AN/ Okay, I'll admit it, I love reviews...so please review!
Standard disclaimer applied
Recap:
Taking another steep forward, a cloud of moths lifted from the ground and rose up all around her. She seated herself down and laid her back against the largest tree. A few of the more colorful moths settled back down right away, setting themselves along the side of the trunk. The gray and brown ones drifted on the wind for a bit longer before doing anything more than that.
"I'm going home. Soon I'll be back," she whispered to no one.
It was for that reason, that the large, marvelous green gates into her home village stood less than Twenty two miles away.
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Chapter Ten
Web of fear
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I love the heat I love the things that I forgot
I love the strings that tie me down and cut me off
I was a king, I was a moth with painted wings made of cloth
When did the flame burn so high and get so hot?
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Eyes darted behind closed lids.
Darting frantically.
From side to side.
Her lips part to allow her erratic breathing to pass.
Her chest heave out over breath like a burden.
Her lungs burning as if on fire.
Her skin is cold to the touch.
Healthy peach now fallen to an ash like gray.
A cold sweat grips her.
Her fingers tremble.
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It's dark.
So dark...
I can only see things I don't want to see...
I don't want to be here.
I shouldn't be here.
I want to wake up.
I need to...
WAKE UP!
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Sakura trembled in fear, seeing nothing but the ink black darkness and that in front of her. Or rather, those things. Those things that brought on fears worse than any other.
Ever since she was a child, Sakura was scared of spiders. When she took the moths into her, that fear increased tenfold. There was nothing that frightened her more than those webs and those fangs. Yes, spiders had fangs.
She choked on the air required for her lungs as she backed up and away from those dangling white strings that seemed to vibrate with the movement that she knew was inside them. She knew. Oh hell, did she knew. And how much she wished she didn't.
As if responding to her innermost thoughts and fears, the stringed webbings began to shiver and hiss, preparing to open up. Something Sakura did not want in the least. But no matter how hard she wished for it th not be, those webs burst open, and all the little baby spiders inside were released, free to fall down towards her.
Kaaaa!
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Sakura bolted up, her mid and sub conscious minds realigning and coming back into focus.
"Damn..."
There was only one thing she was aware of that could separate her mid and sub consciousness from one another and trap one in a nightmare and block out the other all together. Aside from Ino's clan and their spells, someone would need to use an extremely powerful genjutsu on her to pull off such an unheard of feat.
And much to her fear, someone just did. Someone who was extremely powerful with illusions.
Pulling a gray and blue moth from inside her hair, she opened her palm and blew on it's wings, sending a cloud of fuzzy blue dust in front of her, dispelling the illusion she knew was hiding in plain sight.
How she wished she didn't just do that.
The blue sky was no longer there, replaced by a menacing gray heaven, blocking out the golden sunlight. The trees around her were covered in a hazey white material Sakura knew to be sticky to the touch. From ground to tree top the forest that surrounded her was shrouded in those deadly little spider webs that made her skin crawl with disgust and fear.
But, now was not the time to be frightened. Oh no. Now was the time to wake up and fight back, because that was what this silk weaver wanted her to do. It was written all over the place.
"I would advise you to retreat and save yourself the trouble..." she called out, not really expecting her words to be headed. How many enemies would willingly lay down their attack, give up, and go home after being told to? To this day, Sakura never once heard of such a thing happening, still, it was in her nature to be polite and warn someone before she pounded their faces into the dirt with as much force as two dozen bulldozers.
"Sa...Ku...Ra..." a sickly sweet voice hissed out, making Sakura's skin crawl even more than the sight of the webs.
"Nice to know you know my name. Now go away, I'm in a pissy mood."
"Ku...ku...kuku...ku...How entertaining..."
Sakura growled, hating the sound of that voice. She pulled out a kuni with a red string attached to the end with a clay moth hanging limp and deadly. It was filled with that exploding powder she could gather from the dust her moths shed in spring. She only had a few more of these. Soon she would have to go back to paper tags and they were a pain in the ass to make at the rate she used them. The powder from her moths was so much stronger.
The pink haired girl counted the number of bombs she had left and frowned. She had better wait and see if these webs could really burn or if they were coated with a mother's protective saliva.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," She growled throwing a small paper tag into the thickest part of the webs, praying it would catch fire and burn. The tag flared and burned away, singing the grass around it, but doing nothing to the webs. "What the hell? It is coated!"
