The Misadventures of Mr. Cranberry 4

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Shikako pondered if there was any need to change the seal array she was toying with. Something just looked off about it, but she couldn't put her finger on what. She could split it into two seals and have slightly different functions for each, and they could work in unison when placed together, but that might have been over complicating things. It was a minor seal that showed you, dependent upon which hand you were holding it in when channeling your chakra, the exact ratio of Yin to Yang chakra you were channeling through the chakra coils of that specific arm, alongside which type of chakra was channeled through those chakra coils most often. (Though it could have worked for any portion of the body it was placed on.) It wasn't an important one, just something she'd absentmindedly scribbled down earlier when she realized that there were no seals specifically like it that she knew of. She figured it might help some younger people with getting the right ratio of chakra to learn their specific clan's jutsus faster.

She had been reading over some of the materials she and Tenten had been working on together, while sipping on a coffee, when the idea for this one popped into her brain uninvited. Reaching for her drink while distractedly scribbling away at a note she was updating, her hand brushed against something...fuzzy.

Startled, she looked over, only to meet the many, many eyes of... one giant, red, fuzz covered tarantula. It wiggled it's little mandibles at her, and raised it's front (arms?) Legs? She wasn't sure. It seemed to be waving at her.

Eyes wide, she backed slowly away from the table (it was not a cowardly retreat, uh, she was only being sensible...) only to have the spider, with his little front limbs still upraised, approach with rapid little steps, four little steps for every one big step she took backward, now walking all over the notes she was reading and horribly smearing the ink. He continued to wiggle his little fuzzy appendages, adding two more to the ones in the air already in what appeared to be a... greeting? Dance? A something.

For all Shikako knew, it was a gesture of non-aggression... or a declaration of war. Animals in this world tended to be quite intelligent. "Ohkay... Hello."

Having greeted the strange little beast, Shikako watched as the many little eyes seemed to stare right through her soul. It clapped its little limbs together.

Where was the spider's owner? Where was Shino? He was supposed to courageously rescue her from all things arachnid, right? Where was her stoic knight in dark glasses now? (Not that she Needed to be saved... it was just the idea. Well... and spiders. Yeah.)

She figured she knew who this spider belonged to, and didn't dare make a move to harm it. She rubbed her hand on her vest, getting the spider hairs off of her fingers. Tarantula hairs were prickly, and got all over everything. If you rub your eyes while having their hair on your hands, they could blind you, as the hairs are tiny and quite sharp, coarse and stiff. They actually made her hands itch.

Dropping his arms, the little red guy shuffled the way only an arachnid can and ended up crawling down the table's leg, and heading for... well, heading for Shikako's leg.

(Abort.)

(No.)

(Back away from the kunoichi.)

"H-Hey, no. Back off. Go home. Shoo."

He paused, seemed to contemplate her, then wiggled some more, walking in circles on the floor before her.

(Hisss.)

Ok, it was hissing at her. It had to go. There was only so much creepy crawly spider-ness she wanted to tolerate on any given day, and today was not a given day.

How had the spider even gotten here? She couldn't connect the dots. It should be at home with Chiyako. They hadn't even had a study group today. Wait, was today a school day?

He tapped the floor with little clicking noises in random patterns. She wasn't even sure how he was making them.

He waved his little feeler-things at her and seemed to puff up as if in annoyance. Was it really so far off to attribute a possible emotion to a potentially sentient but unable to speak creature? She really didn't know, and decided not to contemplate it further. She realized she did so for Akamaru, but then, that was Akamaru.

Alright. From here on out he was intelligent until proven otherwise. Actually, that's a good way to think of things. Even a random bird flying by could be a smart summoned creature, really.

Now she had to get Mr. Smarty-Spider back to his owner. Preferably without accidentally squishing him...

Heading into her kitchen, she grabbed a rather large glass bowl out of the kitchen cupboard and returned to the room where she'd last seen him, hoping he hadn't scurried off. Picking up the edge of the paper the tarantula had been standing on, she slid the spider into the bowl carefully. Settled at the bottom, it made motions like it wanted to climb out, but didn't seem to be able to get purchase.

'Oh good.' It kept sliding back into the base of the bowl. This would do for now. She placed a plastic lid over it to keep it in temporarily.

Gathering up her notes and setting them together on the table in something resembling order, she picked up the spider's bowl and headed to the door. Changing her shoes, she listened as the arachnid hissed at her incessantly the entire time, tapping on the glass bowl.

Giving him a good glare for interrupting her morning, she grabbed the bowl and headed over to Shino's house. Chiyako answered the door, a puzzled look on her face. She looked at the bowl intently, then stared adoringly up at Shikako as her face lit up like it was a holiday.

