Chapter 10: The itsy bitsy spider

The ground was still wet from the night's rain. Heavy, cold drops had fallen. It was over before the sun rose, but it left everything cold, wet and muddy. Heavy fog covered the jungle's ground. It kept the chill, even when the sun was finally climbing over the horizon. Instead of vanishing, the fog seemed to get thicker by the minute.

Shizumasa stood in the entrance of the cave they had slept in, trying to stay dry. He hadn't slept at all. There was just no sleeping with a snoring Bolt and a sleep talking Sarada. They had set up a genjutsu, so nobody could find them. Also, they would be warned if enemies approached. But Shizumasa couldn't sleep. It was cold, it was wet and he didn't like either. So he just watched the rain, all night long. He sharpened his blade, detangled his hair (his usually beautiful, shining white hair had become dull over the last few days) and refilled their water supplies.

It was finally morning, around 7 am. Probably a little later. The lordling checked the outside one last time. Nothing to see, except for the still thick mist covering everything. He turned around and walked back into the cave some steps. It wasn't a deep cave, maybe five meters. There in the back, were his teammates. He didn't call them comrades. Yes, they had been fighting together like crazy these last three days. He simply couldn't let himself get attached to them.

After the exams he would be leaving, to take up his new post by his eldest brother's side. Shizumasa was the third son of the current daimyo, the baby brother. The fire country's royal family was a troublesome one. Therefore there was no time and space to get attached in any way to these two crazy fellows from the local ninja village.

"You two, get up," the lordling said. He shook Saradas shoulder and gave Bolt a quick kick in the butt, "we need to get going again."

Bolt groaned, quickly grabbed Shizumasa's leg and pulled it away. The lordling landed on his behinds. "Slave driver…" the blonde boy moaned. He simply turned around and pulled his jacket-blanket over his head again. Sarada rubbed her eyes.

"Thank you for the wakeup call…" she yawned, "what are the plans for today?"

"I have already refilled our water supplies. Just outside the cave I found berry bushes and I think I saw a rabbit family. I guess we can refill our food supplies too?"

"You won't touch the cutey bunny family!" When he heard the words 'rabbit' and 'refill supplies', Bolt bolted up into a sitting position. His eyes were still half closed and there was drool on his face. But he already had one hand up, pointing at the white haired boy, "don't ever even think of touching bunnies!"

"You know this is also a survival test, don't you? Jeez…" Shizumasa rolled his eyes.

"He and his little sister once had two bunnies," Sarada explained. She reattached her bag on her belt. "And a bunch of academy students ate them when they were in a survival training session. You could call it Bolt's trauma."

"Hey! Don't tell everybody about me!"

The lordling raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes again.

They were finally up and ready to go ten minutes later. According to the map, they had rested in a cave at one of the two inactive volcanos. But despite being inactive, it was in no way less dangerous. They walked around the volcano, in search of new tasks to do. Sarada's bracelet showed a glowing '8', Bolt's a '6' and Shizumasa's also '8'. Together they had gathered 22 points already, which was a good number, but not exactly what they needed yet.

It had gotten a lot harder to find doable tests lately. Most of the level I and II tests had already been closed. Level IV tests were too harsh in their opinion – not even speaking of the so called 'kage'-tests. Sarada was sure, the first teams had probably already achieved their goal and all that was left for them, was to hope they had higher points than the following groups. Bolt had asked, if they would be able to pirate their points, by attacking other teams, but his teammates had strictly declined, telling him they couldn't do it because it wasn't proper. In truth, they just believed that Bolt wasn't strong enough.

Shizumasa spotted a test some time later. The first test's start symbol had been an ammonite (green), the second a shark tooth (blue) and the third the sign for yin and yang (white). But this one was a pink lotus, within a circle of bamboo. The teenagers looked at each other.

"Sure that we want to do this," Sarada asked. She didn't feel well. This couldn't be a kage test. The location was too unspectacular. But if it wasn't it could have only been a level IV test. They were barely capable of doing level III tests (given that Bolt shut up and Sarada could concentrate), there was no way they were able to do a level IV in her opinion.

Shizumasa seemed to have similar thoughts. He shook his head. But the blonde dobe didn't listen.