"How smart of you to notice. Yes, my webs are coated and nothing less than a devil's fire could melt these pretty babies away. Ku...ku...kukuu...ku." the voice laughed from all sides of the forest.
A web shot out at Sakura and she was forced to dodge and shimmy to the side to avoide running into another web. If she so much as touched one of these things, she would be stuck and pretty much helpless. She guessed her bombs would burn a bit away since insect pollen was potent against arachnids, but she didn't want to waste any on a lost cause.
Another thin strand of white shot out at her and Sakura skidded out of it's way, cursing as it changed directions in midair and followed her movements like some sort of heat seeking missile.
'What's doing that?'
Another strand of white shot out at her face, narrowly missing her ear, settling for a few loose strands. As it passed her ear, Sakura could hear the hissing of a million tiny arms and legs moving the strand forward.
'Damn, the baby spiders inside are guiding it!'
Pulling her body forward she started running at speeds that would rival Rock lee without his weights. She wasn't as fast as he or Guy would be, but she was pretty damn close. Bending into the wind, she cut the air away from in front of her and turned wildly, skidding out of the way of another few strands.
She curved left, taking a turn too tight and almost fell to her side, but quickly recovered with a burst of speed forward. It was a good thing too, she almost ran into a wall of pre-placed webs that had been there since she woke up. Now that she think about it, those sheets of webbing were all around her.
'Shit!'
With horror clear in her eyes, Sakura realized she was running out of space to move freely in. The webs around her were too vast in their numbers and varied in positions. It was increasingly difficult to move. Sidestepping another two, she made a clone of herself and jumped over it, moving into a different area that was mostly clean of webs.
"Don't turn your back!"
Sakura spun wildly in mid air, surprised that her actions were seen and countered by the enemy. She should have been too fast to be tracked like this. A thin strand of web was stuck to the heel of her foot, trapping her once she hit the ground.
Cursing wildly under her breath she threw a few senbon needles out to gives the webs something other than herself to stick to, now that she was restricted of too much movement. However, she didn't have enough senbon, and soon her body was littered with the shivering white threads harboring her living fears.
"'You're all tied up I see."
Sakura looked up to see her enemy for the first time since their little game of cat and mouse. A game she blindly ran into without taking in all the disadvantages. The truth was, she never had a chance from the moment she woke up. the field was rigged in the favor of her enemy.
"Who are you and what do you want with me? I don't remember having any qualms with a woman like yourself," Sakara hissed in muted anger, reaching for the bombs inside her cloak, thankful her elbow was not stuck.
"Oh don't worry too much about me. We've never really met and I know you only by reputation. However, I have business with another who has something against you. She wishes to see you out of the way," The woman replied stepping further out of the shadows.
"So you're going to kill me to settle some vendetta that is not your own?"
The woman stepped out into the least shaded area of the forest and laughed. Sakura saw that she was quite pretty, with dark eyes and blood red lips setting off her jet black locks. She was tall and slender, with a build that looked like it was designed to entice men.
"You underestimate my intentions. I desired your death for myself, not for the benefit of my employer." She took a steep further, smiling wickedly.
"You see, you and I are quite alike."
Sakura shuttered as a hand with black widows hanging from it was held out in front of her face. A pale blue moth fluttered from her pink strands and sored for the forest tops. "What do you care?"
"You are sister to this brethren, a sister that should not exist. I can see that you have little to no knowledge of what you are, but that makes it all the more fun for me," she replied pulling her her hand back, letting the spiders climb back into her sleeves.
"I have no idea what you are, what your trying to say, or what it is you want with my other than my most obvious death, so if you could start talking straight, I'd really appreciate that," Sakura hissed.
The woman let her hands settle over her abdomen, that was covered in a blood red corset. "What would you have me say to you? Would you like me to explain how I made the pact with the spiders like you did with your moths. How my ugly body was eaten alive by my babies seventy eight years ago and replaced with the beautiful one you now see here. How I killed, and devoured twenty eight of my mates like my darling did with their own. I'm sure you see similar aspects with the moths you are bonded with, manifesting themselves in you."
"You're sick and messed up, you know that?"
