Chapter 53

Temple of Spiders

Shino had always thought that waking up to Akamaru's cold little nose was the worst kind of wake up call. Now, as he drifted back into the world of the conscious, he found a different kind of nose sniffing round his ear, a nose that was even less welcome then a dog's. As he opened his eyes and turned his head he stared into the beady little gaze of a bat, a familiar bat.

"Lucky." He grumbled. The little bat squeaked and sniffed with his leaf shaped nose. Shino could feel his bugs burrowed deep inside his body in an effort to stay away from the winged pest. In fact, unless Shino was mistaken, a few of the bugs might have even been tickling his innards. Shino hadn't had the best night last night. In fact, he doubted any of the ninja had. The Iifernati had a tendency to be loud late at night. They seemed to be throwing an impromptu party, judging from the joyful shouting and singing that had gone on until midnight last night. To ninja, used to the sounds of silence in the forest, especially on a mission, it was irksome. None one had known what, if anything, the Iifernati had been celebrating, but it was irritating to listen to them. However, now there were more pressing issues on Shino's mind, like that bat.

Swiftly Shino snagged the bat and pinned its wings to its side. The bat squeaked out a protest, but Shino ignored it. Irritated and grouchy, Shino clambered his way out of his sleeping bag and wiggled out of the tent, careful not to squash the pest. He didn't like bats, but he knew that to injure the thing might annoy its master, and while Shino found his bats distasteful, Shino had no real issue with Zirru, other than the bat thing.

Bat in hand, Shino set off to find the bat user and give him his little friend back. After a while he managed to convince his bugs to come out and search out Gaara. Gaara was more familiar to him then Zirru, and his bugs would find them faster. As one of his insets cautiously poked their antenna out of his sleeve, Lucky squeaked in delight and tried to snap at Shino's friends, but Shino had a tight grip on the thing. The bug in question cringed, but did as it was told.

A few minutes later the bug was back, followed by Gaara himself.

"How did you know?" Shino asked.

"Most bugs don't dive bomb my face." Gaara said mildly "And there are no other ninja I know with us that use kikai insects." Gaara stared at the bat held in Shino's hand "Why are you squeezing Lucky?"

The insect flitted over to Shino and crawled into the sleeve that did not have a bat near it. Shino helpfully held out his arm to ensure that the bug was as far away from the bat as was possible. The little bat's ears drooped a little as the meal left.

"It was in my tent this morning, trying to get to my bugs." Shino said.

"I see."

"I need to find its owner."

"No need, I can take Lucky. He knows me." Gaara walked over and took the bat from Shino's grip. The bat chirped happily as soon as Gaara touched it and crawled along Gaara's arm to arrive on his head. Shino found the thing's way of locomotion, using its odd little thumbe to crawl up Gaara's sleeve, extremely goofy. The sight of Gaara essentially wearing a bat for a hat was rather amusing, but only the upraised eyebrow and slight smirk was any evidence to Shino's amusement. It was rather comical to see a little hairy ball stretched out on the head of the Kazekage.

"Its presence doesn't bother you?" Shino asked. Gaara had never seemed like the kind of person to accept touching from others, even small mammals.

"No. I've run missions with Zirru and Apototius before, I've gotten used to Lucky. He likes to perch on people's heads."

Actually, that was not all of it. Aside from his family and Naruto, the bat was the first living thing to accept Gaara as he was. Kankuro had been responsible for it, in part. Once Gaara had told his brother of his new dream Kankuro had been silent for a few days. Then, he and Baki had arranged for Gaara to run a few missions with Zirru and Apototius, who had been working as a two man squad since Maira had been injured. Back then the majority of the Sand ninja still avoided Gaara out of fear, but the three of them had been stuck with each other for about two weeks. Apototius had been confrontational and aggressive, much like Kankuro had been towards Gaara when they were younger, and Zirru had been afraid to even look at Gaara. However, on the third night Lucky had decided to crawl up to Gaara. Gaara, with great effort, had managed to keep his sand from crushing the poor thing. Zirru had been visibly frantic, afraid for his little friend, but Gaara had made sure it was safe. By the end of the night Lucky had ended up on Gaara's head, perched like a little hat, and Gaara had successfully reined in his sand. After the mission was over Zirru and Apototius trusted Gaara, and Gaara now knew that he could have friends, like Naruto. Whenever he was with Zirru and Apototius as a team Lucky would end up on his head. At first it was practice to Gaara, but now it was merely habit.

