the cryptic Aburame's mind.

And so, the only reason Beekeeper could truly understand why Shibi kept him alive was that their mutual hatred for each other would not allow him to take his life. 

A hatred so absolute that they could only ever manage to beat each other to a pulp in battle, and then forefit. 

Leaving the other at the edge of death without ever dealing the fatal blow. 

And Beekeeper had suffered long enough waiting for Shibi to return and fulfill his vow to defeat him, allowing the Beekeeper at last to escape these tormenting memories and join his fallen clan in the next life.