"Is that? Is that? You brought one!" she smiled widely, then grabbed Shikako by the arm to bring her inside, "Shino-nii, Shino-nii! Look what Shikako-nee brought!"

Not understanding the girl's enthusiastic cries, Shikako changed into house slippers and followed her in, having been forcefully invited. She was still holding the bowl at arm's length away from her.

"Eh, hello." She said, as Shino rounded the corner, the collar of his usual coat stood tall around his face, hands buried in his coat pockets. He nodded at her in greeting. She lifted up the spider-bowl and held it up so he could see. "I was just bringing..."

"You got Mister Cranberry a GIRLFRIEND! I gotta go tell him!" The little girl jumped up and down, then ran upstairs rapidly, presumably to get Mr. Cranberry.

"..." Shino stared at her through his dark glasses. His unreadable face was dark and his posture stiff. One eyebrow twitched. The one look alone, though she couldn't see an inch of his face behind his collar, spoke volumes.

"I... uh. Thought I was returning her spider. I guess I thought wrong." At her admission, he gently took the bowl from her hands with a resigned sigh.

"Affirmative. As well as that, the arachnid has attempted a foiled escape several times previously, it happens often. Unfortunately, this is not her spider. Now you can look forward to many more of this species in the local area. Why? Because, she will inevitably breed them." This last bit was said almost scathingly, not toward Shikako, but in a very quiet yet strangely polite way. He adjusted his glasses, his nervous tick, one hand balancing the bowl carefully away from his coat. She could tell Shino was not looking forward to the damage control that breeding spiders that eat kikaichu could entail. "Hopefully she does so in a manner that doesn't end up... well, dangerous for Mister Cranberry. Why? Because the females of most arachnids tend to eat the males after copulation. Or kill them. I suppose we will have to educate her on that problem, if she has not researched it already. Clearly she can tell the difference between males and females at a glance. That is... impressive, I was not aware she had studied that."

"I... uh... sorry?"

Shino nodded with a 'hm.' He glanced at the staircase, as his little sister approached, spider in hand. The chakra of her hive was buzzing in excitement, probably because she was so happy. Little did the tiny insects know the danger she was walking them toward. This new spider wasn't trained not to eat them, yet. She looked as if her grin would split her face in half. "It is understandable that you did not know." Shino acquiesced.

"I'll just..." Shikako made a motion to leave, and leave the spider- bowl and all. Shino sighed once more then placed the bowl on a table in the hallway. Chiyako made a beeline for the bowl, and held Mr. Cranberry up to the side to inspect it. The two spiders instantly raised their front four arms and feeler-type limbs. They waved them about, almost the same way the spider had done on her table earlier. Then Chiyako set her pet down on the table to watch them interact.

The spiders began to move rhythmically, back and forth, almost like they were trying to circle each other through the curved glass. They tapped at the glass, their limbs almost touching each other's, as if playing patty-cake. A creep-tastic hissing noise was coming from both of them simultaneously. It actually made Shikako's skin crawl, and even Shino was visibly disturbed, pushing his glasses around without reason to and moving from foot to foot, and Shikako could tell from the buzzing that his kikaichu were very agitated. Chiyako hummed in appreciation, nodding her head at her pet.

"They're...dancing?" Shikako asked, a bit surprised by this behavior.

"Yep! They're saying 'hi' to each other! You're the greatest! Can I keep Miss Strawberry here?"

"Miss... Strawberry?" She raised a brow, not knowing where this came from at all.

The little girl nodded, "That's what Mister Cranberry wants to call her, Miss Strawberry!"

'And how does she even know that...? But... but, that's adorable.' She'd already named the spider. There was no taking it back now, no backing out. Chiyako was too cute. If she wasn't holding the spider again, cooing at it, Shikako would have been tempted to grab Chiyako and give her a hug from the overload of cuteness.

"Oh. Okay. That's fine. You're in charge of Miss Strawberry now. Take good care of her." Shikako said with a smile.

"Oh, oh, we will!" Chiyako jumped up and down and cheered.

"Right. Shino-san, you guys can keep the bowl. Mom won't miss it. We've got like, three more of them at home, and she never uses them anyways."

"Ah, thank you," he bowed slightly. She found her shoes and made her way out, mentally face-palming at her mistake.

Why did she ever think that was Chiyako-chan's spider? Hm... probably because it looked just like it. And the thing had somehow found its way into Sakura's house one day, terrorizing the neighborhood. On another occasion the little spider had stolen the Hokage's hat right out of her office, with no one the wiser. (Yeah, rumor got around that the spider was a roaming terror. Surprisingly it was the jounin passing that rumor around. Tsunade may have tossed some random chunin out her window in an effort to get their butts in gear to find the hat. You know Tsunade is mad when random furniture and chunin fly by.) Shikako just assumed the spider would come to visit her, eventually, what with her luck and all. Why not have a spider stop in for tea?

