Devil Summoner: Naruto Chapter 25
Few Answers, More Questions
Watching the village work from the other side was an interesting experience. Neither Naruto nor Hinata paid much attention to the manufacturing side of the ninja war machine, never having to do so. All they were required to worry was whether or not to stock up on gear much like one would worry to stock up on groceries. It was that simple.
Now seeing their hard labor on making precise tools for the ninja to use first hand was really something.
As fascinating as the inner workings of the blacksmith trade was though, they had an investigation to do and not enough time to do so. Of course, time against them was never a good thing, especially with tensions so high.
A death in the village has frightened and angered the village populace. Not so much that the murder happened, but with what was used.
A Kunai was used to end the life of a promising blacksmith, and the village could do nothing but watch him choke on his own blood. What made it hard for Naruto and Hinata was the fact that since an obvious ninja tool was used to end him, the village was on the lookout and would treat anyone they didn't know with hostility. Hinata and Naruto realized that this would strain the relations between the village and any incoming ninja, such as their own.
All it would take is for one side to goad the other and there would be a massacre.
That alone drove them into overtime.
They had to find out who did this and soon.
They couldn't however, do this with their clothing. Wearing anything that signifies or even suspects you of belonging to a ninja in this village would draw unneeded attention. Fortunately, Naruto's only piece of clothing was his headband while Hinata could use her Henge technique to travel around unnoticed by the populace.
That in of itself ran into a snag.
By definition, the Hyuuga were a prideful clan, and the Henge technique was considered an affront to their pride. Somewhere up the line of ancient Hyuuga politics, a member of the clan actually forced his own body to reject the technique from affecting his eyes, believing the eyes were sacred. His line would go on to fuel the current main and branch family, forever barring any notion that Hyuuga would make perfect spies.
Which brings to now, where Hinata learned that her unassuming form of a peasant girl dressed in soft but common clothing did not hide her eyes at all. Her hair had gone along with the transformation, making it longer and hiding her eyes, but anyone who took a closer look would be sure to get suspicious.
Seeing that time was not on their side, Naruto and Hinata strode through the main streets, heads low and avoiding any who would make a scene.
X-X
One of the Moirae was getting an uneasy feeling. Her thoughts rampant about how they kept losing all their hard work, watching their plans thread itself back to the beginning. They were the Sisters of Fate, dammit! One doesn't take kindly to see souls that they have deemed to be over get up like nothing was wrong!
It had to be something...but what?
Her eyes shifted to the box which contained their most precious belonging, and her eyes widened.
Of course...
Someone was using the treasure to control time! Someone unworthy of it, of course. Who else but they, the ones that control fate could use the relic correctly? Anyone else was just using it for selfish whims, like love or greed.
However...a dark though nibbled at her mind.
What if one of them was using it? To warn their past selves, or to...
A sudden knock at their door put her on high alert. Who dared to bother her when she was pondering her latest mystery?
Appearances had to be kept of course. The sister morphed into a friendly, but unassuming woman who had a talent of spinning threads from silk.
Opening the door, the sister was greeted by an older woman, who surprisingly taught her, a master weaver a thing or two about threading. For that alone, the sister sought to protect, and almost fought her own elder at one time to let her live...at least for a while longer.
"Ah, Chron-chan! Do you have any silk you are not using? Our shop has run out and we need just a bit more to finish our order to the Daimyo. We would be willing to buy it off you, if you are willing." The older woman asked with a smile.
"No, its ok! Our silk stores are bursting! We could spare some silk for you, I'm sure the Daimyo would love to see the finished product! Just be sure to send some of his business our way, ok?" She said, a smile on her face.
After giving the woman some silk, the older woman promised to give an order or two to the helpful woman. A smile that lasted until the door was closed, the sister returned her form and her thoughts to who was messing with them. Should she find out, she would personally find his or her thread and cut it herself!
Chron smiled wickedly, that would be such fun!
X-X
Elsewhere, another Moirae sister was pondering, but nothing like her sister.
No, her thoughts were about the boy they just watched die, again.
Sometimes, during the times of the ancients, they occasionally made a mistake. A thread that was too tough to cut, woven by the inexperienced hands of the fate sisters was often seen as a sign that the mortal it was tied to had not earned their rest in the afterlife. It was infuriating, but the laws were clear, if it could not be cut, it was not their time, no matter how much they wanted it to.
For time immemorial, the Sisters of Fate followed this rule. That is until their master had found them, and showed them that tradition was foolish by ending an entire city with his hands. The sisters watched as the threads of those mortals were untouched by the chaos, disproving their duty with one fell swoop.
That is when they broke free and followed their master wherever he may lead. Leaving their eons of work unregulated, no longer watched by the sisters. Eventually, the humans forgot their gods and moved on.
Of course, she thought with amusement, the mortals did their work for them. Ultimately destroying themselves and leaving these primitive imitators behind to begin the cycle again.
