answers to reviewers questions and statements:
PrudishSet: Yes he has a spider sense, it's a rather advance form of sensory that'll be on par with Naruto's own, though instead of sensing emotions, it'll alert him to various forms of danger to himself, which is arguably more important since he'd be able to sense traps unlike Naruto.
Kai: We'll find out what led to his banishment later on. It's a bit of a sordid tale sadly.
CRUDEN: We shall.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel, DC or Naruto characters seen, mentioned or used.
Yuki no Kuni's 'Sora no Tsundra' really lived up to it's name in Pītā's opinion.
For miles and miles around all Pītā saw was low rolling hills, half of which already had snow gathering on their small summits while the numerous rivers and streams that he's passed were already starting to clog up with ice from the mountains a few dozen or so miles away. No animals were seen or even showed signs of ever living in the barren land for years and the only notable plant life was a few scattered bushes here and there, hence the name 'Sora no Tsundra'. The sky was almost always filled with clouds that gave the landscape a depressing grey color that was only amplified by the equally slow falling snow flurries. And thanks to the lack of elevation or any substantial structures, be they natural or artificial, the wind gusts in Sora no Tsundra were particularly chilling and powerful, enough to be mistaken for gale force winds even.
Such as the gust that was currently harassing Pītā for the past half hour.
"Ugh, why the hell is it so windy out here!?" Pītā yelled to no one and himself as he struggled to keep upright as he wandered through the bone chilling wind, his body wrapped in his jacket and hands firmly planted in it's pockets while a black scarf was wrapped around the portion of his head not covered by his mask or hood "What is this, Kaze no Kuni's chilly little brother?"
Thankfully he was nearing the location of Orochimaru's base and thus would be able to get out of the biting cold soon. Though if the base was compromised by the outside's elements he supposed at the very least he'll be getting out of the wind. Still cold air was much more preferable to windy cold air in his opinion. A mile ahead was a series of slightly taller than average hills, at least compared to the many other hills that Pītā has passed since arriving in the barren tundra, and it looked like the hills all had long eroded stone columns on their summits. Pausing for a moment to remove a small map from one of his coat's inner pockets, he opened it to see if the landmark was the one he was looking for.
"Let's see... walk west by northwest for about a hundred kilometers... pass four streams and a half frozen river... no wait, I had to double back there... yep, looks like that's the place!" Pītā beamed as he stashed the map back into his jacket and quickly rushed towards the hills, eager to finally get out of the open and into somewhere, hopefully, more accommodating to his fragile self.
From what Pītā knew of the base, outside of the fact it housed Orochimaru's most horrid and dangerous experiments, it was built within the remains of some old stronghold. Though if what the shop keep back at the port said was true, it was likely the prison he mentioned, which in a sense made sense to Pītā. Why build a wholly new place when an old abandoned prison was sitting right there to be used, with a bit of refurbishing here and there.
'Gotta love Orochimaru-sama's cheapness' Pītā thought with a snicker as he made it to the base of the hills that once housed Yuki's infamous prison before it's abandonment.
Most of the hillside was barren and not that Pītā was closer he could see traces of what were once walls of both the prison's main fortification and that of a few of the towers and buildings that likely acted as either armories, barracks and storehouses. He didn't see any signs of an entrance into the hill itself where the main compound was likely located, forcing him to begin scouring the areas beyond the foundations of the outer wall for any possible way into the hills.
'Not gonna find much evidence of foot traffic here, the ground was likely buried under a few feet of snow and prevented any impressions or marls from making it to the ground itself' Pītā thought as he crouched on the side of a slight incline up the southern most hillside and scanned the higher elevated ground with narrowed eyes 'And even if it somehow did, the constant wind erosion, the melting of the snow when the country had it's first spring and just general lack of frequent activity would've ended up wearing away after a while'
And if that was somehow not the case, the steady fall of snow, which was sticking to the ground now, would cover up any clues as to where the entrance might be.
"What I'd give to have the Byakugan right about now" Pītā sighed in frustration as he stood up and began to make his way higher up the hill to look down from when he suddenly hit something wooden.
Pītā stopped and looked down to see his foot had kicked a small rectangle of wood... that was surprisingly well preserved and showed little evidence of decay. Cautious but hopeful, Pītā kneeled down and began to pull at the dried grass for a better look at what was underneath, only to find that the 'ground' he was on was actually just a simple cover with grass over it.