"You are lame! Both of you! You said it yesterday, Sarada: there are no easy tests left and please," Bolt waved his arms around, "we knew this was going to be freaking hardcore! So let's rock it!" With the last word he threw himself onto the glowing engraving. Neither of his teammates could stop him. Of course they tried. But the moment Uzumaki Bolt had something set in his head, only removing the troubling head could stop him from achieving whatever he desired.

As soon as the button was pushed, there was a rumbling sound, like a faraway lighting storm. It growled and the ground slightly shook. Sarada turned towards the volcano they had been circling. She was still wondering whether it was really inactive, when the rumbling stopped.

It was dead silent. The team stood in a small circle, back on back, prepared for whatever was coming.

There was nothing. Shizumasa was the first to notice.

"It's too silent… where are the animal sounds?" He was right. It was just as silent as on the day of their arrival. There was only pure silence – in a jungle.

"Man I don't like this…" Bolt pouted. Suddenly he felt something cold and wet on his right shoulder. "Gosh Shizumasa! Stop drooling on-"

"I'm not drooling on you! What do you-"

"Boys?" Sarada was used to their quarreling, but not to it ending suddenly midsentence. She turned around. Both boys stared at Bolts shoulder. A huge drop of thick fluid was dripping onto him. It was greenish and sticky. All three of them followed the drool with their eyes up into the woods. Another drop slowly sunk down and landed on Bolts shoulder. The boy squeaked in pain and quickly ripped of the shoulder part of his clothing, where the liquid had fallen onto: it revealed burning red skin.

But neither Sarada nor Shizumasa were paying attention. With frightened eyes they watched as the creature above them let another drop fall from its scissor like jaws. Bolt dodged it this time, even though he couldn't take his eyes off the things hairy legs and eight coal black eyes.

It cliqued with its jaws.

Sarada, Bolt and Shizumasa ran.

They didn't care where to, as long as it was far away from the huge spider following them. They could hear the creature tear down small trees as it rampaged through the jungle to follow them.

Shizumasa drew his sword, "we need to fight it! Now! Or we won't get the points!" Sarada nodded, but Bolt was already in action.

He turned around and shot two hands full of spiked chains at the spider. The thing got caught in them. Bolt pulled on the chains, turning around. His teammates dodged as he twisted the monster around, hitting it against trees forcefully.

The thing didn't move anymore after a few hits and Bolt let it go. It flew some more meters into the woods. The kids didn't let their eyes off the creature.

"Apparently," Bolt fell to his knees and grabbed his burning shoulder, "this… things drool is caustic."

"Be happy it just hit your shoulder," Sarada put a healing hand over the red, chipped of skin and healed it a little, "where did you learn a fancy word like this?"

"Guys, this isn't over!" Shizumasa had taken on his fighting stance, his sword readily in front of his body. And he was right. The spider seemed to have recovered from her short meeting with the trees. It sorted out its legs while observing its prey. "If we put all of our strength together now, we can defeat it!"

Bolt grinned. He let Sarada pull him up. Together they joined Shizumasa.

"You know bastard," the dobe poked Shizumasa, "you sometimes are not as antisocial as you try to be."

"Shut up. Sarada, what's the stich?"

Sarada adjusted her glasses. "Heads up! The enemy: a huge spider! Eight legs, eight eyes; the body consists of three parts: the head –with jaws-, middle part and the huge abdomen (probably a spike)! The drool is an aggressive kind of acid! Do not get to close! Always be on the move, take of the head or cut it in two! Shizumasa," she looked away from the spider, over to her comrades, "you have the best cutting weapon. We will distract the thing from you. Try to get it done in one hit! There is no telling if it's intelligent and adaptable. But I'd rather not know."

Both boys nodded. Sarada and Bolt jumped in front of the spider. It had completely freed itself from the trees and vines, just too readily counter the flying kunai and chains.

While they threw themselves at the monster, Shizumasa changed his fighting stance. He put his sword in front of his face.

"Honjo Masamune…" he whispered, "don't let me down now…" At first nothing happened, but a second later, he felt it. Shizumasas chakra left his hand. It rushed into the metal blade, making it vibrate a little. There was now a blue glow around the sword. Shizumasa tried controlling it.

"The flying swallow… Do you see me, sensei?" He grinned.

Neither Sarada nor Bolt noticed his little achievement. They were too busy defending themselves, while keeping the spider at bay.

