A/N: This will be the last chapter for a while. While I know where I want the story to go from here, this week and next will have an insane workload in my actual job, meaning that I probably won't be able to update for at least a week or so. With any luck, my schedule will be more open soon. Thank you for your patience.
The stars shimmered in the heavens. Sparks fell through the roof of the hut. The wood soaked through, water filling the puddles outside the hut.
The grey-haired woman stepped over to one of the beds. She pressed a poultice against the boy's forehead. "If you're just going to stand around, you may as well get out," she barked, her expression sour.
Kōju sat motionless, rubbing her fingers along the surface of her arms. I recognize it.
Sasuke turned sideways. "What is it?"
"A bad feeling." Kōju pressed her fingers together, her body shaking as she looked out the window. "No, since we got here, I've felt something strange. As though a ghost walked over my grave."
Naruto shivered.
"You're all as bad as fishwives." Sasuke scowled. "There are no such things as demons or ghosts!"
Naruto scowled.
"What about Tailed Beasts?"
"What about them? We bound them. There isn't anything, in nature or outside of it, that's beyond our understanding." Sasuke sighed. "Sorry." She glanced at Naruto.
Naruto shrugged. "I didn't even know I had something inside me until later on in life." He glanced toward the other two.
Well, that seems approximately correct. We have to explain the matter of the spiders. Sasuke sighed. Given how stupid he is, it seems about right—no, not stupid. Unconcerned. That's the way it is. He genuinely doesn't care for the most part.
Kōju reached forward. She brushed her fingers along one of the children's limbs, touching the blackened area.
The child yelped, their arm recoiling from the touch.
Kōju sighed. "Sorry." Mare moss, turning rot. A certain amount of work on the chakra system is necessary. She reached into her pocket, removing a collection of herbs.
Naruto frowned. "What do you need?"
"There's a rounded plant in there. Go and fix it," the grey-haired woman requested, her expression distant.
Sasuke dipped her hand into the white waters. A film spread across the fingers. Sasuke rubbed the oil into the leg.
The black splotches ran with blood, a faint greenish tint appearing in the deep red blood.
Sasuke swallowed. "Er."
The child turned her head to one side. "Am I going to be all right?" she questioned, her body shivering.
Sasuke drew in a tight breath. "I promise. I promise that you have that right to think ahead, to when you survive this."
The child swallowed.
"I promise that you're not going to die. What's your name?" Sasuke questioned gently.
"Hoku."
Naruto turned his head.
Kōju frowned. "You shouldn't make this kind of promise, Sasuke-chan. There are other children in need of help."
The grey-haired woman turned over the vessel of water.
Water sprayed across one child's black-splotched body.
Naruto held out the leaf. "Is this the right one?"
"Naruto-san, the leaf on that is square. I'm sorry, but you're somewhat in the way, aren't you?" Kōju remarked. "You don't have the proper training, so it's best for you to leave this kind of thing to us."
Naruto frowned. "Eh?"
"Get out of here, kid. Go and pick some flowers or something." The grey-haired woman scowled. Her gaze turned to the children. "Now then. More oil!" the woman barked sharply.
Naruto scowled. He dashed out of the hut, his face darkening.
Demon
The water dripped downward. Leaves trickled downward in a stream. Lightning flashed through the trees. Rain fell across the field, and the skies crackled once more with lightning.
"What happened to the meteor?" Nōtō questioned. Water dripped off his steel-rimmed glasses.
Aka pointed wordlessly into the distance.
Nōtō frowned. "Why wasn't it destroyed?"
"We realized that it would be too dangerous if we destroyed it near ourselves." Aka shrugged his shoulders.
"Why not destroy it then?"
"The forest has many threats, to say nothing of the sounding men." Aka pointed outwards. "I was strong enough, but." He fell silent, his expression weary.
"They'd lose you." Nōtō frowned. "Sounding men?"
"They are not from any village within the forest."
Nōtō turned. Kneeling, he studied the muddy ground, waiting on Aka's gesture. "What is their symbol?"
Aka knelt. The finger scratched through the dust.
Nōtō's eyes widened.
The symbol of Hidden Sand, a bar topping an hourglass, lay in the dust.
Nōtō stared at the symbol.
"What's the matter?"
"The lord of this village. Has he acted unusually recently?"
"No more so than you remember." Aka quietly snorted, his lips curling upward. "He is himself, I think."
Nōtō frowned. He rubbed his chin. "I see." He turned his gaze toward the forest. "Now, continuing on the matter of the spider demons."
Aka nodded.
"Where have they been? How do you know that it's the work of spiders, and not someone else?"
"Legends regarding a fallen star. Some children were born with their limbs." Aka closed his eyes. "Then there is." He fell silent, his eyes avoiding Nōtō's eyes.
"There is?"
"We have heard voices in the wood."
Nōtō gasped.
Aka's eyes narrowed. "Voices that do not come from men. Whoever they are, and whatever they are thinking, we cannot know. But we suspect that the spiders themselves have spoken, and can speak in the language of those born from the Dragon."
The trees creaked.
"Voices in the silence of the wood horrify our hunters. Sometimes, it is more. Sometimes the spiders lay traps in the deep of the darkness, and we lose hunters and children."
"Are you certain that these were not someone else, posing as the spiders?"
"They were not the voices of any being I know." Aka closed his eyes. "And I saw men felled by them." A tear fell from his eye.
Nōtō closed his eyes. "I see." The glasses glimmered. Faint pink, the lenses shone. Nōtō turned his gaze upward. "It's no wonder, then," he remarked, staring through the lenses wearily.
Aka blinked.
"The entire wood is infected with the power of the meteorite. A pox on our houses is inevitable as long as that monstrous creation exists."
Aka scowled. "You see that?"
"These eyes see it quite clearly. The children will continue to sicken and die as long as they live here." Nōtō paused. "You and I could probably live here without difficulty, but those who have weak or underdeveloped chakra systems are not so fortunate."
Aka shook his head from side to side. "Impossible."
"I can see these elements." Nōtō turned back toward Aka, his eyes darkening. "If possible, I would have liked to meet in better times."
Aka nodded shortly. He rubbed his temples. "I know well enough that much. Rather, I'd like to have seen your penitence."
"That much, I fear, is impossible." Nōtō pointed at a frog on one of the stumps of the trees.
Aka scowled.
"You see that frog?"
The frog dove below the water.
"More than a bear, I am like that frog."
"That frog that endures through rain and smog and snow." Aka sighed quietly. "I know it, though it pains my heart. You probably wouldn't have apologized, even if I would have liked that outcome better." He scowled. His eyes narrowed. He looked quietly at Nōtō. "There is something I can say to you now that I couldn't before, however."
Nōtō raised his eyebrows. He gestured for Aka to go on.
"Simply put, it's regarding this village. If you bring down the wrath of the gods on us again, I shall respond." Aka's eyes darkened. His lips tensed, his face growing stern. "I will kill you."
Nōtō sighed. Wearily, he rubbed his temples. "Is that really all?" He sighed deeply again. "I knew that much. Would you mind showing me to my quarters for the night?"
Face stern, Aka nodded. The pair walked through the path of stumps and felled trees into the village.
The lights in the houses, one by one, winked out. Night had come.