A light in the forest (Lonely)

[Zao]

Kemuri stood within the center of a truly, bloody mess as his insects continue to devour the remains of another group of bandits that had betrayed the trust of Cresent then thought they could run away, how silly of them. His hands dug through both of his jacket pockets simultaneously now and retrieved his pack of cigarettes and slightly rusted zippo style lighter as he tapped the pack on his other hand popping up a lone cigarette before taking it into his thin, scarred lips now. Putting the pack away the man's fingers seemed to snap the lighter open now and cause it to ignite a small orange flame that allowed the former Konoha shinobi to light the end of the cigarette causing it to give off a gentle orange glow in the darkness caused by the dense forest area he found himself in. Aside from the gentle hum of his swarm feeding there were more sounds of conflict from his comrade who had also intercepted others that belonged to this group, soon enough they would wipe them out completely and make a statement.

Taking a long drag of the cigarette both hands were stuffed back into the pockets, his eyes closed as he just enjoyed the silence of the area, the moment after the kill. Exhaling a large puff of smoke from the cancer still he readjusted his mindset as he prepared to link up with the others so that they could continue to push deeper into the border of Juu in order to exterminate the vermin like those disfigured bodies at his feet. But as he took a step his sharp vision caught something out of the corner of his eyes, a single flash of light, like a tiny light bulb in the distance that made it a yellowish orb of light. It took the man back several years, back to a time when he was barely a genin at the academy within the protective walls of Konoha where he had seen something very similar.

Nearly thirty years ago the man had been out with his father and a few other family members, being a part of the Aburame one had a natural attraction to nature in general, but of course a rather unsatisfiable desire to discover unique species of insects, as so the clan members were often out in the forest after dark poking and prodding around as the adults used it as a teaching time for their youth. On this specific night the man was with his father as they quietly walked through the forest around the border of the Aburami compound area, when off in the distance he saw the same singular yellow glow that seemed to be just floating in the middle of the air some distance away just over top of the undergrowth. "What is that." The inquisitive youth spoke up and his father just smile, "So it's already that time of year, is it. Let's get closer, shall we?" Patting his son on the back the two carefully, and quietly, began to stalk the single light that would seem to randomly turn on and off, making it a bit difficult for Kemuri at the time to be able to accurately follow the unknown thing's movement in the dark forest.

After several minutes they entered into a clearing which the light had seemingly led the pair two and the young boy was struck in a moment of awe, the single light orb from before had now transitioned into hundreds, perhaps thousands of similar lights. Then without warning one glowed right in front of the body revealing the outline of a tiny, bodied insect now, a lightning bug or firefly. Kemuri reached out and allowed for the bug to land upon his palm and watched as its lower abdomen lit up and then magically turned itself off. "Nature in an interesting thing, Kemuri-kun. These lightning bugs reveal themselves in the springtime and use the chemical reaction in their abdomen to create this light. Using it to communicate with others and even attract a mate. But unlike our own clan's beetles, they aren't of much use." With that the older man turned around and patted the boy on his shoulder to tell him nonverbally that it was time to head back. The boy hesitated a moment and tilted his head, it was to bad as he found the lightning bugs quite interesting but at his father's command the genin lifted his palm high and the bug flew away to join the large field full of its kind now before hurrying to catch up with his parent.

Back in the present time the older Aburami blinked several times, shaking his head even, just slightly, to snap out of the random memory that he had a flash back about. "Heh, lightning bugs." A rare, genuine smile crossed the scarred lips of the missing-nin briefly as he turned his attention back to the sounds of distant conflict but for some reason found himself looking back towards the small light that was blinking on and off, slowly drawing itself further and further away into the dark forest. "Well, they'll be fine till I get there." Shaking his head again the man blew out some more smoke and turned walking towards the small firefly, perhaps there would be something interesting about the insects that managed to live and survive in the strange chakra influxes that happened randomly here. Plus, there was a part of it, even though he wouldn't consciously admit it to himself, that wanted to just see another field full of lightning bugs just like in the past with his father.