"Huh... I was expecting something more elaborate" Pītā said as he tore the cover off to reveal a large wooden door, though with no visible signs of a way to open it.
With a frown, Pītā looked back at the rectangle he first kicked with his foot and gave it another kick, only for it to turn slightly to the side when his foot struck the other. With a hum, Pītā reached down and grabbed the rectangle and fully turned it, causing a series of locks to echo around the wood door before a seam appeared in the center. Using his body natural adhesiveness, Pītā placed a hand on one of the 'doors' and with his strength, pulled up and let gravity push the door down towards the hillside.
"Open says me" Pītā joked as he found himself staring into a tunnel that ran at a angle into the hills, and the base's main substructure beneath.
Pītā's mind raced through various outcomes of what will transpire should he enter the base. The most common one was that he'll end up dead or wishing he was dead. The next more common scenario was that he stumbles into some sort of trap and ends up wounded which in turn lead to his freezing to death all the way out here. The final and least likely outcome is that he goes in there, looks around, finds nothing, and leaves without a single bit of trouble.
'No trouble... yeah, when pigs fly' Pītā thought with an eye roll before a sudden gust of cool air caused him to shiver and pull his jacket closer to his frame 'Gotta get this over with and get out of here before a blizzard gets here'
Pītā had no idea of the dark mass of storm clouds slowly trickling in from the west was a blizzard, but he'd rather not take his chances. Besides, even if it wasn't, with how cold the air was, the rain might end up turning to hail and he'd rather not get hit by marble sized ice balls being flung around by hundred per mile hour winds.
"Why oh why couldn't someone else do this?" Pītā said quietly as he reached out with his senses to see if he could perhaps detect anyone's chakra within.
While Orochimaru regularly employed seals to keep his bases hidden, and by proxy the ones within, hidden from most forms of detection, Pītā hoped that this facility's remoteness and the reputation of the land itself convinced the Sannin that such measures would be unneeded aside from simply keeping the place hard to find on it's own.
'Hmm, I don't sense anyone nearby... doesn't mean that there isn't someone down there though' Pītā thought to himself before he pulled out two scrolls and placed them on the ground before him 'Let's see if this will yield any worthwhile results'
The scrolls unrolled to reveal a series of complex storage seals covering almost every square inch of the scroll's parchment. Placing a hand on each scroll, Pītā began to channel his chakra into the various seals until they began to glow faint blue and the calligraphy began to seemingly pulse before several clouds of white smoke began to pop up in front of the Oto nin. The wind quickly blew the smoke away to reveal several torso sized spider puppets, each made from specialized wood most modern day shinobi puppets originated from and fitted with thin metal armor along the legs and abdomen for additional shielding.
With the puppets summoned, Pītā sped through several hand signs before his hands settled on clasping together as if he were about to pray. A large intricate seal that seemed to be made in the fashion of a spider web suddenly began to glow on the spider's armored abdomens before the puppet's 'eyes' started to glow a faint white color and their limbs began to shake, stretch and move. Once Pītā had tested the spider puppets range of mobility, he took a deep breath, steadied his mind and raised both hands before he began to do something that very few Shinobi were capable... he begun to race through two separate sets of hand seals with each hand. One handed seals were difficult enough as it was for even the most elite and skilled Jōnin level shinobi, but performing single handed seals with each hand, for differing jutsus was something even the most skilled of Kage struggled with!
'Huh, this seems a little harder than I remember' Pītā thought as he finished with his hand signs and watched as The puppets mouths opened and glowed with chakra building on the inside as the various storage seals inside activated and began to release their contents, causing the spider constructs to begin to 'vomit' dozens of coin sized spider puppets that began to move across the ground like a living carpet.
'Tayuya always hated this technique, said it creeped her the fuck out' Pītā thought with a faint grin on his face as he watched the smaller spider swarm race ahead of their larger brethren and into the tunnel.
Pītā waited a good several minutes for the smaller spiders to get ahead before he approached each puppet and transferred a moderate portion of chakra to each along with a series of mental instructions for them to follow.