"It is not like you have never seen something like this. Kiba kept Akamaru on his head."

Shino nodded "Akamaru is Kiba's though. I have never had the dog on my head."

Gaara shrugged. "I should go. We will be moving soon or at least my team will. I will see you and the others at the next rendezvous point."

Shino nodded politely as Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand, bat and all.

Was it just him, or did Gaara seem a bit off during that discussion? There was something odd in the man's gaze, as if he was trying to size Shino up. That was odd. As far as Shino was concerned he had no grudge against the Kazekage. The only possible bone of contention with them would have been Kankuro's disrespect of Shino back at the exams, and Shino had long ago decided to forgive the Sand nin his disrespect. The man had saved Kiba's life, and that made up for the insult. But now, if Shino was reading Gaara right (and Gaara was hard enough to read) then Gaara was not acting normally.

Perhaps Naruto would know? Naruto, as a fellow jinchuriki, (actually in Gaara's case it would be former jinchuriki, but to Shino it still counted) then Naruto might know what went on in Gaara's head. Shino, though a firm believer in personal privacy, couldn't help but feel unsettled but this and he wanted to know more. There was something wrong here, he could smell it.

But now was not the time for this. Soon the others would be awake; in fact he could sense them stirring right now. There would be enough time for a quick breakfast, and then they would on their way. And soon enough there would be a battle. Shino could feel it.


The next passed like the first. The two armies moved in almost the exact same way, until they finally hit the border and entered the desert proper. Now the movement of the army changed a bit. The Iifernati and the Sand ninja moved more swiftly in the open desert, while the Leaf ninja found themselves almost struggling. Their normal method of travel, jumping from tree to tree, didn't work as well. Also, much to the Leaf nins irritation, the Iifernati didn't seem to be tired, despite the amount of noise last night.

Regardless they once again arrived at their destination. Most of the Leaf ninja had only ever gone to the Sand village and back. In fact it had been one of the few places that foreign ninja could go, but now that the village had been taken over, and they couldn't go there.

From the border they had gone directly south, instead of southwest to the Sand village. The southern portion of Suna was different then the more familiar northern part. Soon the sandy dunes began to flatten, and instead the Leaf ninja found themselves in a different kind of desert. There was no more sand, or at least not as much sand. The place instead had high mesas and deep canyons.

"Umm, is this the place?" Naruto peered into the small hole at the base of one of the mesas. They had been given the instructions to meet here from Gaara himself.

"Seems so." Sai said as he studied the entrance. "It looks man made."

Naruto nodded in agreement. Even though he was no longer sure of Sai's loyalties, he was determined to do as Gaara had suggested and wait and see what would happen. Naruto kind of wished Kakashi was here, but their jonin leader had gone to "scout". More than likely Kakashi had only wanted to delay his arrival at the rendezvous point. He had to keep his record of lateness, right?

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Naruto grinned and leaped into the entrance, followed by a deeply sighing Sakura and Sai.

As they entered they found a long spiraling stairway literally carved into the interior of the mesa leading upwards to the top. There were small, almost minuscule holes in the rock wall, letting in enough light to the see the stairwell. Along the sides of the man made tunnel were several carved murals, which Naruto happily ignored.

"Look, this is odd." Sai said, with only a mild indication of interest in his tone. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

"Eh, what?" Naruto, who had gone on ahead, turned around to look at what Sai was studying. "Aw, it's just a carving in the rock!"

"Look at it." Even Naruto could detect the smile edge of excitement in their teammate's voice. "This vehicle looks like a cart, but it's shaped oddly, for one person. These are Iifernati horses pulling it, but they these odd feathers on their heads. And look at the lion they are charging at, it looks different then any other drawn or carved lion I have seen. It's too blocky."

"Huh," Naruto squinted at the offending lion "It looks more like a lion then yours do."

"That is because my style is traditional. This, this is different."