Looking at the lukewarm corpse, which had not been touched for fear of retaliation, the sister checked for the extinguished soul's only trace that they had been controlled by fate. A thread, matching the person's unique soul was collected and reused to bind more people to their threads, and leaving them at the mercy of their whims.
By this point in time, the Sisters of Fate were no longer bound to regulate the souls to their afterlife, caring not if the departed reached their destination of salvation of damnation. They were all too happy to end the life of an elder or a newborn if their whims demanded it, not caring if they became ghosts or a meal to those special demons that the sisters had heard about from their master.
Scanning for the one thread made her wonder though. Why was the world undoing their fun? Such mood killers, they were! At first, the sister was all too happy to redo the boy's threading and watching him fall victim to his death, only to see him recover like nothing had happened!
She wasn't sure if her sisters found any enjoyment or fury at their work being mocked by an outside force. To her knowledge, there was no demon that could undo what they decreed a justified death. Which made this whole situation even more confusing.
From her conclusion, someone was using the treasure they recovered to mess with them, to restart the clock. Obviously, it wasn't to their satisfaction, seeing that time and time again it repeats.
Her thoughts pinpointed on that last ponder. Time and time again, hm?
There was never any instance of time being repeated over and over again, and have everything turn out exactly the same. That meant that the one who is doing this knew exactly what had happened before and intentionally reset the time-line, therefore ruining everything.
Who was the culprit, she asked herself. That meant that nearly everyone in the village save her sisters could not know of the relic's purpose.
Her eyes opened just a little, could it be that one of her sisters was responsible for ruining everything?
But that was preposterous!
Was it? A voice in her mind asked.
Walking away from the corpse, a tiny girl pretended to grieve for the boy as her thoughts raced with questions that she didn't like to ask.
X-X
The eldest sister of the Moirae was already comparing and asking and answering the same questions her own way.
She wasn't above suspecting her sisters. Loyal they may be, but the future was uncertain. Their loyalties could shift at anytime. She herself was witness, as they betrayed the gods and their duty, what could another betrayal do to their stained honor?
She snorted. Honor? Didn't mean a thing to her.
That raised a small point. What if she was the one who reversed time?
That lead to another question. What could have happened to reverse time over and over again and still fail to get the correct result? Was it boredom? Was it something else?
She would have to find out.
"Naire-sama!" A male voice called to her.
She, Naire, turned to see an old man, who she recognized as part of the "village council". Fortunately for the sisters, this one was completely loyal to her alone.
"Ah, what news do you have for me?" Naire asked the man. The man nearly bowled over in response to her quest, acting like some love sick dog...which was probably the case.
"A ninja group is coming today, Naire-sama. They hope to fuel their village with our weapons for their precious event, the Chunin Exams."
A group of ninja? Such inferior tactics. Of course, give enough of them, and they could overwhelm anyone...
Naire shook her head, as much as she wanted to ignore the plebeians, a thought in her mind told her that maybe...just maybe they were the cause of the resets.
That would not do.
"Find a way to make them look guilty in front of the people. We need to make sure they don't return with news of what happened. They would ask too many questions, and those questions we don't want to answer." She told her minion, who nodded.
"Of course! They will rue the day they decided to pry into our problems!" The elder said before walking off. Naire smiled. She could curse him and belittle him in front of everyone, and he would take it with a smile. Sometimes it felt good to bewitch a human into her slave.
Gazing at the man's health, which was poor, she felt that it might be better to start looking for another one.
Slaves are good, but when she tires of them, a small snip there and a laugh happens after.
Perhaps a strapping young man? It would be good to release some...stress if she chose to do.
With that parting thought, Naire walked back to her shop, unaware that a pair of eyes saw the whole thing.
X-X
Naruto and Hinata were in a jam.
Somehow, an overzealous villager, no doubt a close friend of the dead man, started to pry into matters that were best left alone. He cornered Hinata before gazing into her milky white eyes and started to make a fuss over her unnatural eyes.
Soon enough, the village came over and started to form their own opinions, no doubt influenced by the clearly mad villager.
"Those eyes! They aren't normal! They belong to a ninja!" The words of the man carried over to the growing murmur of the angry villagers.
Not a moment later, voices from those who felt strength in numbers started their own asinine conclusions.
"Yeah! Those eyes aren't like normal people!"
"Could she be the one who killed that poor boy?!"
"She must be! She's the only one who fits the part!"
On and on it went.
Hinata, however, was silently cursing their inability to hide their eyes. The growing mob forming around her was distracting her thoughts as she tried to find an acceptable excuse.
That went to shot, as one villager grabbed her arm and began to grip it tightly.
Hinata was starting to panic. How dare they lay their hands on her!
She reined in her wish to use the Gentle Fist on these people. It would not help her case.