"If you don't mind," Bolt screamed behind himself, "to maybe get your butt over here?!" The blonde boy was panting. He scarcely dodged a hit from one of the hairy legs. Sarada pulled him out of the way.

"I'm ready! Bolt, can you pin it down? Make it stop moving?" Shizumasa was aiming.

"Would, I could!"

Bolts face was red and sweaty. He pushed Sarada away. With a swift movement, Bolt drifted around the spider, tangling it in his chains. But the beast remembered. It shot out a bone shaking scream and quickly turned around into the opposite direction. Bolt was pulled with the movement by his own chains, but the monster was quicker. It caught up and trapped Bolt in-between its front legs. He heard the angry cliquing of the fangs, the piercing sound of its screams.

"Bolt! Move!" Sarada tried to slice the legs holding her friend down, but she was hit hard in the face by a third leg. The glasses flew away, together with the girl.

"I would! If I freaking cousaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Bolt!" Sarada was searching for her glasses like wild, but without them there was no way she could see anything. Trees, rocks, the spider and her fighting teammates warped into one colorful picture. All there was, was Bolts heart piercing screaming. "Darn it! Shizumasa!"

And there he was. The white haired boy had jumped high into the air, the glowing sword high above his head. He came down with a huge force and simply split the spider in half. The monsters body juices were splashing around.

Shizumasa avoided them, sheathed his sword and pulled Bolt away from under the dying animal.

"Sarada! Follow me! We need to get away from here!"

"I can't see! Where are my-"

There was one loud crack. Shizumasa had run over to her to help searching and accidently stepped on the red seeing device.

"Fuck," he murmured, picked it up and grabbed Sarada's hand, "come! I'll guide you!"

He pulled her up, threw Bolt over his shoulder and they ran towards the mountain again. Bolt was groaning in pain, his hands covering his face. Sarada tried to see what was up, but it was no use without her- oh right… her glasses… She could feel them in Shizumasa's hand that she was holding. The frame was twisted and the glass broken. He had her hand in a tight grip and there was already blood tickling from them, since the sharp pieces pierced their skin.

The spider didn't follow them. When they had reached the starting point again, Shizumasa let go of Sarada and put Bolt on the ground.

"See what he has please…" he was breathing harshly.

Sarada crawled over to the blonde color splash in her vision. Up close she could see, that he was covering his face, moaning and cursing. She pulled his hands away.

The acid had hit him directly in the eyes.

"Darn it," she whispered, ripped off a piece of her shirt and started to carefully wipe away the burning salvia. Her friend cried out in pain, tried to push her away, but Shizumasa held his arms down.

"Stop struggling! I have to get it away to help you!" Sarada was sweating.

"But it hurts! It burns! Make it stop!" He struggled like crazy against his friends grip. The girl sat down on his chest to take away most of his leverage.

"There are painkillers in my bag. Give him one of the three clear injections. Into his neck." The lordling simply started to search her bag, while Sarada ripped of another piece of cloth and went on whipping.

"I don't know how to-"but Sarada just took it out of his hand and rammed the syringe right into Bolts neck. The boy stopped struggling right away. He took a deep breath.

"What do you need to heal him," Shizumasa had taken off her medical bag from her hips, ready to answer her commands.

"Fresh water, disinfection paste and bandages-"She stopped midsentence. There was another rustling in the woods around them. Another two spiders, one bigger than the other, slowly made their way to them. They were clicking angrily with their fangs. Probably because Shizumasa had just cut their buddy in half.

The lordling took his fighting stance again and pulled out his sword. But there was no way he could defeat the two of them alone.

"S-s-s-sarada what's up," Bolt asked. He tried to get up, but Sarada pushed him down again. "I can fight" he angrily stated.

"You don't feel the pain because you just got a painkiller injection! And you cannot see!" Sarada stood up in one quick motion. Shizumasa was standing in front of them already. The spiders were baring their fangs at them.

"You don't have any strong attacks, am I right," Bolt grabbed Saradas sleeve, "but I am the brawler! I can do it!"

"You don't even see whether you are looking into my eyes right now or not and my glasses are-"

"We both know, you don't need your glasses." The dobe smiled. It was a wild, daring smile. Sarada sighed.

"We agreed to not use that until the last part of the exam!"

"I don't care! We need to do it now!"

