Disclaimer: only Kumo is mine.
Kumo's POV:
I felt empty. Just completely empty. I got the feeling that I should be crying. But tears seemed too mundane. Crying now would be like calling tortured "uncomfortable." The only person who had ever cared for me, the only person who didn't regard me as a failed experiment was gone, forever. I have no family, no friends, no village. I had no reason for living. I briefly considered leaving all the hate and pain of this world behind me, but I didn't deserve that easy an escape. I deserved to be feared and hated. That's when it came to me. I would turn myself into a giant spider. People hated and feared spiders. They would hate and fear me. That is what I deserve. I was weak. I couldn't save the only one who mattered. I gathered my chakra. "Permanent Transformation Jutsu!"
I wobbled a bit before I learned how to walk with eight legs instead of two. I left, and never looked back. I headed for town. I would show myself in the girl's bathroom. I was sure to be hated. It gave me a sort of sick pleasure to look forward to what I deserved.
3rd person POV:
Shino Aburame reported to the Hokage's office as requested. "You had a mission for me, Hokage-sama." He stated.
"Yes. A giant spider has been terrorizing a town in Iwagakure. They requested an Aburame, knowing of your clan's affinity for insects."
"Spiders are arachnids, not insects."
"I know that, but you will go anyways. Here is the report. You leave tomorrow."
"Hai."
Shino left the office and proceeded to read the report. A few sentences stood out. "Spider starts off half a meter tall, but if it's targets do not scream or attack it, it grows in size and becomes aggressive…Only makes an attempt to avoid attacks that could be fatal…Seems interested in intimidation only. No injuries have been sustained due to its appearance." Hmm. I see why they would request a ninja. This is not a true spider.
In the morning, Shino left for Iwagakure as ordered and traveled, puzzling over the mystery of the purpose of intimidating a town, but not trying to hurt anyone or evade non-fatal attacks. I will be able to see this "spider" soon enough and get a firsthand experience with it.
Shino waited. His kikaichu were scattered throughout the town and would warn him when the spider appeared. After several hours, a lone bug came buzzing up to him. "The southwest quadrant?"
Shino observed as the "spider" approached a group of guards at the gate of the town. It rose up on its hind legs, and opened wide its mouth, revealing thick fangs. The guards were pointing their weapons at it, but not attacking, and this seemed to make the spider angrier. It swelled in size and rushed the soldiers. One of them launched a spear at it, and it did not swerve, simply let the weapon burry itself side, though it missed any internal organs. It gave a cry of pain, but continued rushing the soldiers. One tried to bury his sword in the spider's chest, but the creature swerved, and though it's movements were fast enough to completely evade the attack, it let the sword pierce its body just above its foremost leg on the right side. Shino decided it was time to step in. He released his parasitic insects to encase the spider, ordering the soldiers back. He had been introduced to the guards when he had arrived, so they reluctantly complied. The kikaichu frantically sucked up chakra as the spider changed sizes and tried desperately to escape. After a minute though, the spider collapsed, returning to its original size.
Shino walked over to examine it. It was no particular species of spider, but seemed to be an amalgamation of several species. Its fur was a dark brown with black speckling, and his kikaichu had reported that the spider had the chakra network of a shinobi. But if the transformation of ninja to spider had just been a regular transformation jutsu, the ninja should have returned to human form when his/her chakra was drained. This transformation must be more than just temporary, and probably requires chakra input to revert to human form. My mission was simply to stop the attacks on the town. If I bring the spider back to Konoha, my mission would be complete, and we might be able to learn more about this jutsu, and the purpose. But to keep it alive, I will have to bandage it up.
He left the spider bandaged, tied up and guarded by some of his insects, then approached the leader of the town. "I have captured the spider. I will be taking it back with me to study it further."
The man was incredibly grateful, but Shino just shrugged it off. It was just a mission. The sooner he left, the sooner he would return, and the sooner he would learn more about the shinobi spider.
Returning to the gate and the spider, Shino made a sling and placed the spider in it on his back. The kikaichu would warn him when it regained enough chakra to regain consciousness, and he felt the need to keep his hands free in case of emergencies.
Several hours later, the Kikaichu warned Shino that his prisoner was awaking. Perhaps I can gather a little more information. He placed the spider on the ground and waited. The groggy spider soon regained consciousness, and struggled against its bonds. Realizing it couldn't escape at its present size and shape, it briefly shifted to snake form before wriggling free of the ropes and returning to spider form. But using chakra so soon after having it depleted left the spider with no real strength and it could barely move.
"Who are you?" Shino asked.
The spider looked at him through all eight eyes and wrote in the dust "Hate me."
"Why do you want to be hated?"
The spider simply tapped the words in the dust and slipped back to unconsciousness.
Shino replaced the bandages that had come off during the spider's attempts to escape and placed the spider back in the sling on his back. We might be able to get more answers out of it if we could force it to return to human form.
A/n: Kumo means spider in Japanese.