"All too well, my dear."
"What do you plan to do with me, then?" Sakura asked, fingering the bombs that were now in her hands under her cloak. She would use it for sure, now, but she wanted more info from this woman dressed in black and red.
"I'll let my babies eat you naturally. I can't have someone like you alive, now can I? It's been a while since they've had such fresh meat. I'm sure you'll make them very happy," the woman stated in an airy voice, smiling a lopsided grin that would make many a man fall to their knees.
That was it. Being eaten alive by spiders was the last thing she wanted. She wasn't going to wait around any longer. These little fagots had enough time alive.
Using her wrists Sakura sent her explosions towards the thickest strand that split into several encircling her body. The look in the woman's eyes was one of utter clam. She knew fire wouldn't be able to touch her webs."That's won't work."
The knife struck and started to hiss.
Sakura glare with a sick grin. She would enjoy this.
"Boom."
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Sakura flung herself into the clear water, watching with weary eyes as it shifted colors. Once a sparkling blue, now a swirling red. She had just enough energy left in her to keep her head above water long enough to make it to the shallow end where she could clean herself in peace.
She didn't know what day it was, nor did she knew where she was.
She didn't care. All she cared about was getting these cuts cleaned and disinfected. Most of them were oozing with venom and Sakura was sure she would have died long ago if she wasn't immune to the poison of her moths. Venom and poison, however different they may be, work in similar ways.
Looking down at her damaged body, Sakura saw that she was not only covered in tiny piercings, but also, quite a few burns. The fire from her moths wouldn't burn her, but in their battle, she wasn't the only one fighting with fire.
"Ow..." she whimpered, touching one of the larger burns. Even with the little remaining chakra she possessed, it would be pretty sore for a while after she healed it.
It went without saying that she suffered a few battle wounds that would scar her both mentally and physically. There were several instances where she had to endure those shitty little monsters eating up her flesh, biting into her skin and letting go of their toxic venom. A memory that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.
Her skin tight clothing lay on the shore, riddled with tears and dangling shreds of fabric. It was beyond help, so she would have to find something else to wear out of her old pile of clothing. Thankfully, the dimension scroll was not harmed during the fight, unlike most of the items that were found in her possession.
Looking up at the sky, Sakura couldn't help but relax, seeing so many stars so clearly, illuminated by a full moon. It was at night that her chakra levels seemed to rise the most, thankfully giving her enough to heal the most serious wounds found on her body.
Carrying the moon and it's light in it's wings, a multitude of moths colored white blue and silver danced around her and the water, illuminating her tiering work even more so. She was thankful for their light, since she had a few scrolls she wanted to look over, concerning her possible enemy.
When she was killing the spiders, her moths told her they cried out for their mistress in their own language. Roughly translated it came out as Tsuchigumo. Sakura decided to investigate this name.
Letting her body sink till the water was to her chin Sakura used to last of her chakra to heal the last of the infected bites, keeping only enough of the green energy to keep herself from fainting from such a severe loss. A little known fact was that if you used a medical jutsu underwater on an injured body that was also underwater, you could double the effects of you efforts. This only applied to when you were healing yourself. If it was another person, your efforts would most likely be cut in half.
Satisfied with her somewhat decent apperance, the young woman rose from the waters, letting the cool droplets fall from her milky pale skin, dotted with wounds here and there. Her moths could take care of the rest, hopefully healing her before morning.
As soon as her body was fully exposed to the night air, with the exception of her lower body, the dark green moths fluttered to her injured skin and began to repair what they could of their mistress. Her chakra was much more effective, but they did an alright job when they were needed.
Wading through the water, Sakura reached the edge of the small pool and found what she was looking for in her things. Unrolling the orange red scroll, Sakura bit her thumb and wrote 土蜘蛛 in her blood, hoping she would get some information on this spider obsessed woman.
She smiled seeing the blood seep out to spell the answers she was looking for.
'The Tsuchigumo, also called Yatsukahagi, were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in the Japanese Alps until at least the Asuka period. The name means "ground spider", likely due to perceived physical traits that were later exaggerated or embellished. A spider-limbed monster of the same name appears in some Japanese folktales, which possibly were mythical retellings of battles against these peoples. According to Japanese History, Japanese people used "Tsuchigumo" as a derogatory term for bandits and thieves, akin to the Tsuchigumo that lived under the ground and in caves.