Trying to reason with them was useless as they were too hyped up by the one who started it all. Most likely he found her as someone different from him and he decided to take his rage out on her.
Pitiable fool.
Then things started to get downright frightening.
The mad villager pushed Hinata roughly to the ground, to the jeers of the crowd. Hinata looked wildly at the crowd, horrified at how they could encourage something like this!
To the amazed and awe filled gasps of the crowd, the villager produced a bloody Kunai. Hinata recognized the Kunai as the one lodged in that victim. A fleeting thought of horror filled her mind.
This crazy being wasn't about to do what she thought he was about to do!?
"Your knife bathed in the blood of my best friend! I will make sure your soul meets his when your blood mixes with his!" The villager hissed, clearly insane. That didn't matter squat to the mob, who was actually allowing him to get away with murder, regardless of the truth.
No...no, it can't end like this!
Hinata's eyes widened as the crazy man raised the bloody Kunai.
Before he could thrust it down and end Hinata's life, the man's head came clean off.
That dispelled any hatred that the villagers had for the girl and was instead replaced by fear. They watched as the man's body tumbled to the ground next to the head, which was smiling to add to the horror.
The Villagers watched as an armored giant of the man flicked his blade of blood and sheathed the blade in his scabbard before standing in front of Hinata.
"How dare you attack the daughter of the Daimyo!" He boomed. Hinata watched on in confusion as the villager's hate filled eyes turned to horror as they realized that they attacked and were about to execute a member of the royal family.
Some of the more cowardly people ran away, while others stood by as the man knelt to the shocked girl. Then the panic set in.
They attacked a member of the Daimyo!
They were doomed!
With that fuzzy thought in their minds, the mob scattered. Some to pack their things and abandon the village, while others preparing to fight off the troops, however idiotic and useless it was.
The armored man took Hinata gently and cleared a path away from the dead body. After reaching a secluded area, Hinata turned to find the armored man, only to find Naruto standing where he was.
Hinata broke into a smile and a strangled laugh as her composure left her and she hugged him for saving her life. Her eyes were tearing up as she held him for dear life.
Naruto gently hugged her back, his cloak covering the girl from prying eyes. Ninja needed to keep their cool, but sometimes when facing something like this...it was ok to let it go. Just not where they can see you, of course.
A crying, but smiling girl and a boy who took another life to save hers...needless to say, it wasn't for public eyes.
X-X
After regaining her composure, Hinata decided to continue the role of the "Daimyo's daughter". Naruto changed into the hulking samurai retainer and escorted her through the main thoroughfare, to the fearful gazes of the villagers.
Hinata privately took a bit of glee at seeing them so scared. It served them right.
Walking through the main roads was a lot faster than going through alleyways like before, and eventually, the gazes disappeared and they both found themselves in what looked like an area where they produced clothes.
They watched as string after string of what looked like silk hung around, connecting houses and things.
Strangely, no strings blocked paths, but wound around other things, even houses!
What a strange place!
While Naruto was marveling at the sight, Hinata's thoughts still lingered on what happened earlier. To impersonate a daughter of a noble, much less the Daimyo of their country is grounds for treason. If some official ever found out about what had happened today and reported it to the Daimyo, their village would suffer for it.
The question is then, did Naruto knowingly react knowing that he could face a line of questioning that would no doubt ruin his standing?
He did it to save her life, and it was incredibly sweet. One of the reasons that she found him so attractive was his selflessness, and he proved that quality today.
Still, she was afraid for him. Ninja who were found impersonating their lords were often executed, and neither she nor Naruto was special enough to escape such a fate.
She only hoped that they never found out.
X-X
Scouting the area, Naruto and Hinata were relieved that nobody ever came into this particular part of the town. If it wasn't the string hampering your every movement, the rumors of the area certainly gave them a wide berth.
It is said that three talented, but scary witches crafted the most pure silk and string to make the most extravagant clothing known to the region. Their demand was high and their prices even higher. It was said that the Daimyo of Fire Country ordered his finest robes from these three.
Naruto briefly recalled that his village started a short-lived campaign to store food and water one summer when he was younger. If the Fire Lord really did order such expensive robes, was it really worth the panic that his village enacted for their own survival?
"Naruto." Hinata called out to him.
When he turned, Hinata pointed to the most strangest part of the area.
A house completely bound in strings and silk. It looked more like a nest for spiders and worms than a home for humans.
Looking around, there didn't seem to be a soul in sight, which was all that Naruto and Hinata needed to use their academy instructed techniques to investigate the area, as ninja.
Academy approved techniques often taught the most basic of skills for aspiring ninja to survive in the wild. Starting campfires, building shelter to last more than a day and an interesting technique to use their Chakra reserves to enhance themselves for a short time. This technique was used by spying ninja to climb and cross ground much more quickly at the cost of burning nearly twice the needed Chakra if done normally.