The drawbacks to automated puppets while few were significant which in turn made them less than ideal for direct combat like your typical puppet. The most glaringly obvious downside to their use was that since they weren't manipulated by chakra strings and thus disconnected from a readily available source of chakra, the puppets tended to use up what was stored in the various seals on their bodies rather quickly and cease operating until more chakra could be transferred into their storage seals. Pītā's considered installing a transmitting seal that would connect with one on his own body to draw chakra from to operate and increase it's operational runtime but than he'd be faced with the issue of a steady drainage of his chakra, something that could prove fatal in a battle or should he either forget to or be unable to 'turn it off'.
'Hmm, maybe I should start looking into seals that draw upon natural energy like sages do for their senjutsu' Pītā thought with a furrowed brow as he watched his automated puppets follow after their smaller counterparts and vanish into the dark tunnel 'Though I'll need to find a way to ensure that they don't draw too much and risk turning them into stones'
A problem for another day, he decided.
"Whelp, might as well get comfortable" Pītā sighed as he climbed down into the dark tunnel and found a relatively dry, unobscured spot to sit down a few meters from the entrance and waited for his automated puppets to return with any details on what to expect inside.
He hoped it won't be too long of a wait, it was getting dark outside and the temperature was dropping rapidly.
"Ugh, why couldn't Orochimaru-sama lose contact with the base he has down in Tsuki no Kuni?" Pītā groaned as he rested his face on his knuckles and stared at the other side of the tunnel's wall with a look of annoyance "Oh no, it had to be the one in a land of sub-zero temperatures, nights that last for months on end, and freakin ice everywhere-"
"HEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEE!"
Pītā froze mid-rant and stared at the dark tunnel with wide eyes under his mask before he yelped and rushed back out into the slowly icing over tundra outside as another scream pierced the cold air-
"HEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Uh, how about noooo?" Pītā replied as he glanced back inside the tunnel for signs of whoever screamed.
Well at least he now knows if someone's still alive in there... now he just needed to muster up the courage to go in there and confirm it.
"UGH, why me?!" Pītā groaned as he fell back on to the ground and stared up at the darkening sky with a annoyed frown.
It was times like this that Pītā really, really, really wished he and Tayuya were left to die all those years ago.
...
After spending the better part of an hour hyping himself up, Pītā finally entered the Oto base proper to find what he could that was worth salvaging and eliminate the waste.
He would've preferred to let his puppets do that but since none of them ever came back, Pītā realized he'd have to do things himself. Though after passing room after room after room filled with corpses' in various states of mutilation, decay and modification, he was beginning got second guess his decision.
The halls were somewhat better than the various rooms connected to it, even if it was covered in body parts, mainly arms with a hand in various states of wholeness attached. The walls were lined with numerous deep tears, as if something sharp had carved through them like they were made of butter while the ceiling was littered with similar, though less dramatic carvings. In all honesty, it looked to Pītā as if a literal whirlwind of blades had blasted through the place and shredded anyone or thing in it's path.
'If it's a jutsu, it's a powerful one given that these walls are layered with seals to prevent alterations by most forms of destructive jutsu' Pītā thought as he ran his fingers across one of the tears in the wall, observing just how cleanly cut the stone was.
It could've been a wind style jutsu, though whether it was used in conjunction with some sort of blade was a mystery for another time.
"Best to avoid whatever caused this, regardless" Pītā decided with a nod before he heard what sounded like something being scrapped across the floor up ahead, in what appeared to be some sort of large room.
Slowly, Pītā approached the entryway into the larger space with several halls branching off from it to other parts of the compound, and at the center of it was-
"HEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEE!"
"What in the living actual fuck of all life itself?" Pītā whispered in horror as he stared at the... thing, that's been calling for help.
It was human, or at least it used to be before extensive body modifications were made to it. It's skin was largely intact though there was a number of tears along some of the former human's over developed muscles, exposing the soft tissue below, though it didn't seem to be bleeding, so some sort of thin see through membrane was keeping it protected and inside. The arms and legs had been extended, though Pītā had no idea if that was the result of some sort of jutsu, and there was a number of new joints visible, allowing the limbs to bend in various ways, same as the fingers and toes, both of which made Pītā shiver at the thought of being touched by either.
But it's head was what really disgusted Pītā, it was enlarged, at least the skull was, causing the skin to tear and peel in some areas, allowing some sort of fluid to leak from it and keep the head in a state of perpetual dampness. The skin around and on the face however was completely gone, leaving facial muscles exposed along with wide blood shot eyes. It's mouth had also been extended far past it's natural state, hanging open and allowing a tongue, lined with finger sized molars on it's edges, the latter which made Pītā want to gag in disgust, he swore he could smell the thing's breath even from across the room and two masks covering his face.
"HEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEE!" the thing moaned, causing a shiver of dread to enter Pītā as he realized that the moaned scream for help was coming from a very large mouth on the creature's back, in fact the mouth took up almost the entire back.
"I don't even wanna know what the fuck you were made for" Pītā groaned as he held his head in his hands and tried to banish the roots of nightmares this thing was going to grow in his subconscious "Except to be a huge old dose of complete fuck off nope fuel-"
"NOM NOM!" a deep voice shouted, causing Pītā to look up with a dumbfounded expression.
"Huh?"
Suddenly a large figure emerged... actually emerge was too polite a word more of it tumbled into the room from a darkened hall and was making a straight beeline for the human monstrosity. They were vaguely human in that they walked upright, had two arms with hands with a webbed few fingers and a thumb at the end and two legs with webbed feet, but that's where the comparisons ended. They had a grey-ish hue with a white underside, like a shark, a fin emerging from their large broad back like a shark and had a head that looked like a shark with a set of gills on the neck.
In short, a shark person... thingy... wearing some stretched out pants that looked like they've seen better days... a decade ago.
"NOM NOM!" the shark person yelled as they pounced on the moaning human with a roar and began to literally bite and tear chunks of it off before devouring it only to repeat the process a split second later.
Within seconds the moaning human thing had been killed and mostly torn to shreds and eaten by the shark person thing, leaving Pītā standing there with a gob smacked expression on his hidden face. There were no words to describe what he was looking at, and this was coming from a guy that could usually find something smart and funny to say for any situation. It was than that the shark person noticed Pītā while he was trying to stuff the human thing's half eaten tongue into his jaws. The shark person quirked his head in confusion at Pītā before he pointed to him and spoke with a flesh filled mouth.
"Nmm Nmm?" he sounded, though Pītā was sure it was supposed to be 'Nom Nom'.
"Uhhh, nooooo" Pītā slowly shook his head with a nervous laugh as he felt his sixth sense tingle "No nom nom here"
"No... nom nom?" the shark person said with a saddened expression on his face.
"Yes exactly!" Pītā nodded as he tried to think of what to say "I'm... I'm a friend!"
Which wasn't technically a lie... hopefully.
"Friend?" the shark person said, causing bits of half eaten tongue and teeth to fall from his mouth and on to the floor.
"Yeppers" Pītā said with a look of relief on his face as the tingling in his head subsided only for him to yelp in surprise as he was suddenly begging brought into a bine crushing hug by the shark man.
"NEW DUMB FRIEND!"
"Y-Yeah... p-p-please let g-go" Pītā groaned as he felt like the life was being crushed from him, which it probably was.
Almost immediately Pītā was released and would've fallen flat on his rear if wasn't for his years of training as a shinobi. And now that he was closer to the shark person, he could smell him and found himself gagging at the strong aroma of fish, human entrails and Kami knows what else. He also noticed that the shark man's body was covered in cuts, and a few odd knives were sticking out of parts of him, mainly the back, though the wounds looked like they've more or less healed to the point that they were beginning to somewhat encompass the blades themselves.
'That's gonna hurt when torn out' Pītā thought with a wince.
"M-Me... Nanaue!" the shark man pointed to himself before he laughed "You friend!"
"Yes Nanaue... I'm your friend" Pītā said dryly before he looked around "So uh, you mind telling me what's happened here?"
"Hmm?" Nanaue blinked at this and quirked his head to the side, like a child almost.
"Focus big guy, what happened here?" Pītā gestured around them and spoke in a slow, but loud voice "How. Did. Place. End. Up. Like. This?"
"Uhhhh..." Nanaue looked around with a look of confusion before he returned his gaze back to the young Oto nin before him "Eye man"
"Eye man?" Pītā repeated with some confusion as he tried to figure out what the heck that was supposed to mean.
It could be someone with a Dōjutsu though the damage around them didn't exactly help narrow it down, assuming the damage that Pītā's been seeing was even caused by this 'eye man'.
"Eye man, eye man, eye man!" Nanaue repeated as he began to look around with worry in his eyes.