Naruto studied the scene again, it depicted a man in a strange one person cart, pulled by an Iifernati horse with odd plumage on its head, charging with an upraised spear at a rearing lion, a lion that did indeed look different then Sai's drawings. In fact, all the art on the walls looked off, like they were from a different time and place.

"It's odd, it's not from any Shinobi nation." Sai said.

"Yeah, it is kind of weird." Sakura agreed.

"Hmmp." Naruto grumped. "Well, if you guys want to look at the walls all day, that's fine, I'm going up." Naruto turned and started back up the stairs. After a few moments his teammates followed him.

I'll have to come back here later, make a few sketches of these. Sai thought, still glancing at the odd artwork. They look very old.

Team Seven reached the top, to be greeted by on odd sight. The place was dominated by the ruins of some old building, a building made of the same reddish tan rocks that surrounded them. Most of the building's former walls were knocked down, and stones lay scattered across the ground. Two odd statues, one with no head and the other with only the feet left, flanked a hole that might have once been an entrance. Sitting around the temple were the rest other ninja army, the Iifernati were nowhere in sight.

"Hey, what is this place?" Naruto bellowed.

"It's an temple, or it was." Gaara said as he approached them.

"Huh, for the Sand?" Naruto asked.

"No." Gaara shook his head. "You might call it Iifernati, but that's not accurate either."

"Are the Iifernati in there, then?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, and they have been for several hours." Gaara shrugged. "They are doing, something."

Naruto grinned. He knew, could tell, that Gaara was uncomfortable with his new family. To Naruto, however, family was a sacred, precious thing. He had never experienced blood relations with anyone before, but he felt it must be vital. After all, that is what drove Sasuke away in the first place. Gaara, unlike Naruto, had family, and to Naruto the distance between Gaara and his family was unacceptable, but the miles they were from Temari and Kankuro and the emotional whatever-it-was between Gaara and the tribe. So, Naruto did the most natural thing in the world to him; he butted in.

"Let's go take a look!" Before Sakura could hit him or something, Naruto grabbed Gaara by the arm and dragged him to the entrance of the collapsed temple. He also ignored Gaara's muttered grunt of protest and Sakura's equally protesting, but much higher pitched, shriek.

Naruto leaped into the temple, dragging Gaara with him. As his feet landed he looked up, and almost choked on a gasp of horror.

He almost didn't see the crowded Iifernati bowing and chanting and apparently burning grains and fish and corn on a small altar in the very front of the room. He ignored the mess of the place, the ancient dust, the fallen and broken stones, and the half destroyed statues. He was totally focused on the one statue that was not broken, the one standing object in the place. It was the statue of woman, that was pretty clear from the get go, at least from the shoulders down it was a woman. What caught your eye, was that from the shoulders up, instead of head, was a huge spider. Eight stones replaced the thing's eyes, a ruby, a sapphire, an emerald, a diamond, and four normal rocks, each painted a corresponding color to each precious stone. Together they formed a circle, with the gems on the top and the normal rocks at the bottom. Each of the spider's legs had a human hand at the end, the front two held in front, as if warning the people around it to stop. The rest pointed in various directions of the compass. Held in the things open, tooth filled maw was the small figure of human screaming in pain.

"Gaara," a soft voice called to them, and Baki split from his fellow Swooping Eagles and walked over to them. He came and stood by the gapping Naruto and the equally incredulous Gaara. "This really is not the way I wanted you to meet Arrackno-taa."

"What is that?" Naruto said, perhaps a bit to loudly.

Baki's eyes narrowed "Shut up, fool, and listen. You will learn much better if you shut it."

Gaara's eyes narrowed and he folded his arms over his chest. "Baki, answer the question."

Baki shook his head. "Do you remember what this means?" Baki backed p a few steps, then he started to step forward to too heel, almost as if he was going to tiptoe towards them, but his foot stopped inches from hitting the ground. Then Baki raised his left hand, as if telling them to halt, and then he pointed his right hand to the ground.

Naruto was about to bellow again, but Gaara placed a hand on the Leaf ninja's shoulder. Gaara closed his eyes "Temari said it means 'Look down, Idiot'. I think she was being sarcastic. Kankuro said something else, something to the effect of 'Look to the earth for, for something."

