Fates Web
Chapter Two: I'm a what?!
Author Notes: Hello Everyone and welcome to my new story. Please dig in and enjoy!
Hinata and Naruto are both going to get equal screen time in this fic. I want to tell two stories that eventually connect. The romance will be a slow burn.
This chapter and the next will be setting up the story to come, so they will have some time skips. I hope you all liked Dai. I don't like OCs too much but I thought it would be cliche if I replaced Hinata with Sai. It always seemed weird in canon how there's no dark skinned people living in Konoha until the Boruto era. I mean Lightning country is a big place so logically someone, even a merchant would have come to Konoha eventually right?
III = Interlude/ character perspective switch.
Bold text = Inner voice/ something important speaking.
There will be no crossovers, or characters from other shows.
When her eyes opened up, the first thing she thought of, felt, and experienced, was ... confusion. How had she been able to open her eyes again? A sharp spike of pain lanced through her mind. Blurry images spun through her sight.
She remembered waking in the middle of the night and gasping as a shadowed hand covered her mouth.
A yellow haired child screamed "Get away from her!"
Soon the child laid battered and near death. She had struggled against the laughing Kumo ambassador when that red bubbling chakra erupted from Naruto's battered body. Laugh's soon turned to screams and the last thing she saw was a vengeful dark skinned man slicing her throat from ear to ear.
She always wondered what death was like. When She had asked her Tou-san he had told her it was like going to sleep for a long time. That felt right. Her eyes had slowly grown heavy and soon she had closed them for a long nap.
She blinked her four eyes as tears dripped down her face. Wait, four?
She could see again, albeit very blurrily. She tried to move but she felt weird and nothing responded.
At the same time she felt a heaviness that was very different from the last she experienced. This heaviness was ... warm and soothing. Like being wrapped in a warm blanket made of the finest silks her Tou-san could buy.
Soon her eyes became heavy again and the world went dark.
She didn't know how much time had passed. It could have been days, months, years. She stirred as a tingling feeling blossomed all over. She began to gain feeling in her body, except it was all wrong. She felt all weird and wrong - Like she had been given new arms or legs and the ones that felt so familiar were gone.
She felt hungry, very hungry.
III
'So hungry' She thought.
The hunger demanded to be sated. She groaned hearing a grumble from...behind her?"
'Need food' She tried to move the things that tingled, and felt a twitch. The invisible velvet like warmth that surrounded her tore as she began thrashing around. Suddenly she could hear voices, except they sounded distorted; like they were underwater.
"The baby's-"
"Get the Sage"
She screamed, or attempted to, "Ergghhhhhhh" A shrill shriek erupted.
The voices became worried as she worked with single minded resolve to escape this place.
"It's happening, dear Sage!"
The warmth finally gave way and light fell through making her squint her eyes. Cautiously she peeled the opening so she could clumsily tumble through the opening. Warm sunlight blinded her. She tried to cover her eyes with her...hands?
Her blurry eyesight slowly became clear and she gasped at the dark and pointy limbs. They were long, then, and blackened with no hair that ended in a razor-sharp tip; they were completely covered in some kind of armor. She began crying as her new reality set in. She just wanted her Tou-San.
She rolled on her side whimpering and fell onto the white blanket beneath her, wait, what? She opened her eyes and took in the silky smooth egg-like thing she had climbed from. She turned her head looking around.
She froze and fainted.
A giant black widow peered down at her with confusion.
III
Her eyes opened again and she gulped.
That was right. Her mind must have been playing tricks on her. She would wake up any minute and this nightmare would be over. There wouldn't be hundreds of oversized spiders hanging from white glazed trees, and she would have a fun laugh with her friend Naruto about her overactive imagination.
"Please be a dream. Please be a dream. Pleeease..."
She began shaking and her eyes widened to dinner plates when the same human sized black widow as before appeared. She tried to sit up, and surprisingly her body responded.
Eight chitinous limbs responded and she held her two front ones out like duel swords.
The black widow blinked before laughing and cooing at her tiny form. The spider held out a limb and dropped an apple. Hinata jumped as the apple landed in front of her with a loud thump. She peered at the oversized fruit with shock. Why was it so big?
'Wait, is that apple big or am I small?' She thought
Indeed as she looked around her new home she realized the trees were impossibly huge and the skittering spiders going about their business ranged in size from a human adult to a small house. All kinds of spiders from Portia's to Tarantula's went about, seemingly with some task in mind.
Smelling the delicious offering in front of her she felt her tummy rumble. Instincts took over and the new born jumped at the apple like a flying squirrel. The black widow above laughed in a silky feminine voice.
"Dear Rikudo Child, you have a voracious appetite."
Four bright reds peered down upon Hinata, "And such potent chakra for one so young."
