Chapter 2
Within this group was a young husband and wife, whose last name was Aburame. Time has lost their names, but for sake of the tale, lets call him Kama and her Yuki.
It was a late Fall day. The forest all around was alive with sounds of songbirds and cicadas, getting in the last of their activity, knowing that winter was just around the corner. The chill of it was unmistakably apparent.
Kama was putting a small woven basket on his back.
"I'll be back soon," he kissed his wife on the lips.
"Be careful…okay?" She adjusted her kimono worriedly, her abdomon showing that she was with child, "I heard reports of wild boars in the area from the Hyugas."
"Hishi worries too much," he laughed.
She sighed, but nodded to her husband respectfully, watching him leave and go into the forest.
Near a small mossy spring a ways out in the forest was a crop of a special kind of mushroom Kama would gather for making medicines. They only grew near the spring, no one knew why. As he picked up a flat rock, a strange noise crossed his ears. He instantly froze and perked up his head, looking around.
It was silent.
He went back to trying to reach for a mushroom that was perched just beyond his grasp in a badger burrow…
…
…Wait…
(He thought)
…it's too quiet.
He froze again. The noise from before returned and steadily rose in volume… quickly drawing nearer.
bzzzzz…
Bbzzzzzzzzzzz…
BBbZZzzz…
He gasped, he knew what that sound was. There was no mistaking it now. It was a swarm of destruction beetles.
Destruction bugs, or Kikaichu (Kikai mushi), were one of the most feared things outside of tigers, boars, and wolverines in their part of the world. They flew as swarms, attacking their prey en mass and devouring its chakra. This could be anything, from a bird to a human. They were the only known species to live solely on chakra as a food supply.
They would not always kill their prey by sucking it dry of chakra. When they reproduced, they would attack a larger prey, say…a wild dog. Instead of killing it, they would stun it, then a few hundred members from the swarm would bury into the skin of the animal, and lay their eggs within its torso, around the heart and other organs. The animal would be left by the insects unharmed physically, for they needed the host left alive to sustain the young kikai larva that would hatch two weeks later. The larva feed on the animal's chakra, having the rich supply of it they need to develop, while also being protected and kept warm. Within two days the larva pupate, and then within another few weeks a couple hundred young kikaichu rip through the animals skin. This usually kills it, and if not they eat the rest of its chakra anyway, and then fly off as a new swarm to repeat the cycle.
Screeeeee!
The recognizable black cloud of the destruction bugs flew into the clearing. Kama had had no time at all to run or even try to hide himself. He stayed motionless, knowing that reaching for a spell tag or trying to perform a jutsu would be useless. Destruction bugs were known for being intelligent and would dodge such ninja attacks, or swarm the person before they even had a chance to do so.
He had heard kikaichu swarms off in the distance before when wandering the forest. Kama had never encountered a destruction bug swarm in person. Those who do don't live to tell about it.
He felt his heart pounding in his ears. The swarm circled back, obviously seeing him, for it was coming right at him. In a futile moment of realization he was going to die, he cried out, begging for mercy,
"Please don't kill me!"
As if being frozen by an immobilization jutsu, the swarm stopped dead in its tracks. It continued to buzz softly, but just hovered there, starring at him. Kama stared right back; pulse racing. A bead of sweat dripped down his nose.
...
What did you say?
His lips parted in surprise.
....
You spoke to us.
...
He then realized where the voice was coming from. It was coming from the kikai mushi.
It was no lie that he and his wife could speak to insects. They had learned how to do so much by accident, in their close interactions with them over the years. It was strange, it was like speaking, but without audible words. You could say it was telepathy, but it just would not be the right word for it. It was like a frame of mind, a feeling. What they would hear from beetles or butterflies in their gardens was not words like speaking to another person, but more like emotions, ideas, concepts. Rarely a concrete, grammatical sentence. Only large beetles or praying mantises gave any kind of real conversation...But all the same, they had discovered the secret of insect language and had taught it to some of their small family group, who used it graciously to tell bees not to sting, flies not to bite, or bugs not to eat their gardens.
Kama had not thought trying to speak to a bloodthirsty destruction insect group would ever work, so it had not crossed his mind as a resort in the 5 seconds he had to think from when he first heard the buzzing of the swarm to when they were descending upon him. But as he cried out, he must have also done so in insect language.
And what he heard he had not recognized as the bugs talking, since it was so specific, so…almost as if talking to a human. Still, it was very feeling-based…but, he had never heard such aptitude from an insect before. The rumors of destruction bugs looking intelligent were indeed true, they were more intelligent than he could have imagined.
....
Speak…!
"What…should I …say?" Kama replied shakily,
He was growing less panicked and now more curious.
You can understand us!
He nodded slowly.
...
We understand you…
…how?
"I…don't know. We, my family, just can."
His situation gravely came back into his mind, "…I have a wife…and she's pregnant."
…
"Winter is coming, she will need me…please…I beg of you to let me live…"
The swarm slowly drew closer to him, and settled onto nearby rocks and bushes. He stayed in his kneeling position where he had been frozen in fear minutes before, but was steadily relaxing. He watched the small beetles as they came within a distance that he could see them as individuals. A few came closer than the others, and crawled up onto his hand and pant legs. He watched them closely, understandably nervous. It was like having a wild tiger nuzzling your arm. But now he felt no aggression from them. They did not seem violent at all, completely opposite from what history said of them, from how they seemed a few moments ago.
...Your offspring and mate need you to survive this winter.
We can understand that…yes.
We won't kill you.
You are…different.
Kama blinked. He was still absorbing how intelligent they were. "T…thank you." He didn't know what else to say.
...
…But…
...
He felt a pulse of worry resonate through the group.
Winter is coming for us as well…
We have traveled far.
We have not found any large hosts for our young.
Many of our group are too old and frail to survive the cold winter.
We must lay our eggs before it grows cold…
He parted his lips again…
We don't want to kill you…
...you are interesting…
...
They continued to move closer to him. He was growing slightly uneasy with so many crawling on him, but he felt no drain on his chakra.
In exchange for your life -
You must help us.
...please…
He brought his hand up in front of his face, and gazed at the many small, blue-green eyes looking back at him. They looked so sad. So…incredibly conflicted. He had always seen flickers of human-like nature in the eyes of larger, more calm insects or spiders before, but this time it was more than he'd ever seen.
"What can I do to help you?" he said, quite sincerely.