For Hinata, she was used to expending Chakra for her clan's style of attacks so she was able to cut the requirements for enhancing herself and was able to last longer in this state than the regular ninja.
Naruto, however, never found the exhaustion that was often described by ninja after using it. Up until a week ago, he never would've guessed it was the work of the demon inside of him that kept him so energized, even after keeping up the technique for a full day.
Quickly climbing the area, Naruto landed on the roof first, slightly wincing at the noise he made when landing. If he was going to be any ninja of any renown, he would have to land silently or at least more quietly than he did just now. Naruto heard a soft pat of feet land nearby, and turned to see Hinata land with the grace of a stealthy ninja.
Seeing the area from up top was a lot more disturbing than it was on the ground. Where on the ground, it felt like you were in a silky maze. From up top, you could see it for what it was, a giant spider web.
What was even more shocking is figures that noticed them and started to click and cackle with glee as they raced toward them.
Naruto instantly drew his blade and pulled out the tube with Kushina inside. He was reluctant to send out Kushina due to that whoever was causing this disturbance was more likely to see a foreign demon as a threat and as a clue that they weren't alone.
Seeing the mob rushing toward them threw out that reluctance. Good thing too, since he somehow felt that Kushina was getting annoyed at being cooped up in there for so long.
"Go! Kushina!" He shouted as the tube opened and materialized Kushina using its strange methods of summoning demons. When Kushina finished, she smiled at the incoming demons. She knew exactly what to do and by golly, she was going to have some fun!
One of the demons, which Naruto successfully identified as Arachne, a spider demon, hissed and garbled something to her brethren and hesitated before leaping to attack Kushina.
Kushina, already antsy at not being able to fly free in a while, dodged the attack with a flap of her wings. When another tried and failed to grab onto to her, Kushina countered by grabbing the spider demon's long hair roughly and swung her with great force toward the first demon, who never saw it coming.
The collision of the the two demons also broke part of the silk, collapsing it to the street below. Kushina didn't stop to marvel at her handiwork as she was already charging up her patented Wind spells and aimed at the stunned demons on the ground.
"Garula!" She shouted and pointed her palm at the demons. A second later, a pulsing green orb shot rapidly to the ground. Before the two demons could react, a massive tornado ripped apart their bodies, leaving nothing but a couple of bloody smears.
"Naruto, are her techniques so brutal?" Hinata asked, getting a momentary reprieve from Kushina's counter. The thread collapse forced the attacking demons to travel to another point of the web that connected to the house they stood on.
Naruto shook his head.
"That only happens if the demon is weakened by the attack. It usually stings more to be hit by it, but sometimes, the attack hits just the right spot and obliterates it completely. One of my associates kept calling them "critical hits", but I don't tend to see it that way."
"How do you see it then?" Hinata asked, watching as the demons finally made it to the other side.
Naruto grinned.
"I call it Kushina being "In The Zone"." He said as he engaged his first opponent. Another Arachne demon charged at Naruto, her arms sharp as a spider's fangs swung at his head, ready to decapitate him. Naruto, for all his training as a ninja and as a devil summoner, had a natural reaction to anyone trying to hit him in the head. He often wondered if it was because of those drunks that tried to assault him for being a demon container that he developed a sixth sense of incoming danger to his head.
It wasn't every time that he was able to dodge, but in this instance, he ducked under one strike and prevented the other from beginning thanks to a quick swing from his sword. Even without Chakra, a sword was still sharp enough to dismember limbs from anyone foolish enough to attack its wielder.
A sharp scream was all it got to do before dropping to her side and twitched before expiring. Naruto learned this particular quirk of Arachne from Gouto's lesson on what was categorized as "Mystic Bug" demons. It was more crudely acknowledged by the devil summoners of the time to call them "Vermin" class demons instead. Arachne wasn't able to act without both her claws, due to its origin as a spider. Cut off one arm and it was the equal to bleeding out for them.
Their arms were considered to be tough as steel, and usually unable to be cut through. But from what Gouto pointed out, Naruto's blade and Naruto himself were able to do the impossible. It had the added bonus of intimidating the demon's comrades who hesitated before returning to battle.
Hinata however, had trouble with her opponents.
Arachne were well-known for their teamwork, but not enough to create a sustainable colony of themselves. As such, any known cases of them working together was mostly opportunity. Not that Hinata knew any of this as she dodged with practiced ease against the stabbing motions of the Arachne.
When she activated her Byakugan, Her instincts added a special attack to her memories that curiously disappeared when it was over. Her Gentle Fist attacks were imbued with particles of light that occasionally surrounded a demon before just removing it from existence.
She likened this attack to being a physical version of Kushina's Hama spell. Hinata never used it against another human being, but she was willing to use it against demons, who treated her hands as anathema.
The problem was that her attacks were meant for one on one combat, and having demons take shots at her side were becoming troublesome for her.
She sure could use a demon partner like Naruto, but if its anything like he said, only a select few could form a bond.