Hinata finished gobbling the apple down and burped. She used one of her new limbs to rub her belly. Feeling slightly more confident at the now apparently friendly spider Hinata drunk in the giant arachnids features.
The Black widow was somewhat larger than a full-grown horse, sitting around Nine feet in width. The spider was covered in black chitin that protected it's body with the exception of its joints with were colored a purple hue. A bright red hourglass rested on its abdomen and each of its black legs ended in razor-sharp red dyed tips.
The spider lowered itself to the webbed ground and gave a kind smile, "Hello Daughter"
Hinata hiccupped, "Daughter?"
The Widow nodded, "You were born from my cocoon hatchling." It pointed a bladed leg at the broken cocoon next to her. Feeling strangely fuzzy Hinata hesitantly followed her instincts offered no resistance to the approaching Widow. The spider wrapped two of its front segmented legs around her, "I love you my sweet hatchling."
Hinata felt a bubbly feeling inside her tummy, "I love you too Mommy"
Hinata snuggled into the embrace and looked up, "Mommy?"
The spider gazed down at her affectionately, "Yes dear?" She asked with a warm smile.
She twiddled her two front appendages, "Did you already name me or can I pick my own?"
The spider blinked, "You can pick your own, but are you really sure that's what you want?"
She beamed, "I want to be named Hinata."
"A lovely name" She cooed.
Hinata chitinous cheeks turned red, "What is your name mother?"
The spider patted her on the head, "My name is the Spider Sage and the Queen of all spiders, Elise."
"I'm royalty?" She asked.
The now revealed spider queen hmed in response. Hinata giggled, 'I know I should be freaking out, but maybe being a spider won't be so bad. I always wanted a mommy.'
The new mother held her gently and began singing. Hinata's eyes grew heavy and soon she was asleep once more.
III
Months Later
Standing on wobbling legs she waddled like a drunk across the ground. Her mother watched over her protectively from a giant silk web in the gigantic trees above. She had only heard of such mighty trees existing in the forest of death and the far north. The climate wasn't right for the forest of death, so that left the far north beyond Iwagakure.
As a clan heiress Hinata had been drilled in lessons of Shinobi life from the moment she could walk. Her caretaker Ko had regaled her bed time stories of the summoning clans and the mountains and caves they occupied to themselves.
The spider summons were a matriarchy with the black widow leading the clan. It seems she was destined to be royalty in this life as well.
"That's it Hinata-Chan. Remember not to overextend your legs." Came her mother's doting voice.
Hinata grunted, "I can't."
Hinata's four eyes scrunched in anger.
"*Sigh* My sweet daughter you must calm yourself." The spider queen lowered herself in front of Hinata, "Take a deep breath and focus on moving each limb, one segment at a time."
"...Oo-Ok"
With the trepidation of a mouse the Lavender eyed girl tried to move her front two legs. She felt each segment pulse and move to her command. She held the armored spear like legs to her face and imagined hands overlapping them. She flexed and moved them around. She bent her two front limbs and decided then that she would always refer to them as her arms. She twitched and moved the six other limbs and the three legs on each side slowly lifted her up.
"I-I did it." She stuttered.
Elise beamed down at her child, "You are doing great!" The spider gently lowered her head and placed a kiss on her head.
III
Two Years later
Hinata soared through the tall trees home to the far north of the land of earth. Many things had changed in the two years she had been a member of the Spider Summoning clan. Elise had trained her heir into the ground both figuratively and literally. The lavender eyed spider had grown immensely and was now barely five feet in width. The moonlight reflected off black chitin just like her mother, but strangely the hourglass mark on her abdomen was purple instead of the normal bright red.
Her size wasn't the only thing that had changed. She had mastered all of the Shinobi arts from her clan including her mother's prized Sage mode. The look on the spiders Queens face when her daughter successfully learned the clans most prized technique had earned looks of disbelief and pride from the powerful queen.
Which brings us to now.
Hinata appeared before Her mother at their clans most sacred grounds. At the top of Mount Weaver laid a large grove that held a small lake spoken of only in folklore; the fabled Pool of Rebirth. A place hidden from the world and rumored to give those who bathed in its blessed water the gift of rebirth, casting aside the old and from death birthing life anew. The Pool had existed long before the age of ninja and had been guarded by the clan since its founding.
Legend said that their clans founder had been the most wise of men in all the world.
One day the humble and wise man had been approached by the ruler of all the lands, a horned goddess.
The goddess desired the answer to peace, and the man had been happy to teach her. The wise man beseeched her that peace was the most noble pursuit, but he also tried to impress upon her that the woman's methods would only inspire fear, and a peace enforced through fear was no peace at all.
"And what happened next?" Asked the captivated Hyuuga.
