Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way and make no claim on its copyright or any characters from the series. Original characters are my own property.
Author's Notes: There's some small amount of technical jargon here, but fear not, for it is tame and fully comprehensible. Suzumebachi's day goes on…
Comments are welcomed as always!
Other Gifts Continues
The Hidden Village of Stone lay high in the mountains, deep in ranges treacherous and cruel. In a hidden plateau high among the cold peaks of this northern realm the village had been located, a place remote and all but inaccessible save by a few secret routes. Isolation and terrain were its first barriers, and powerful they were indeed, no invader had ever forced their way even so far as to see the distant gates of Hidden Stone when attacking the country from without.
Harsh and windswept was the land under the homes of the stone ninja, homes sheltered in and among rock so they might not be buried under avalanches of snow crashing down from the never melting glaciers on the three mighty peaks enclosing the village's border. It was a vista of forbidding beauty, icy unapproachable magnificence. Yet not all beneath the ice was gray and cold.
Vibrant colors coated the slopes on the steep climb to the glaciers, green and blue and more, splashes of red, yellow, orange, purple, brightness of a thousand shades hung upon the mountain side when the warm of spring peeled back the layer of snow embracing the land. Alpine meadows sprouted into shows of brilliant extravagance, celebrating their short lives while the staid deep green groves of spruce and fir looked on from below. It was a sight few not native to the sheltered village had ever experienced.
Most of the meadows lay distant from the village, far up brutal slopes even a ninja could not carelessly ascend, but a quirk of the geology had left one small meadow in a saddle not more than a few minutes walk from the village proper. It was here that the Tsuchikage had brought Suzumebachi.
Surrounded by the bright colors and strong, lively scents of these desperately enthusiastic flowers she welcomed the refreshing memory of this place. The meadow was an old friend, almost her second home. An insect master, Suzumebachi primarily trained and built her abilities here, among the flowers that drew her small companions, not in the far more barren needle-coated forests. She knew every crease and patch of the field, and could point out many of the long present insect colonies by memory alone, having memorized their respective positions. It felt good to return to this place after so many days of indoor duty, and with the pain in her skull blissfully absent.
Even as the meadow's essence invigorated Suzumebachi, she was given little time to appreciate it. The Tsuchikage paused on arrival here for a moment, resting his old body after even such a short excursion, but only for the space of a few deep breaths. Weakened as his frame might be, he knew precisely how to manipulate it for maximum effect and action. A slight clearing of his throat was the only action required to reacquire Suzumebachi's complete attention.
"I have been told this field has many strange and rare insects within its boundaries," The Tsuchikage muttered casually. "You are familiar with this."
"Of course, Tsuchikage-sama," Suzumebachi replied swiftly. "My clan has long cultivated this place to insure as much diversity as possible," more somberly she added. "It has fallen off some in recent years of course…" She did not continue, knowing the details were unnecessary.
"Regrettable, but it shall do," there was no true regret there, only calculation. "Now then, you are a wasp user; gather up wasps of this place now."
Not expecting the request, Suzumebachi was somewhat hesitant. "You mean gather together a sample?"
"Yes," The Tsuchikage's gravel crunched with irritation, his limited time remaining disdained him to waste any. "Be swift."
Still uncertain as to why she should do such a thing, Kamizuru clan members regularly collected insects as part of their training, but the Tsuchikage should have no interest in such things, Suzumebachi folded her hands together and molded chakra, dispensing the mystical power carefully, for though this technique required little energy it took some precision to achieve appropriately selective results. "Floral Ingathering no Jutsu," the words were clipped and precise, the deliberately machine-like diction of a ninja technique, so as to avoid dangerous errors.
Chakra emitted from the hand became a scent no human could detect, but one that unerringly drew bees, wasps, ants, and their kindred to it. Swiftly, by wing and rapid run they gathered to Suzumebachi's open palm, landing there or crawling to it up her body and clothes.
"One of each kind only," The Tsuchikage commanded. "Release the rest."
Carefully and quickly Suzumebachi began flicking away specimens with the fingers of her left hand. A simple brush aside was enough to break the artificial attraction, but the task was not easy. The insects were numerous and diverse, representing many varied kindreds, and not easily differentiated. She had keen eyes though, and images held deep in her memory recognized creature after creature, so she could comply with the command, though her eyes darted about her palm with frenzied tracking.
When Suzumebachi's palm was a patchwork of twitching, buzzing creatures, only glimpses of pale skin still visible beneath the tempted mass, the Tsuchikage ordered her to stop. "That will be enough," he informed her. "Now, show them to me."