She dodged another strike from an Arachne, but not before barely missing a strike from an opportunistic demon that cut at her arm. She watched as the cut turned the blood around the wound purple which could have been a sign of poison.
No time to worry about that now as she used her momentum to finish her opponent before focusing on the one who gave her the poisonous attack.
Or she would have, if Kushina hadn't blown away the demon with a blast of wind. Thankful for the reprieve, she smiled at Kushina, who smiled back and noticed the wound on her arm. Flying down and gently grabbing her arm, Kushina chanted a few words in a language that Hinata somehow understood and eluded her at the same time.
The effect was instantaneous as the spell washed away any sign of poison in her body. Hinata stared in wonder at the angel, slightly envious of the ability to have someone watch his or her back, like Naruto had with Kushina.
As the waves of enemies came at them, Naruto counted at least six more kills by his sword, and three kills with his revolver. Hinata was able to bottleneck her opponents by destroying several weaker silk webs and forcing the Arachne to wait in line to attack. Despite their acrobatic leaps, Hinata noticed that they were able to do so when they could land on the web itself. They dared not try when they were nearby the solid roof. Hinata figured that if they were to try such a thing, it could injure them somehow.
Seeing this, Hinata knocked off several tiles and stones that connected webs to the buildings and resulted in the web becoming weak enough to fall through should they try to jump. Her gamble paid off as one of the more arrogant Arachne jumped at her only to fall with a terrifying scream to the ground. A sharp thud and a dying groan signified the demon's demise.
She was able to manage her opponents easier and added several demons' worth of defeats to her belt.
However, Kushina triumphed over the two as her flight allowed her to strike at the heart of where the Arachne came in droves. A concentrated blast of Magaru and Garula shredded any pathways the demons could have taken and collapsed the building where they were coming out from. The buildings that collapsed revealed that they were abandoned long ago to the point where nothing remained of their former occupants.
It was a perfect place to breed more of them, and from Kushina had learned, they were actually trying to create a society for themselves.
Pity that it would all come to naught as she unleashed Garula at what looked like an incubation area. The blades of wind were merciless as it tore into the area, leaving nothing but broken remains of buildings.
When the attack was over, her eyes widened at the result of her attacks. Before, she cared nothing for them as it was in the heat of battle. They had threatened Naruto and it was all she needed to begin combat.
When she launched her final strike at the building containing what looked like their young, Kushina felt a bit sick at it all, not believing it was she who caused it.
Was it her lost memories? Her lost instincts that allowed her to do so? What kind of life did she lead before she became an angel?
She was slightly afraid to find out.
One thing she was sure of though, Naruto was part of it, however unlikely it seemed.
Naruto on the other hand, was celebrating with Hinata at beating back what looked like an endless assault. Hinata had a tired smile on as she relished in her first victory against demons that wasn't part of her old self.
The victory was short lived as one house in the distance imploded, sending debris as far as the roof they were standing on. Naruto and Kushina were on high alert as several grotesque claws clamped down on the buildings. Once there were enough, the claws hoisted a huge demon's body to the web. The claws attached to the demon as they worked in conjunction to steer the huge body's command to look around at the disturbance that caused him to be up here.
When it did spot who was the source of their troubles, the demon roared in a loud voice.
"YOU DARE SLAUGHTER MY SUBJECTS?! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DENY ME MY KINGDOM!"
Before Naruto or Hinata could explain themselves, the demon worked itself into a fury.
"IT IS TIME TO SHOW YOU WHY I AM THE KING OF SPIDERS! I AM TSUCHIGUMO!"
With his battle cry, Tsuchigumo charged with surprising agility at them, destroying buildings with rapid clicks of its large claws. Also, due to his size, it wouldn't be as simple as making him fall to the ground to his demise like Arachne did.
Naruto and Hinata quickly ran to another building's roof when Tsuchigumo nearly barreled into them nonstop. While Naruto and Hinata recovered from their expended use of Chakra to get out of the way, Tsuchigumo took a few moments to completely stop before turning again toward his targets.
Another roar of anger and he charged at them, the buildings themselves only standing due to the support of the webs.
"What...what is that thing?!" Hinata said, winded by the constant use of Chakra to enhance her speed. Even if she was able to use it more efficiently, repeated use did take its toll.
Naruto however, looked like he didn't break a sweat. Hinata was curious at how long he could last before tiring.
She was sure there was something...mature about that last thought somewhere.
She shook her head.
Anyways!
"That is a demon, Tsuchigumo!" Naruto answered before jumping to another building to avoid Tsuchigumo's rampage. Unfortunately, the charge cut off Naruto from Hinata, separating them.
"Hinata! Find a place to hide, he's too strong for you!" Naruto called out to her. Hinata nodded and watched as Naruto grabbed that strange piece of metal he called a revolver and fired at the creature. She was understandably surprised at the sound when he used it, but the thing was incredibly effective. It utterly destroyed an Arachne that was sneaking up on her.