Baki nodded "You are close enough." Naruto didn't notice that the Sand jonin's eyes darted to him. "And this?" Baki seemed to almost switch positions. Instead of his right foot now his left foot hovered above the air, his right hand was raised. But, instead of pointed to the ground again, this time his left hand was pointed to the sky.

Naruto guessed "Doesn't mean, 'Look up, idiot', does it?"

Baki shrugged, and then stood normally "close enough. Now, look at the statue, what do you see?"

"Big freaky spider head." Naruto said.

Baki sighed "How does Kakashi put up with you, again? Gaara?"

Gaara glared at the statue, as if forcing it to give up its terrible secretes. Then, he grunted "It has our symbol on its stomach."

Naruto looked, and sure enough the hourglass symbol of the sand was etched on the statue's stomach.

Naruto looked closer, and he actually managed to spot something as well "Hey, it's holding its hands like you were, only doing both at the same time, kinda."

Gaara noticed it as well, just as the two foremost spider legs was held in front, as if to ward someone off, the normal human hands of the human body were pointed up and down, performing both at the same time.

"What do you deduce, Gaara?" Baki asked.

Gaara thought while Naruto fidgeted. "That thing has our symbol, so it must have something to do with us, but I have never heard of anything like this."

Baki sighed, he had hoped that Gaara would figure it out, but then Gaara never had much interest in their history. When he was little he had been mostly unteachable, and later he had never paid that much attention to history after he had calmed down. He had been too busy trying to make himself more human to pay that much attention to the past. Now, however, Baki had a problem. How to tell Gaara about this, without telling to much to Naruto? On the other hand, Naruto was an idiot…

"Gaara, before the sand was the Sand, before the Shinobi were Shinobi, there was an Empire in Suna, not the Smoke's, but our Empire, the Empire of our forefathers. This Empire spanned this region from the ocean to the mountains, extending almost as far as the Land of Lightning. This empire had many gods, and this is Arrackno-taa, one of them. Once, long ago, she was the god of pestilence, plague, death and misfortune. Yet, she was worshiped, and those who worshiped her were shunned. Yet, they believed that she must be worshiped, because pain is a part of life, and to ignore it was to ignore a valuable part of life. But," this part was going to be difficult. "Something, something bad, whipped out the empire and most of our forefathers with it. This thing was eventually stopped by the worshipers of Arrackno-taa, but at the cost of literally all of her disciples. Our people survived, but the empire was dead, and its people could no longer live as they had. They divided into trips, the tribes you see now. Yet, they never forgot the sacrifice of the disciples of the spider, and when the time came for the shinobi to rise, they picked her symbol as their own, in honor of her."

"That's where those carvings in the outside stair are from," Gaara said "From that old Empire, right?"

Baki nodded "This correct."

"Hey, what's he doing here? He can't be here!"

Baki turned and sighed gently. Out of the all the things to do, this was the dumbest thing that Reem could do and say!

"Reem, leave it." Baki ordered.

Reem looked at Naruto then glared at Baki "He's a demon vessel; he doesn't belong in a sacred place like this!"

Naruto and Gaara instinctively tensed. "You can't talk to him like that." Gaara growled "He's my friend, and you aren't going to insult my friends like this. We've both had enough of such talk."

Reem looked a little surprised "It's nothing against him personally; he just can't in a place like this. He has the spider goddess's ancient foe inside of him, and she might be angry."

Gaara glared at Reem. "It seems that I was wrong. I thought that perhaps I might indeed find family amongst you, but if you cannot accept Naruto then you can't accept me either."

"Reem, what is going on?" Jhimey walked up.

"Your tribesman has made it clear enough, uncle." Gaara glowered at Jhimey "It seems that your tribe can't tolerate the presence of one of my kind." With that Gaara turned and strode off, with Naruto right beside him.

Jhimey stared at where Gaara had been, and then rounded on Reem "What the hell did you say to him?"

"Huur, that boy is a demon. He might have angered the goddess! How do you think the war will go if the goddess of misfortune is angered?"

"It is far to late for that, Reem." Nori came up to the group, shaking his head in displeasure "The goddess is already angry at us."