'Let's go...' He started to walk away and gave a mental command as his swarms began to rejoin him now after finishing off all but the bones of the previous combatants that had managed to unfortunately cross baths with the bug user on this night. The majority flew back inside their specially made containers while some concealed themselves back under the clothing and in the body of the Aburami now as he stuffed both hands in his jack pockets to cut back at the cold night air as he quickly walked in the direction of the blinking insect. It only took a short while to catch up and just like he had anticipated there was a decent number of them gathered in a small opening within the tree line, probably a few hundred at least but he felt as though something was off about them. Even though the fireflies normally grouped together, it wasn't like they were a colony like ants or the beetles from the Aburame clan, normally they would come together for mating purposes only then go about the rest of their life cycles. Yet, Kemuri could see that this wasn't the case the large group of insects that was flying in the clear.

"Some might have missed this, but I can see it clearly because they act just like my own swarms, they are hunting..." Hunting? How did that make any sense as they were lightning bugs, of course they eat smaller insects and such, but they didn't hunt as a group or pack. Yet, right now, right in front of him he was seeing the tell-tell signs of just that, the group working in unison but what were they hunting? "Shit!" It registered with him just as the bugs began to move, he hadn't been the one following the lightning bug here it had actually been drawing him to this location out of his curiosity, which in turn meant that he was the prey?! The hair on his arms and neck began to stand up causing a slightly confused look to grow upon his face now, it felt like raiton chakra. But how could...he didn't have time to think as he instantly summoned some a wave of his black beetles from within their container as they came out to crash into the approaching swarm of lightning bugs that now crackled with electricity. A rather impressive storm of lightning was unleashed as the two swarms collided, but even with their chakra enhanced strength Kemuri's own beetles were on the losing side of the first engagement, but it gave him breathing room and distance to plan his next attack.

"I need to study these unique bugs!" With a thought the beetles activated their shielding ability that coated their bodies in chakra to fight back against the lighting bugs as the lightning wildly lashed about inside the swarm as the lightning bugs were attempted to encapsulate the small portion of the beetle swarm which were only holding out due to the chakra construct shielding around their bodies. "It looks like they can maintain this lighting storm ability of theirs for a minute, but they must need to recharge after that and then I can strike quickly and look for the queen amongst the group. "Suzumebachi, come out now" He called out a large portion of his most offensive swarm, he planned to quickly cripple the group of as the giant hornets emerged rapidly filling a chunk of the space around him and in the nearby trees, as much as it pained him to sacrifice the portion of beetles he knew that getting caught in that lightning storm himself would have been foolish at the least. Finally, his own swarm's defenses gave way now just before the storm ended deliver a harsh blow to the numbers of the horned beetles, but it was finally time to the Aburami to make his move and there wasn't the slightly moment of hesitation.

"Find me the queen!" With only a simple command, the large hornets flashed forward from both flanks and above dealing a quick blow the hunting party as the insects of Kemuri began to tear apart the smaller lightning bugs with their large mandibles, feasting upon their chakra filled bodies as the entire swarm was completely decimated in a short few moments leaving only a few soldiers fleeing to the northwest now. But what perturbed the older man was the report from his insects that there had not been with that group. He could only ponder on if he had been mistaken in his assumptions about them bonding together like a colony that had a strict birth hierarchy like ants and other species of insects. He reached up and took the cigarette out of his mouth, exhaling the most recent puff from it as he started to think about. The group hadn't really been to large, perhaps he was just wishfully hoping that he'd discovered a useful breed of fireflies because his father also disregarded them and called them useless insects to the clan. Shaking his head the man stood there for a few moments as his insects began returning to him, flicking the extra ash off the end of the cigarette. Kemuri wasn't sure but again, something wasn't right about the situation at hand.

"No queen, but I'm sure that my eyes didn't deceive me earlier. That was a coordinated hunting formation that only swarm type insects will use to kill off larger prey." The man paused to bring the cigarette back to his scarred lips for a moment, taking a drag he removed it to continue talking to himself in that moment. "What if...it was just that, a singular hunting party?" While pondering over his thoughts that perhaps this was only a small squad, perhaps some form of advanced or scouting party? Are they that intelligent thought?" It seemed at the moment that the only thing the old man had was a bunch of questions and assumptions about what he had just encountered. Should he pursue and track down those that managed to escape from the hornet swarm? But as fate would have it, there would not be the need for such a thing as the faint sounds of nature within the forest area suddenly stopped, an incident which immediately put the Aburami back on guard as that only happened when a predatory entered the area. Then the abyss of dark, silence began to transform into the hum of millions of tiny wings that seemed to almost be beating in unison. "That doesn't sound good..."