When the creature hissed in pain, she knew that Naruto got his attention. The spider demon king roared at him before concentrating on him alone, leaving Hinata to find a way down to safety.
At least, that was before Arachne reinforcements sprung up from below the web and trapped Hinata in a delta formation.
Something snapped within her.
Hinata glared at the creatures, she had enough of these things to last her days. Now would be the time to show the fruits of her training!
She settled into a relaxed stance as she waited for the first move. Soon enough, the one in front of her clicked and swung one of its arms at her head. Applying academy knowledge to the situation, Hinata ducked under the fast, but clumsy swing to counter away with her clan's techniques. Concentrated Chakra at the fingertips combined with rapid strikes on the demon's body resulted in Hinata disabling not only the demon's arms, but disintegrate it entirely when one lucky strike activated her attack's added ability, Hama.
The other two, breaking formation to avoid the new threat, had no time to react when Hinata began her counter offensive. They only knew pain when Hinata used Chakra and her rage to disable their arms and legs.
Hinata, no longer feeling any fear from these creatures, concentrated more Chakra into her hands and aimed them both at their throats. She barely spared them a glance when she walked away from the writhing creatures, trying to breathe when she blocked their airways with her pinpointed strikes. A pitiful wail later, the Arachne duo died and faded away, their life force extinguished.
When she was certain she was safe by climbing an unbound building a ways away, Hinata was silent as she reviewed her earlier resolve.
She felt no mercy to her foes, which was a good thing, right?
Everyone who was in the academy, from Naruto, to herself and everyone in between knew that by choosing this path, they threw away any semblance of moral high ground. Their teachers only hinted at what was to come, but they never thought it would actually come to this. To take a life so easily, it was certainly a shock.
But what about demons? Were they counted in the lessons of life and death?
Hinata didn't know. She certainly thought about it while recovering from painful defeats to her sister when they were younger.
She still had no answer. She certainly had no inclination to tell her father about this, despite him possibly knowing what it was like to think about these things. Something was barring her from doing so, but she didn't know what.
When she saw Naruto lead the demon away, a thought came to her.
Was he the one who could give her these answers? Could she learn from him whether or not demons were included in the morals of life or death?
When this was over, she would have to ask.
X-X
Naruto cursed as he lead away Tsuchigumo away from the sturdier buildings. Naruto was certain that this area was not the work of an overzealous knitting group, but the spillover from a nearby demon world. The humans of the town thought it was a quirk from the locals, but Arachne and Tsuchigumo's presence was evidence that the town's mirror world was a huge breeding ground for their kind. Tsuchigumo was obviously the king and Arachne the soldiers.
These Arachne were well versed in teamwork or opportunistic attacks since they were originally very territorial. Like Turdak, you didn't see much more than two or three working together before factions started to form internally, leading to infighting.
Which meant that their sole hierarchy rested on Tsuchigumo, who was trying to kill him.
Unfortunately for the obvious fascination about working demon colonies, his survival came first.
Naruto hid on one of the taller buildings and watched turn his body around looking for any sign of his target.
Seeing his first "Mystic Bug" demon, Naruto studied Tsuchigumo's appearance. He had untamed hair everywhere, brown as the earth they were often known to burrow under. His hairless skin on his face gave it an ogre like appearance, with two yellow teeth sticking out of its mouth. Two large bone like horns gave it a unique look as they protruded from his head in diagonal directions. For a spider king, the only thing matching such a claim was the eight legs that worked together to move the colossal body around.
After memorizing Tsuchigumo to report back to his teacher, Naruto waved Kushina over and started to go through plans to handle a fast, multi-legged foe.
"Ok, its big, its angry and it can move faster than a horse if we let it." Naruto started, with Kushina listening intently. However, Naruto noticed that Kushina was clearly bothered by something, though it would have to wait.
Taking a look at Tsuchigumo, Naruto gazed it wasn't so big that weapons couldn't harm it, the revolver proved that point. He was using bursts of his own Chakra in place of real bullets though, so it was possible that the demon was reacting to the Chakra than the force of the round.
Could he use his Chakra to poison him somehow?
Deciding to go with that point in mind, Naruto continued explaining his plan.
"I think I'm going to need to get on his back. I'm going to need you to keep him in place, Kushina." Naruto told his partner, who nodded.
"Got it. I'll fly around, and force him to keep turning away from you." Kushina said, already getting what Naruto was at.
He smiled, she was a smart cookie when she wasn't out trying to eat the latest sweet or freaking people out when ramen suddenly started disappearing.
With a nod, the duo put their plan into action.
X-X
Tsuchigumo was getting paranoid. His anger was ebbing and he only now realized he wasn't in his kingdom. He thought he was until he saw that only a small part was covered in his people's webs, and the rest pristine. Now after trying to avenge his subjects, he lost track of them.