Shizumasa didn't listen to their quarreling. He hit away an attacking spider with his sword, dodged the other and actually managed to cut off one long spider leg. The seven-legged monster took some steps back and hissed. The lordling barely avoided salvia from it.

But while he dodged, the other one got a hold of him. It lifted Shizumasa up into the air and tried to slice of his feed with its scissor fangs. The lordling pulled his legs up, kicked and hit the spider's eyes, but it didn't let go.

"Curse you," he spitted out. It was over. Shizumasa closed his eyes. That was as far as he could go with the two of them blind and hurt. It would end here.

He thought.

There was a loud crack right behind him and somebody yelled:

"RASENGAN!"

A yellow-white ball hit the spider. It let the lordling go – no wonder, its guts were spilling all over ground, after its flying body, leaving a disgusting trail. Shizumasa fell harshly onto the ground. He was puzzled: What was going on?!

"Are you alright?"

Shizumasa looked up. There stood his two comrades. Bolt was shaking. His right hand was still pointing towards the now dead spider. Sarada held it up with her left hand from behind. She had turned around to face Shizumasa. He couldn't see it clearly, but her eyes were glowing bloody red.

"I… I guess I'm ok…" he answered a little weakly.

"Don't worry. We will be done with this in a second."

She turned her eyes onto the last remaining spider, repositioning Bolt and his arm. The beast clicked angrily, probably considering whether it should run or not.

"Bolt, second shot ready?"

"Of course," he grinned and another ball of yellow and white light formed in his hand, "let's got, Sarada!"

And all that Shizumasa could do, was staring at his two comrades: Bolt, blind and shaking, with his father's trademark attack at hand and Sarada, sharingan spinning wildly in her eyes, guiding her friend.

And now, for the first time, Shizumasa realized, who they truly were: Uchiha Sarada, daughter of Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Bolt, son of Uzumaki Naruto. The two most powerful men in the world.

End of Chapter 10

To my dear readers :)

It's been a week! How are you? Did you all spend Valentines day nicely? I know, old stuff but well, some people love it :D I dragged my boy to a carneval party in my hometown though... He was not amused :D

How did you like this chapter? After the long, boring last one, you finally got som nice action again :D I had fun writing it! I truly love those three in action. You also got a little insight of Shizumasas brain - if that's something that you would want is a differen question, but hey ;)

While writing the first spider-battle, I was listening to a creepy version of the song "the itsy bitsy spider"... Therefore the title. Even though, THIS spider is in no where as small and cute as the one in the song! It's more an.. Aragog kind of spider.. I wouldn't want to meet it in the dark. Or anywhere.
But most importantly! Sarada and Bolt! There were so many question if they were able to do it, of not, if they had yet to learn it... well, I won't tell yet where they learned it but: Aren't they freaking badass? XD I got so excited, to finally be able to write about the sharingan and the rasengan in my story *.*

Well, lovely people! I really need to get a lot better, so please send me a PM or/and leave a review how you liked it - or didn't like it :D I can handle both! But please: Don't be mean :3

You are awesome! See you next week!

Your Usagi

P.S. For the pros among you, a little riddle: if the ammonite stands for the Uzumaki clan, which families are also represented? Hint: All of them are from Kirigakure and/or the water kingdom!

Ammonite (green): Uzumaki

Shark tooth (blue): ?

Yin/Yang sign (white): ?

Lotus in a bamboo circle (pink): ?

Leave a review if you got the answer :D

Review Answers

Thank you for reading the story and thank you very much for commenting! I will go on and give my best :D

SoundlessWorld: Thank you and no need to be afraid: the moment I decide to not continue this story, I will leave an official notice here :) But I am having too much fun writing, so there is no way that I could simply abadon it. Concerning the title: It's kind of both. I can tell you this much: Yes, Sarada will have to go and find her papa - literally (?); but it is furtermost an expression for their relationsship developement. Though, she is not the only one who has to improve her connections... Thank you for the review and please: Stay tuned :D

Sasukebiggestfa: No worries, I will just update as usual ;) A clever question you got there. Depending on what I now write, you could interpret my answer and find out about new developements in the story ;) So no real answer here... BUT: I have always been a SasuSaku shipper and before chapter 700, I always wanted them to have a son AND a daughter ;) Thank you for the review! Stay tuned :D