"Alright calm down, calm down..." Pītā said in attempt to keep the near seven foot tall shark man calm and relaxed, he'd rather not find out what a fight with the thing would be like.
Nanaue quieted down to a worried whimper before he suddenly roared and stumbled forward, causing Pītā to leap back and stick to the wall as the large shark man fell to his hands and knees. The blades that were in his back were shaking, as if trying to free themselves before they suddenly tore free of Nanaue's back, taking a bit of flesh with them, and flew back into the darkness.
"Ouch..." Pītā winced as Nanaue fell face first into the ground with a pained groan.
The sudden sound of footsteps ahead drew Pītā's attention away from the shark man to a hall across the room to a hall that was directly across from the one that Pītā entered from. He could only hear a single pair of feet approaching and he could faintly detect a chakra signature, though it was odd... muddied, for the lack of a better term.
'Another one of Orochimaru's experiments I guess... or someone else entirely' Pītā thought with a frown as he discreetly pulled a small spider puppet from is coat's pocket and dropped it to the floor before he gently kicked it behind Nanaue's arm, obscuring it from the view of whoever was about to emerge.
He didn't have to wait long before the figure emerged, and even the massive shark man lying at Pītā's feet seemed normal in compariosn.
They weren't much older than Pītā from the looks of it, at best a few years, though it was hard to tell exactly given their skin was as pale as snow in a sickly way, bald, and had three eyes on their head while their right eye, which was bloodshot and had a darker than average sclera, was held open by eight stitches. It was clear to the chūnin that this was the 'Eye man' that Nanaue was talking about, it seemed he was being quite literal in his description of the man. And now that the 'eye man was closer, Pītā noticed that he were a few inches taller than him too, he barely reached his chin. He was also covered in a long white robe with spots of blood all up and down it's front while the left arm sleeve was torn off to reveal a pale arm with two more eyes implanted on the shoulder and the tricep.
"Man, I bet it sucks when you get some soap stuck in one of those other eyes when your taking a shower, doesn't it?" Pītā said as he watched the teen slowly come to a stop only a few meters away "By the way, do you only have extra eyes on your head and arms or do you have them EVERYWHERE? Also does that really screw up your depth perception? Well at least you can say that your bound to see someone coming for you no matter the angle and while we're on that note, do you have like a monocle for each eye? Or when their close enough together you use a regular pair of glasses?"
Pītā's questions were met with silence from the other teen, their eyes stared at the Oto nin with a deadened look before they all began to slowly morph into a all too familiar three tomoe Dōjutsu.
"Now where did you get those, I wonder?" the Oto chūnin asked with a frown, Sharingan weren't exactly common anymore in the world thanks to one Itachi Uchiha taking a family spat to a whole new level.
'Leave it to the Uchiha to make it even more dramatic than it probably had to be' Pītā thought with a unseen eye roll.
"My name is Shin... Shin Uchiha" the teen, boy, said as a grin began to slowly grow on his face that looked a bit... crazed.
He was also missing a few teeth, and his gums looked a bit swollen and inflamed, much to Pītā's disgust. It was like the man has never heard of a toothbrush or floss.
"Uchiha huh... great..." Pītā sighed as he reached up to rub the back of his neck "Just when I thought I'd be getting a break with all of you Uchiha I meet the inbred of the family. Usually your supposed to be cycloptic, not... one, two, three... a septoplic!"
Shin chuckled before he raised the arm that was concealed by his long sleeve to reveal it wasn't even made of flesh at all, but rather knives!
"If you wish for a break from the Uchiha, allow me to cut our time short" Shin laughed as his Sharingan began to glow before it suddenly changed from the standard three tomoe to what appeared to be a large circle around the pupil with three points along it's edges.
"Well at least your witty. A vast improvement over than the last one I've met at least, though not as pretty" Pītā snickered before he witnessed the blades that made up the elder teen's arm began to shiver and slowly detach themselves from the arm and float in the air.
Pītā's eyes narrowed before the blade suddenly shot out and began to slice through the various lightbulbs in the hall, cloaking it in darkness. As the lights were taken out one by one, a grin began to slowly form under Pītā's mask as he had one hand begin to slowly reach for one of the scrolls that housed his more advance fighting puppets.
It's been a while since he's had to fight without his sight...
...
And done.
Next chapter, Fighting in the dark... and nom nom time.