He gazed at his wounded joint. That weapon was only used in stories by his ancestors, a man using a gun to end countless kin before him. They thought time would make him go away...they, and he himself, was mistaken.
"Hey, pinhead!" A smarmy little voice sounded above him. When he looked up, he saw a red-haired angel mocking him. He didn't take too kindly to being mocked.
"GET DOWN HERE!" He roared at the angel, who started to laugh.
He growled.
"FINE! ZIONGA!" Tsuchigumo shouted as his bristled with static electricity and sending the charge to his horns. Kushina rarely had time to dodge due to the instantaneous discharge directed at her, and she saw the static charge build up again for another strike.
Well, she wouldn't let him get a second shot so easily!
Flapping her wings to gain altitude, Kushina dived toward Tsuchigumo and arced to parallel with the webbed buildings, allowing her to safely fly under the confused spider king. After reaching what she believed was the center of the king's abdomen, she put part one into action.
"Garula!" She said as she pointed her hands at the king's abdomen. A second later, a large tornado tore into the belly, causing the king to shriek in pain. When the spell was over, an indent of where the spell hit was left, gouged into the belly forever like a scar.
The feeling of pure agony stunned the spider king, which allowed Naruto begin part two.
Climbing onto the immobile leg of the spider king, Naruto poured Chakra into his leg muscles to give himself more kicking power as he jumped from segment to segment. To an outsider, it would've looked like a blond flea was jumping over the spider king's leg and into his abdomen.
As Naruto landed, Tsuchigumo became enraged and started to thrash about, almost making Naruto lose his balance if not for him grabbing some of Tsuchigumo's fur at the last moment. Gripping himself to ride with the bumps and jumps that Tsuchigumo was making moving around, Naruto carefully made his way to the top of the base of the demon's neck.
Due to the spider king's size, Naruto was able to remain undetected. Tsuchigumo was too focused on Kushina's evasive flying, trying to blast her out of the sky with Zionga. From Naruto's viewpoint, Kushina was incredibly fast, sometimes, even flying circles around the horns a few times.
Naruto grinned, and transformed his blade into its axe form with an application of Chakra. The blue shine of his transformed blade stood out in the fur of Tsuchigumo, not like he could have seen it anyways.
With a mighty yell, Naruto swung into the spider king's flesh, drawing blood as he hacked a hole into the king's body. Over and over again, he hacked. If anyone could have seen him now, they would believe he came from a slaughter.
Obviously, Tsuchigumo felt that and started to shriek in pain.
"WHAT?! ARRRGH!" Tsuchigumo screeched. Naruto wasn't done though, He turned to Kushina's general direction to give her one last signal.
He became horrified instead. At the moment he made contact with Kushina, a lone Arachne made a desperate lunge at the unaware angel and succeeded in dropping her onto the floor, hacking at Kushina's body with her claws.
Kushina fought back by obliterating the attacker with a point blank Garula, but the force of the spell caused the building she crashed into collapse, making her fall inside. What was worse, several Arachne that survived the first attack jumped in after her, marking her for a meal.
When he didn't hear any wind spells or shrieks of pain, Naruto unconsciously thought the worst.
That was all what it needed to trigger his influence.
The blue shine of his axe was replaced with a blood-red hue. Naruto instinctively gave into to his animalistic fury and grabbed the axe hilt. He swung with much harsher ferocity than he planned, causing great pain to the helpless Tsuchigumo. When he deemed the hole deep enough, Naruto overcharged the weapon with the tainted energy and drove it deep in for one last strike.
Tsuchigumo shuddered at the influx of tainted energy and looked on as the energy overtook his own lifeforce. Twisting it until his consciousness no longer recognized it as his own, Tsuchigumo's last thought was how unfair it was to his people that they had to die by these humans.
So unfair...
Tsuchigumo's thoughts ended when the energy imploded Tsuchigumo into bits and pieces. Among these falling pieces was Naruto, still under the effects of what took him over. Landing roughly, Naruto's eyes shifted from red to his natural blue as he became aware of what he had done.
Looking around at the carnage, Naruto's willpower shattered easily and he fell to the floor in horror. What had he done? Did he rip Tsuchigumo piece by piece?!
Then he remembered Kushina's fate.
"Kushina!" He shouted as he jumped with little to no thought to his tired limbs to where Kushina crashed. Looking for any ambushes and finding none, Naruto jumped into the hole and into the streets below, desperate to look for his partner.
X-X
Above the web, Hinata's eyes were unable to shake off the dark aura that Naruto had as of a few moments ago. How could such vile emanate from him?
His Chakra went from pure and blue to plain dark and painful, and it began when his angel partner fell in battle.
It felt similar to her own dark self, but was much, much darker. It paled in comparison to what she had.
Was this the result of Naruto's feelings?