She was halfway home when the realization struck: If you see one spider, there are a minimum of seven more nearby, just like it, that you didn't notice. That was a thought to induce shivers.

Concerned that they might have an infestation, Shikako rushed home to thoroughly check every room for evidence of spiders.

She was busy checking under Shikamaru's bed when he got home from team training, and realized his sister was rifling under his bed, shoving aside unused pairs of shoes he'd stored there, and glancing about haphazardly.

"Need something?" He asked, leaning against the door frame. He figured she probably just lost her hair brush again or something. She was always leaving it in his room lately.

"Just looking for invaders." She answered in a matter-of-fact voice, picking up one of his sandals and peering into it closely. "Nope, none here. We're safe."

'Oh, no. She's gone off the deep end.' He gulped. "Sis, listen to me. You need a break. Take a few vacation days. I'll arrange it with Tsunade-sama...no, wait, I'll have Sensei do that. Best not to get too close to Hokage-sama after the whole window incident unless you bring her Sake. I'm not growing wings anytime soon."

"But, Shikamaru, I made a big mistake. Because of that, we have to keep our eyes peeled. They're coming." She warned, looking up from her crouch by his bed and dropping the sandal unceremoniously. He stared at her wide eyed expression in concern. "We have to be ready. We need to safeguard our living space, but first we need a plan."

"A plan." 'Plans are good. But what is she getting at?'

"To stop the invaders. There's going to be so many of them. I can't believe I did that! What compelled me to... I never would have brought her in if I'd have known... And there's no way the Aburame are going to allow them to stay, you know. They're dangerous to them. And since I found one here, that means that naturally they're all going to find their way in here. I just know it."

"Wait, you brought who in?" Worst case scenarios were rapidly running through the boy's brain as he watched his sister bite her lip. Had she accidentally let in a spy or some enemy ninja? She wouldn't. That's just the sort of zaney thing Naruto would do. Surely not Shikako!

What was he thinking, strange things always happened to and because of Shikako. Enemies randomly have changes of heart and become friends on the turn of a Ryo. He once thought he wouldn't put it past one of them to fake it one of these days. Seems one of these days had finally arrived. He mentally checked that he had all his gear prepared for a fight, and realized he needed to restock his kunai soon.

"Miss Strawberry." At this nonsensical answer, Shikamaru slightly gaped at his sister, who waved it off like it was nothing.

"I don't follow. I actually don't follow what you're saying." He gave her an assessing glance as she got to her feet. She dusted herself off, muttering about how he needs to clean under his bed more often. She then went on to mutter about how they are 'probably burrowers,' whatever that means. Did that mean the invaders have a earth affinity? Would ninjas literally be popping out of the ground to attack?

"Ignorance is bliss." She said as she nodded, tugging his arm and pulling him along behind her at a rapid pace. "Now come on, we have to stock up on pest spray."

"Wait, what does that have to do with-Ah!?" Sometimes Shikamaru understood the world all too well; Other times, it made no damn sense... either way, he let his sister drag him along behind her. "Troublesome."

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"Honey, where's my largest mixing bowl?"

"No idea, dear."

"Find it, please? I need it to make biscuits."

"Yes, dear. I bet Chouza knows where it is. He's at the bar right now. I'll... go ask him."

"Honey? Hey? Are you still there? Damn it all."

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...

Mr. Cranberry liked this new development.

This Shikako was a good human. This Shikako was smart. She found Miss Strawberry and brought her to Mr. Cranberry.

Miss Strawberry has been studying the ninja arts as well! She can lift an entire shuriken with just her two little pedipalps!

(Roar! HisssSSss!)

Though she hasn't yet figured out what to do with it after that. She toddles back and forth until she drops it in front of her each time. (Spiders, they don't think that far ahead.)

Miss Strawberry also needs to work on planning. She's never completed a successful mission on her own. But she trains.

She wanted to learn to make a seal, so found a human making seals. But that human wasn't cooperative, and didn't appreciate her modifications to the seal she'd been working on. Oh well. Seals aren't for spiders.

Mr. Cranberry will help and teach her the ways of the spider-ninja!

Miss Strawberry will stay, according to Master!

(Happy hiss!)

Good Human. The spider race has decided to keep her safe. Her and Master and Master's family.

Other humans... eh... the spider race will decide later.

m(+,,+)m m(*,,*)m