"I... uh... wow." I fall down onto my bed. "I went too far. Stupid Alvarcus! Real stupid! I should have let her kill him. I should have watched. It should have been enough, but no! My stupid idiotic need to make him suffer got in the damn way! I'm as bad as Sasuke is when it comes to Itachi."
...
How am I supposed to warn her about the looming threats? If she doesn't even want to talk to me then I can't tell her about anything. Not Gaara getting kidnapped, not Kakuzu and Hidan being immortal and Asuma dying, not the rest of the Akatsuki, I won't be able to warn her if Pain decides to level Konoha.
"Hey there's no need to be so harsh on yourself. It was Tsunade's choice to cut you out of her life. This one is on Tsunade. She could have still kept in contact with you."
"No this is all on me." I rasp out. "I gave her no choice. I never thought that I would actually be kicked out of Konoha forever. I mean sure most everyone thought I was gone but Tsunade knew that I am still helping Konoha. She knew that I'm taking a huge risk, she new that I'm still on her side. But now? I can't go back. Everything I said to my friends is actually true now. The only way I can go back to Konoha is in chains."
"You still have me. The Spiders will not abandon a Summoner for something so petty. Plus, as much as it pains me to admit this about a Snake Summoner, Sasuke will always be there for you too."
"Wow I think that's the nicest thing you've said about Sasuke." I chuckle darkly at that. "So this is who I have left to help me. The Spiders and Sasuke. Oh hell what is Kakashi going to think? Will he side with Tsunade or will he understand that what I did was an act?"
"Al, he's a Konoha jonin. Not only that he's one of the best jonin Konoha has. He has to pick the Hokage's side. The Hokage can't be seen as weak, she can't be seen as unable to control her underlings. Kakashi knows this so he'll be forced to pick her."
"Are you willing to run him letters?" Maybe if I can't send the reports to Tsunade then Kakashi can act as a middle man. Say that he found a contact in Oto or some other bullshit reason like that so she doesn't know it's from me. Then I can still help, I can still potentially save lives.
"She'd know exactly who gave him the reports. It won't work. I'll still take him personal letters but there's no way that she's going to take anything from you now. I'm sorry, she's turned her back on you."
"Fucking DAMMIT!" I roar up at my ceiling in rage. "Shit! Shit shit shit!"
I lash out in anger and punch the wall. A dull thud is heard as a new dent forms in the concrete.
"We can pop over to the Nest if you want to vent a bit." Shirokumo offers from his spot in the webs. "I've still got that spot picked out from when I had to tell you about Tayuya."
"No." I sit up and wipe off the concrete dust from my fist. "I can't waste time doing that. So what I'm on my own? That just means I need to do it all myself, starting with tearing Otogakure to the ground. It's time to stop fantasizing about burning it down and time to grab the gasoline and the matches and set it on fire. But how can I destroy something as big as this base?"
I get up and start pacing back and forth across my room.
"I don't have one singular technique that can level this base all in one go. Even if I used Devouring Earth it would take at least an hour to destroy everything. I can't have that much time for people to escape it has to be an instant all consuming attack. Not even my ridiculous Elemental Monstrosity would work and that drains me of all my chakra. It's a last resort jutsu meant to throw whatever I have left at an opponent in hopes that it'll kill them. Plus it's a massive laser, it's linear. No, I don't have anything in my ninjutsu library that massive. I'm not even sure Orochimaru knows a jutsu that destructive, he's probably have to summon Manda to rampage and flatten it with his sheer size."
"Better learn something new then." Shirokumo says from a lower spot in the webs. He's moved down now that it's clear I'm not going to freak out. "Good luck finding a jutsu that'll blow up that much and is one that you can launch from far away."
"Yeah too bad I can't just flip a switch and then... huh." I can work with that. I'll just need a few pieces to come together first. "Shirokumo I need a spider that can dig through anything."
"What for? Can't you just use and earth jutsu to make a hole yourself?" He raises a good point.
"Yes but I can't be seen doing this. Is there one?"
"Yeah we've got a few that can dig pretty well. There's a whole colony of trapdoor spiders that dig into all sorts of things. Wood, dirt, hell some even dig into rock! They're a quiet bunch the whole lot of them. They're not good talkers since most of the time they seclude themselves in their traps but they're a hard working bunch."
"Can they make tunnels?"
"Sure they could but they're all pretty small and they don't normally dig too far. All they usually do is go just deep enough to have spacious living quarters. That being said spacious to them is freaking small to us. They make me look massive, they're just a tiny bit larger than the spiders of this realm. Seriously they're like millimeters big. It would take a long time for you to make a human sized tunnel with them, you'd be better off using a jutsu of your own and take the risk of being caught."
"No they sound perfect! They wouldn't be making me a tunnel this is for something completely different. How many of them are there?"
"They're one of the few subspecies that has a colony. The smaller the spider the higher the reproduction rate. Their egg sacs have way more than others. Hundreds, maybe even thousands."
"Good, good. That'll make it go quicker. Could you get in touch with them? Let them know that I want to talk? I might have a task for them. Only those that are willing of course."
"Sure. This is all pretty specific stuff, want to tell me why you're suddenly taking an interest in them? Don't get me wrong it's great that you are branching out from me, Arachne and Murasakino but this seems like more than just wanting to know about them."
"One more question first. Do you know if their web is chakra conductive?"
"Uh... maybe? I think so. They use their chakra to help hide their trapdoors. By lacing in their webs they can weave in a genjutsu to help alter their surroundings."
"Holy shit this might actually work."
"What might actually work? I don't like being left out of the loop!"
"Shirokumo my friend, I think I'm about to prove Orochimaru and Sasuke right. Now here's what I want to happen..."
...
The Next Day, Noon, at the Lounge
"Stupid Shirokumo. I can't believe that he said it'll take a while to find them. How the hell does it take a spider that can reverse summon himself to other spiders long to find one? He can just pop over to them! Hell stupid Tsunade while I'm at it! Who just straight up refuses information on their enemies?"
The door to the lounge creaks open slowly.
A dirty and frazzled Sasuke stiffly shuffles in. He's completely ignoring everything and making his way towards the steaming pot of coffee. When he reaches the counter he struggles to lift his arms up to get and pour a cup, then he turns and shuffles over to his favorite chair in the Lounge. He doesn't sit down in it, he falls down in it. He let's out a pitiful whine and with a shaky hand manages to take a sip of his coffee. Finally his glazed over eyes focus and he takes in his surroundings. His eyes settle on me.
I'm wearing a smirk. "How was training?"
"Fuck you." He groans out.
"Let me guess, stamina training?" My smirk turns into a full on grin.
"Fuck you."
"I told you his training was hell." Ah it's so nice to have someone else suffer along with me.
"You severely underplayed it. It's worse than hell." Sasuke dully says.
"Oh longer sentences! That's good, it's a sign of recovery. Or it's just the coffee kicking in." This is worth it. I've never seen Sasuke so unkempt before! "Now you know why I sleep all the time. It's a coping mechanism. Just wait until dodge training, that one is really bad."
"Fuck you." Sasuke groans out again, then he smirks himself. "Orochimaru said to tell you it's your turn."
"Oh. Well then. I'll be off to go get my ass kicked. Can't wait!"
...
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