X-X
Landing, Naruto figured he wasn't in the human world anymore. This building was a gate to the demonic world that housed the Arachne and the former king. Looking around, Naruto found that a battle had taken place here, and judging by the destroyed alleyway, it was a consecutive set of battles, as if never-ending.
Kushina was being pushed back deeper in through sheer numbers. Naruto had to find her fast.
Following the wreckage of buildings affected by Kushina's wind damage, Naruto followed the trail and found that it didn't take long to find Kushina...
At least in a shape he hoped to never find her in.
Kushina's body was still breathing, but she was in terrible shape. Bruises on her forearms, likely from blocking repeated strikes to her torso. Her wings were cut severely, to the point where he could see the bone-like extension that supported her wings. She couldn't fly in this state, so she must've crawled or ran from her pursuers. Her head and face were trailing blood from a wound on her head and the trail of blood from her lips indicated that she had an internal injury.
She was also using Dia on herself, which was surprising.
Naruto quickly made his way to her and noticed more about her surroundings. There were chains all around her, as if used like a whip.
"Kushina! Are you alright?!" Naruto asked his partner, alarmed at her state.
Kushina nodded, her eyes tired.
"I've used Dia on myself. I was in bad shape." She said, her breathing steadily returning.
"You've learned Dia?" He asked, looking at her eyes.
"I learned while fighting them off, good thing too. I was hurt, really bad." She coughed. Kushina must've been really hurt if her spell still had her cough.
Naruto nodded, and pulled out Kushina's summoning tube. She needed to-
A squelching sounded and Naruto knew nothing but pain as Kushina...stabbed him?
Looking at Kushina, Naruto noticed things were off. Her eyes, black. Her form melting away to a spider like appearance. It revealed to be an Arachne?!
How? They didn't have any illusionary powers!
Naruto didn't have time to worry about Arachne's sudden power upgrades as he instinctively grabbed his blade and sliced the head off the ambusher. That freed Naruto's gut from Arachne bladed arm, which dissolved after Arachne died.
A slow clapping sounded in the area. Naruto looked around, noticing that a black border was blocking his vision. He was losing consciousness, fast.
"Oh...you took my pet down! She was going to bring about a new breed of Arachne to the spider king...which you killed, right? I smell his blood on you." the voice said cheerily.
Naruto looked for the voice's owner, watching the upper areas when he felt a tug at the hem of his shirt. He looked down and saw...a little girl?!
Said little girl smiled, as if the world around her didn't bother her at all. Which meant...
"Who are you?" He said weakly.
"Unlike my sisters, I don't demean myself with a human name, so I guess you can liken me with that person who is always in the background, watching. It is better that way, I can always escape unnoticed because who would ever be suspicious of a little girl?" She mused.
"Suspicious? Are you the one-" Naruto coughed, his vision fading fast.
"Oh no! That was a group effort, his time was up, after all. At least, his time is up to us." She said.
"Group? There is more of you?" He said, his voice getting weaker and weaker.
She smiled.
"Of course! I don't know how you managed to escape our lord brother's eyes, but I can tell you that he won't need to learn of your existence. Your angel girlfriend? Dead. Torn apart by Arachne, piece by piece. You humans always tend to wander where you don't belong and eventually end up in the demon world, to be turned lunch or prey for the younger Arachne."
She giggled, amused by the situation.
"That wound looks nasty! I hope you get a doctor to patch you up..oh wait! There isn't any! Looks like it's up to me to find you help! I hope I get to the human world and bring one here real fast to help you!" She broke off her façade by laughing loudly and started to walk off.
Naruto groaned and used his sword to support himself, he looked at the retreating figure walking away. All the while, he thoughts were running miles per second, looking for a way to get out of this situation.
Naruto's arms buckled and let go of his sword, causing Naruto's body to crash to the ground. He groaned as his vision faded into black, hearing nothing but a dripping sound.
X-X
So...hi!
I actually wanted this chapter to go live about a month back, but several unfortunate events happened in chain. I won't say what these events were, but they delayed this chapter so much that it started to affect my schoolwork.
On the upside, with this release, such events have been resolved in my favor and I'm ready to start on the next set of chapters.
Now, on to the chapter:
Its going to be a bit complicated from here, as two different people are doing their part to solve this crisis. As you can see, it got...escalated. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it really helped me get over my trials thus far.
Thy Mini Rant:
Have you ever felt that the fanfic world just stood still? Not in the whole, life altering way, that is. I meant how less and less frequent your favorite fics, or your favorite community are updating. I know how disappointed I am when my favorite communities don't have anything new, even a week after you checked last.
So are you disappointed that no fics are updating as fast as usual? Or are you still waiting patiently for the next update? Let me know.
Yours truly,
Terra Ace
PS: Does anyone really use the spellcheck the site offers? I use it from time to time, but some of the suggestions really drop quality sometimes...
Words without the bold at the bottom: 8250