Curious as to what the old man could possibly want with an assemblage of random hymenoptera, Suzumebachi held up her hand to the old man's face. The skittering of insect legs on her hand did not bother her, and she had no fear of stings, so she could wait patiently, though the strange mystery had begun to grate on her. Of course, no Stone ninja would dare demand an explanation of the Tsuchikage before he was ready to give his own. It was not a wise proposition.
The old man looked at the twitching creatures on Suzumebachi's hand carefully, examining each in turn with his piercing eyes. It could not have been, but Suzumebachi almost felt as if each creature froze in place when those eyes lay upon it, but no, insects would surely not react to such a thing.
After a moment the Tsuchikage took a scroll bound by two brass clasps from his robes. It was old, but not damaged, though Suzumebachi could see no more than that, for he did not turn the written side of the thick document toward her, and blank paper could reveal only a little.
"No bees," Tsuchikage muttered, looking out from around the scroll. When Suzumebachi did nothing, he targeted her with a blast of his frightful vision. "Well, remove them."
She obeyed with alacrity.
He looked upon the remainder again and back to the scroll. "Ants…hmm…no ants," Suzumebachi did not hesitate to flick away the numerous small insects, though this took some time, for ants outnumbered everything else on her palm. "No sawflies," The Tsuchikage continued, and he followed with more requests, naming off groups of creatures to be eliminated from the assemblage one by one. Suzumebachi obeyed, though she could tell the Tsuchikage did not know anything about many of the groups he named, barely pronouncing their names properly. Whatever knowledge he was acting on came entirely from the scroll.
After the rapid listing finished there were only perhaps a dozen insects remaining on the Kamizuru's outstretched palm. All were wasps of some type or other, and most fiercely appearing creatures of sharp angles with obvious stingers. Tsuchikage looked at each one carefully, muttering to himself with careful looks back to the scroll. "Hornets are not so bad, but not ideal, what's this creature?" he pointed to a thin wasp of dark metallic blue, almost steel turned black. Its countenance was sharp and fearsome.
"A cricket hunter, a sphecid," Suzumebachi replied, naming the fairly common creature.
The Tsuchikage turned back to the scroll, grinding his throat slowly, he seemed displeased. He asked Suzumebachi about two other wasps, both also fairly common, before his gaze caught on something else. A grizzled and bone-edged finger pointed to a small red-black insect. "What is this, it looks like an ant," Displeasure laced the grinding voice.
Suzumebachi had been focused far more on the Tsuchikage than on the creatures in her hand, and so she had to look again. It was a small specimen, had to see clearly with only the eye, but she could discern much, knowing well the proper places to look to place such a thing. "No, it is a wasp," she remarked, noting the wings and the legs. She held up the specimen more closely, between the thumb and index finger of her right hand, channeling light over it. It was strange indeed, a wasp, but so very ant-like in body form, no one of inexperience would know the difference, many other insects likely would make the mistake. There was something else strange as well. The front air of legs did not end in small straight claws as expected, but instead there was a great and sweeping modification. The end of those limbs had become powerful pincer-claws, echoing the image of a mantis, though different. Such edged blades, bristling with tiny rippling teeth, stood out on the little creature, a distinctive marking that gave it away entirely. "It is a dryinid."
"Dryinid…" the Tsuchikage repeated the unfamiliar word, and then turned back to the scroll. Suzumebachi then heard one of the strangest sounds she had ever heard, a swift intake of breath from the Tsuchikage, a sound she might have dared believe indicated surprise. She froze instantly.
"Pass me this dryinid," the Tsuchikage said evenly.
With hesitation and care she took the little insect between her fingers and passed it over into the wrinkled depressions of the Tsuchikage's leathery hand. He gave the wasp another sharp glance, then closed his hand about it, ensuring the creature could not free. With his left hand he placed the scroll carefully on the grass and drew out a small glass vial from a pouch at his belt. The little vial was filled with black liquid, viscous and thick, bile dark and gorge rising. Slowly and carefully, using only the fingers of his left hand, the brittle bones crackling together with every motion, he unscrewed the top of the vial.
A swift final motion of the right hand dropped the dryinid into the black goo.
It did not endure. Suzmebachi watched as the insect seemed to melt into the fluid, the sight was discomforting, and she felt as if her own tissues were melting away as she watched that merciless substance devour even the solid chitin shell. The dryinid struggled briefly, but only seconds passed before it was submerged and completely subsumed. Slowly the Tsuchikage recapped the vial and shook it calmly, letting the fluid move slowly along the walls, clinging to them before falling back again to a steady pool of destructive energy. Watching in rapt fascination Suzumebachi thought she saw strands of red appear in the colorless black as the liquid scurried within its barriers, sloshing about itself, but she could not be sure her eyes were true.
