Beekeeper

Nobody in Sora-ku can pin down who the Beekeeper really is. A living cloud of bees drifts around them at all times, a bee-styled Anbu mask hides their face, and a voice that betrays nothing leaves their gender an open question.

Trapped for years in a life they never wanted, the Beekeeper grew numb, insisting they dwelt only in the present because nothing tied them to the past and nothing about the future concerned them. That mindset is why drifting lost through the enchanted fog of Sora-ku's bamboo grove bothered them not at all. For all that self-pity, they warmed to fellow wanderers who felt as adrift as they did, inviting the bug-user Shino Aburame to stay when they sensed the same uncertainty in him and fretting aloud over Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru circling the mist for hours. Meeting Shino ultimately turned things around, and they chose to move their beekeeping into the open, releasing the old self-pity and setting their gaze on what lay ahead.

Born in Iwagakure into a bee-handling clan already in its twilight, the Beekeeper served briefly as a shinobi before deciding the ninja path was wrong for them and slipping away as the clan collapsed around them. They eventually made for Sora-ku and, dreading reprisal from Iwa, took cover in a bamboo grove blanketed by an enchanted fog that sent people wandering astray. Most of their skills revolve around bees, and they wove that fog into a barrier that looped intruders in endless circles, keeping the Beekeeper hidden unless they wished to be found.

Their meeting with Shino begins when their bees sting and paralyse him, which turns out to be a ruse on his part to draw them out. Satisfied that Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru posed no threat as Iwa assassins, the Beekeeper freely handed over the mead the group wanted, having no use for money while stranded in the fog. Sharing their history with a curious Shino, they recognised his own doubts about tomorrow and offered him a spot in the hive operation. Shino, though, worked out the fog's secret and passed it on to help free them, and once he and the others had left the grove, the fog thinned away, a sign the Beekeeper had finally let the past go.