The most famous example is that of Minamoto no Raiko. In this story, Raiko investigates tales of a giant skull flying through the air. He and his retainers chase the skull, but it eludes them. It is during this chase that he finds a youth named Kintaro. Raiko, impressed by Kintaro's strength, initiated him as one of his retainers and continued on his venture. The search for the skull proves fruitless, and Raiko retires for the night.
'At the house where they stay, Raiko finds himself feeling ill, and a young servant boy brings him medicine daily, under the pretence of helping him to recover. Raiko continues to grow ill, and begins to suspect the boy of mischief. One day, he waits for the daily visit and then lashes out, striking the boy and causing him to run from the house. This breaks a powerful illusion, and Raiko finds himself covered in a spider's web. His retainers free him, and together they track down the boy by his trail of blood. They follow it into the mountains, and there find a huge spider, dead from a wound.'
Sakura frowned at the useless information. She wanted to find out about the woman she exchanged blows with. Not some age old folktale that held no meaning to her.
Deciding it was the best she could do, she decided to read on.
'There are many alternate tellings of this popular story. In another famous version, instead of being a small boy, the Tsuchigumo appears as a beautiful woman leading an army of Yokai. Raiko's retainers prepare to battle the Yokai, but Raiko avoids them and strikes the woman, causing the Yokai to disappear as if an illusion. He then follows the woman to a cave in the mountains where she transforms into a great spider. After a battle, Raiko splits her open. Even after the Tsuchigumo's death, several thousand spiders the size of human infants are said to have crawled from its belly. Raiko and his retainers claim total victory only after having made sure every last one is slain. Raiko was wielding a sword named "Kumokirimaru" meaning spider-cutter.'
"Okay, that's interesting," Sakura mused, interest lacing her voice.
'It is said that the several thousand spiders of infants size spread across the world, most meeting with death. Others found joy in the reduced form of an insect. A few fed of humans, growing in power. A select few chosen by the spiders were eaten and rebuilt as beautiful women or men to walk the world seeking pleasure. These few individuals were granted special powers and abilities by the spiders, hoping to incarnate the powers of their mother.'
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Inside the hidden leaf village Kotetsu and Izumo stood guard, watching the traffic, or lack of, make it's way in and out of their treasured village. So far Two merchants and one genin team were the only excitement they had all day and it was already 4:45. One can only take so much word puzzles and word games.
So when a single figure dressed in red and white approached their gates, they were fully alert and ready for someone to talk to. Yeah, they would check their papers and their passports and all, but what they really wanted was someone to talk to.
Their excitement grew into shock and disbelief when they saw who it was standing there in front of them.
Stopping right outside the opened gate, the young woman with dazzling emerald green eyes smiled at the two young men, sending blushes to their cheeks and shivers up their spines. Pulling a lock of pink tinted hair behind her ear, she made sure to let the light reflect the headband that marked her as one of this village.
"Haruno Sakura?" Izumo asked with disbelief in his voice.
"In the flesh!" she replied with a cheery smile, enjoying their shocked expressions.
"But you...you went..."
"Missing? Well now I'm found, aren't I?"
"I'll say," Kotetsu murmured, mostly to himself as he looked the attractive young woman up and down before his best friend and teammate jabbed him in the ribs, causing him to stop.
"Since I'm back, I think I should report in and everything, right?"
"Y-Yeah! Make sure to do that."
Sakura smiled brightly once more, causing the blushes both men possessed to redden further. "Don't worry boys, I will."
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Hah! Yes, I finally have a decent chapter written here. I honestly didn't realize how long I went without updating this. (insert three hours of me begging for your forgiveness) To be quite honest, I forgot about this. Before I started on the next chapter I re read a few of the old ones and realized this piece of work is over a year old! That is so sad, since I wanted to update at least once every month. I guess I am going to have to make it up with another chapter soon.
Anyway. How many of you expected Sakura to come back to the village in this chapter? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Just so you know, the arrival home is several days after her moonlit bath. I figure she's going to sleep a few days to recover all the energy/chakra she lost, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I'm getting closer and closer to the end, yay!
PLEASE REVIEW!
Ja ne