It turned out the beekeeper was originally a shinobi from Iwagakure, who had settled down to live here peacefully while simultaneously fearing their pursuers would come to find them.
In short, Shino had been mistaken for one of the beekeeper’s pursuers, and that’s why the beekeeper had attacked him.
“Kiba and Akamaru…” Shino said, “A dog-loving human and his adored dog, they were here, but, what happened to them…?”
“Don’t worry, they’re safe. They’re just wandering around in the fog.” The beekeeper answered. They were talking as they headed towards the beekeeper’s home.
“Earlier, why did you target me…?”
“Because if you don’t strike first against an insect user, you’ll be in trouble later.”
“I see…”
They continued quietly conversing in that manner. Shino thought they were having a rather lively conversation.
Shino had known of the insect-user clan of Iwagakure. It had been a clan of mainly bee-users, that was now destroyed. The beekeeper was a descendant of that clan.
“Here it is…”
The beekeeper came to a stop, and Shino could see a small house appear in the thick fog ahead of them. It was a simple house with a thatched roof. The garden was most likely the breeding area for the bees. There was a basket made of bamboo next to it.
The thatched house inconspicuously existed within the bamboo thicket enshrouded with fog.
The atmosphere felt like one of those ninja refuges you heard about in stories. Actually, a runaway-nin was in fact secretly living here, so a ninja refuge was exactly what it was.
While Shino had been looking at the house, the beekeeper had brought honeywine. As he passed it to Shino, the shining, beautiful amber liquid swayed gently inside its container.
“Thank you. How much…?”
“I don’t need money.” The beekeeper calmly answered, “It wouldn’t be of any use to me even if I had it, so…”
It looked like they’d always been living in this place alone. They seemed to be leading a lifestyle that was completely self-sufficient, without any eed for money.
Shino let out another short “I see…” and put the honey wine in the sack the bee keeper gave, “Which reminds me, I’ve be very grateful if you could teach me the way out. The fog is really thick…”
“There isn’t one.”
The beekeeper unhesitatingly gave that sort of reply.
“What do you mean?”
“There isn’t a path back…that’s what I mean.” the beekeeper sat atop a nearby boulder, looking intently at Shino with the eyes behind their mask. “This bamboo grove is a bit like a kekkai barrier. Once you step in, you can never get out. You’ll keep getting lost in the endless fog. That’s the kind of jutsu this is…”
“You can’t undo the jutsu?” Shino asked.
“I’m sorry, but it can’t be undone. It’s a jutsu I tied to myself…” the beekeeper didn’t sound very sorry about it. Their voice was as emotionless as it had always been. You could say they were calm, but it was more like their voice was completely flat.
“For example, even if you killed me, the jutsu wouldn’t come undone…” the beekeeper continued, looking up at the sky. “This fog was originally made with unique ingredients that cause humans to become confused and lose their paths. I used just a little bit of that fog’s essence to create the jutsu…”
Shino looked again towards the misty fog. To think there was that sort of ingredient within it…Was that really possible? Well, he couldn’t say it was impossible.
He couldn’t feel any hostility from the beekeeper, nor from the honey bees that swarmed them.
It didn’t look like the beekeeper was lying.
And Shino remembered the mysterious story he’d heard from his father, Shibi.
Kumogakure was apparently the owner of a mysterious waterfall. It was huge, his father had said, falling down fiercely and giving off huge waves of spray. Apparently, if you faced the falls, your inner self, your true self would be reflected.
At the time it’d been hard to believe, but there indeed was such a place in the world. In that case, it wasn’t too strange if a fog that made humans lose their way existed. It wasn’t a genjutsu, but the fog that had been to blame for everything.
Shino walked towards the outskirts of the beekeeper’s house.
A never-ending fog. And never-ending bamboo, bamboo, bamboo…
The unchanging scenery continued without end.
As an experiment, Shino walked in a straight line, his insects flying around him. He soon found himself arriving at the beekeeper’s house once more.
He tried again, walking more carefully, only to come back to see the beekeeper still sitting calmly on his boulder.
Thanks to the composition of the fog, even my bugs get lost, is that it?
His bugs couldn’t help him. There was no exit. He couldn’t find Kiba and Akamaru. He was in a really tight corner.
But Shino still kept investigating his surroundings.
“I got lost my way in life and found myself here…” The beekeeper said, “But, that doesn’t mean that this is a bad way of life. Rather, I’d wanted to live like this. Here, there is nothing but the present. There’s no past, no future. Just now. I’m living in the pr