The Queen smirked cruelly, "The goddess laughed. Fate is with me, she said. The Wise man stood his ground and claimed that fate was what one makes of it, and the goddess was only subject to a web of fate by her own weaving."
"Incensed, the Goddess cursed the man to become a spider, forever subject to make webs cut from his own cloth - forever subject to the webs of fate. The Wise man chose to eke out an existence as a Sage and guard the sacred Pool of Rebirth."
Hinata breathed out, "That's horrifying."
Elise chuckled ruefully, "I suppose it is." She looked up at the sparkling night sky. Her eyes glimmered as she seemingly saw things that Hinata could only imagine.
"It's time" She said turning to her, "That you learn our clans most secret technique. One only I know and possess."
Hinata looked at her mother in confusion, "But I thought I had already learned everything. I've learned the weaving arts and even your Spider Sage mode."
The spider queen laughed, "Yes...I suppose you continue to impress me. What I plan to teach you tonight is something else altogether."
The Spider Queen reared back and tensed. The ground shook and the serene water of the lake pulsed as the Queen of all spiders began transforming. Elise's body glowed a bright red and rippled like water. Her dark Chitin body shrunk and conformed into something more slender and feminine. Her two front limbs transformed into slender arms with hands that ended in razor tipped clawed fingers. Her chest and abdomen conformed into a supple womanly body with pale white chalk skin that ended in two slender legs with spear tipped ends, similar to her true form. Dark black chitin covered her legs, arms, and the front and sides of her breast; leaving her slender stomach and shoulders bare, as well as the top of her breasts and the sides of her pelvis. Her last four limbs moved to her shoulder blades and above her tail bone.
Finally her head formed into a feminine face with soft features and glowing red eyes. Her pedipalps transformed into a spiked tipped head guard. Two of them covered the sides of her cheeks and head, ending below her jaw; Rising from the sides of her head the spiderlike crown ended in two spikes curving down from the sides of her face. Finally, long crimson hair fell from her head all the way to her shoulder blades.
Hinata watched in awe.
"That's so cool." She squealed, "Can you teach me please, please!" The girl widened her eyes and skittered around like a kid on a sugar high.
Elise deadpanned at the dreaded pleading eyes of her daughter.
"I will teach you..."
"Yes!" Hinata started jumping around in victory.
"But..."
Sensing the tone in her mother's voice Hinata stopped.
"You must go out and learn to live like the humans."
Elise watched with amusement as Hinata shuffled around awkwardly, "Yes?"
Hinata twiddled her arm tips, "Gomen, but I can really do this?"
Elise's face softened , "Sweet child. This is a rite of passage for every clan heir. One day you might form a contract with a human. You will represent our clan and must be familiar with the humans and their customs. My mother and my mother's mother all the way to the founding of our clan has done this." The now humanoid woman kneeled down and took Hinata's face in her hands, "You must go alone, but I will be watching you from afar. You can do this my little spiderling."
Hinata practically glowed as her Mother laid a kiss on her head, "Ok I'll try, mom."
Elise's eyes glistened with moisture, "Good, now here's what you need to do."
III
Hinata laid on her back in the sacred waters of her ancestors. The water glowed a soft silver under the lunar light. Soft mutterings in an ancient tongue drifted from the Spider queen standing at the shore.
"Now you must drink deep from the water of the Moon Goddess and submerge yourself."
Breathing through her nostrils and exhaling, Hinata smiled and slowly let go; drifting beneath the silvery waters.
The Spider Sage waited at the shore calmly as seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours. Just as the morning sun began to rise a ripple spread from the lake. A small human form slowly drifted from the lake and stepped onto dry land.
Hinata rose from the water coughing.
Turning towards the moonlit water she gasped, "This is me?"
Her mother appeared by her side, "You are beautiful dear."
Hinata stared at the Indigo haired girl in the crystalline water. She looked like a carbon copy of her mother's human form, except her eyes were more human, having a dark red sclera and pale lilac iris's and pupil. She marveled at the dark indigo purple hair that fell freely down her back, ending below the shoulders.
She held up her human hands and gazed in wonder at the black armored claws that ended in blood red tips. She lowered her hands down to her creamy moon white skin around her belly and gasped as she accidently cut herself. Dark purple blood flowed from the deep gash.
She watched in awe as steam rose from the deep cut and it hissed shut in seconds.
"This is amazing." She looked up to her mother and hugged her, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
Elise ran her hands through her daughters hair and whispered sweet words, "Tomorrow you go on your journey. Let us spend all the time we can tonight dear."
Hinata responded by hugging her tighter, "I love you mom. I swear I will make you proud."
They spent the rest of the night gazing at the stars until Hinata's eyes grew heavy and the sweet embrace of sleep claimed her.
Author Note: (You can Google Elise from league of legends for a description.)