Raising the vial to eye level old eyes examined it carefully, until the Tsuchikage finally gave the slightest of nods. "Ready."
The old man's head snapped like a whip to bore into Suzumebachi's eyes. "Freeze!" his eyes seized and commanded an unstoppable imperative.
It was Kanashibari no Jutsu, the power to freeze another in place, but so sudden and absolute as Suzumebachi had not believed possible. They technique was more difficult to use on insect masters, but she had no defense against the Tsuchikage's power at all, her mind was frozen as the glaciers high above, to be released only when the old man's towering will chose.
Calmly, with no hurry at all, the Tsuchikage took a long, pointed needle from the same pouch at his belt. Unscrewing the vial once more he dipped that needle into the black fluid there, taking a single drop on the impossibly sharp end. Holding the needle between index and middle finger, so that it extended along their length, his hands passed through a slow procedure of seals. A combination unfamiliar and thus laborious, but performed with exacting accuracy from memory.
The needle plunged into Suzumebachi's forehead.
A tiny point, extraordinarily narrow, it should not have hurt at all, but it burned with furious fire. Her body surged internally, energies building with furious panic, but the Tsuchikage's eyes slammed into her own, and all automatic resistance was for naught, no pain or urge to scream would overcome the time-compressed power of his mastery.
The needle pulled free and the pain died immediately, only to be born once more as it jabbed into her again.
In and out, in and out, the process repeated many times each minute, the Tsuchikage continually jabbing the needle into his vial of black liquid and stabbing her forehead. Long time passed, and the day grew late, but there was never a pause in the old man's motions. Suzumebachi's body was slicked with sweat, the only response open to her. Everywhere was soaked, save her face, it remained dry as the most blasted desert.
Only when every last drop of the burning black liquid was gone from the vial did the needle's torturous progress cease.
"Release,"
Suzumebachi's legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground, numb and lifeless, her muscles twitching from the tension-bled weakness. She took deep gaping breaths, pulling air into dry lungs in a hurry to return to any sort of stability. It took several minutes to find her voice in the cooling dusk of the meadow. "Wha…what…what did you do?" She eventually manages, forcing the words out through her dry throat.
The leader of the village held a small square mirror before her face.
Suzumebachi gasped again, this time from a very different form of surprise. Her forehead, previously unblemished and smooth, now held a complex design in black ink. The precise image of the dryinid she had not so long ago held in her hand no adorned her brow, a tattoo of masterful design. She put her hand to her forehead slowly, watching the mirror as she felt along the image tracing the outline of the strange insect. "What does this mean?" she asked at last, not knowing anything more to say.
"A transfusion of essence has been performed," The Tsuchikage replied. "It has many consequences, ones you will have to discover in time."
A transfusion of essence, the phrase tumbled through thoughts like a spinning razorblade, cutting and slicing apart assumptions and surety. It had many meanings, none certain. "Why?" Suzumebachi asked, rising to her feet again, her stubborn, angry drive returning somewhat. Awe could not smother her completely, not even awe of this man.
"You were the best candidate," such was the only answer she received. "Now," The Tsuchikage commanded, reaching down to pick up and roll away the old scroll as he spoke. "Go home, and rest well, you must be here tomorrow at dawn."
Confused, Suzumebachi could not silence her questions. "Tomorrow at dawn? Why? What is happening?" Even as she spoke the words she knew they held far too little deference, but her emotions ran high at the Tsuchikage for marking her so and not giving any explanation of consequence.
Slowly, bones creaking, the aged ninja master turned away. "You will have all the answers you wish soon enough, more than you desire I suspect," he remarked with frightful grimness, ice scraping his voice. "For now, be content with your change in duties."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama," there was nothing more to say.
- for those who are surely wondering, dryinids are real creatures, wasps of the family dryinidae, and they're some of the coolest insects you've probably never heard of. Uncommon and little known parasitic wasps, their distinctive feature are the modified tarsi (the fingers if you will) of the forelimbs, which become pincer-like claws called chelae. There's a pretty decent picture showing the feature here: http/ though it's a wingless specimen. As for why I chose these creatures, well, there's one sitting in an alcohol vial on my desk right now, and I like them, as they sort of combine some of the coolest features of ants, wasps, and mantids.