He spoke to himself as he took a long drag off the cigarette which burnt all the way into the filter on the butt of the stick now as he tossed it away, holding in the smoke for a few moments before then fully exhaling it into the dark air above him now. "Disperse." He quickly charged some of his bugs with doton chakra and had them hid under the earth as others were dispersed into the nearby tree line of the open area which seemed to leave him defenseless, or at least that was the appearance as he kept a small number of the Suzumebachi swarm swirling around him for looks. "Come my little friends..." He turned to face the sound as it approached, tossing down his cigarette butt and stepping on it gentle, twisting the toe of the leather boot back and forth to grind out the butt and any embers it might have left in it before placing both of his hands into his pockets for the mean time. An eerie, golden glow could be seen coming and going, every time it appeared that it was closer, steadily growing closer and closer to the man's position just like the buzz of an enormous number of insects also continued to increase in volume until it reached the edge of the clearing now revealing its true size. Even the Aburami was taken back a little to find that this was comparable to a swarm of a normal clan member. But how could a swarm like this exist naturally in the world, this was truly something that was very unprecedented.

"How unexpected, to find such a treasure out here in the middle of a supposed cursed land..." The swarm was very imposing as it rushed the man responsible for attacking and killing a portion of its numbers, almost like the killer bee swarms that could be found in the northern lands, if one was to kill a number of them then those dying soldiers would release a special chemical pheromone that would allow for the swarm to track down and attempt to kill the target. An eye for an eye, if one must say. "Kek..." A faint laughter slipped through the thin lips of the bearded man as he lifted his head to take in the absolute majesty of the lightning bug swarm as they blinked first in unison almost before now in different patterns, most likely communicating with one another as they moved at once and quickly worked to surround the missing-nin now as he felt the faintly familiar feeling as the static electricity had already started to build and the glow of the fireflies started to increase signaling them charging the chakra in their body. 'Too bad I've already seen this one before...' In that moment his hands slipped out of the jacket pockets and began to form a short series of hand seals the man activated his own chakra just as lightning began to flicker about the interior of the swarm that was surrounding him. "Boom!" A thunderous crash of lightning came barreling down upon Kemuri from what seemed like the entire area above him as he seemed to just laugh and embrace the coming storm as he rained down onto him and the area around him. The body of the man seemed to go stiff from the powerful electrical charges before it fell over, but it was continuously bombarded by the lightning strikes one after the other as if the insects had some sort of pent-up rage to exhaust upon killing the human who dared to attack them.

But as the body was being what appeared to be burnt to a crisp from the immense amount of powerful lightning bolts, it suddenly broke apart to reveal a few syncs worth of the dark beetles with their chakra construct ability active in the form of a layered shielding, but even that wasn't enough to withstand the sheer might of an entire swarm's attack. Yet, it had been enough to help distract the swarm fighting against the bug user as he called for an all-out attack as his swarms rose up from the nearby trees and surrounding ground in an unprecedented number, having release the full might of one of his swarms for the first time in many years. 'Kill them all, save for the queens...go...' The mental command was issued, and the giant hornet swarm instantly swooped into action as they swirled up and then directly downwards onto the outer layer of the lightning bugs and their formation. 'Attack the outside first and then work your way inside. Do not dive to deep or you will be killed.' Kemuri issued a little warning as some of the hornets had entered an almost frenzied state as they killed and killed, easily able to cleave a lightning bug in two pieces with their elongated mandibles. But those that dove in to deep were struck by the random bolts of lightning that seemed to almost target foreign targets in a semi-intelligent manner, perhaps these insects had some form of control over the lightning they were using. The battle lasted several minutes as the bugs on the lightning bug side rapidly declined under the larger number of the hornet swarm, but that was not to say that the swarm itself hadn't suffered a significant number of casualties, too.

Finally, after the dust settled Kemuri walked in from the sidelines where he had been directing the attack formations from to find that the swarm was circling a small group of lightning bugs about a foot or so in size, "Finally..." this was what he was looking for, these were the true royal soldier and last line of protection for the queen that was concealed within. A few moments later the larger than normal lightning bug was concealed in a test tube like jar, a few of the royal knights also locked away inside other similar tubes. "I'll take you back and slowly bind you and your guards with my chakra, then I'll have another power to use in the coming fight..."

3058 Words