Memories of the Past (Lonely)

[Zao]

The man found himself surrounded by the darkness, deep inside the forest of Juu no Kuni after separating from his group of allies that were tidying up the remainder of the mercenary group that had thought they could do what they wished and turn their backs on the Cresent country partners. Too bad for them that they had to encounter the group of monsters they did, but after the man had found the mutated lightning bugs within this strange countryside, he couldn't help but wonder just what else might be hiding within the recesses of the country. It was sort of a twofold mission if one thought about it, first and foremost it was an exploration for his own inquisitive impulses of course, but this place was of great interest to his other comrades also due to its strategical location and that in the future the coalition wished to claim this ancient place as their own. The latter Kemuri honestly didn't care much about but as a member of the organization he would give them the benefit of the doubt as to whether such a place really was worth the risk of attempting to stretch out their growing nation to it, as well. "What other monsters are hiding here?" Without a doubt, the shinobi understood that if one was able to find such formidable beast as the firefly swarm then just what strength did other spirits or creatures within have that the swarm needed to be that powerful to hunt and defend itself against? It was somewhat frightful but also exciting for the old man who lit up another cigarette now before jamming the pack and lighter back into the pockets of his leather jack, with both hands remaining in either pocket and his hornet swarm scouting the area around and in front of him at the moment he casually started to walk forward as the faint sounds of conflict from the others soon faded and the only thing that could be heard as the sounds of nature.

He walked for some time, going through about three cigarettes as the chain smoker was wondering to himself if he had enough cigarettes for this little adventure of his as some of his giant hornets returned to him with a report, they had discovered some old ruins that appeared to lead into some underground chambers. "Interesting, perhaps we can learn a bit about the strange former inhabitants that once ruled this land." Intrigued of the discover, the man gave a nod to the small group of hornets that turned around and slowly began to lead their master to the opening that was still a few hundred meters away. A few more minutes of walking and the man's deep blue eyes could see a series of broken statues and some rather impressive stonework, but everything seemed to have been either eroded by time or by another person who wished to hide the history of this place. In a few places he could see writing, but the style and language that it was carved in he had no idea. Shaking his head the man moved to inspect each of the broken statues but came to the same conclusion that there had been some sort of intense conflict within this region, was it the cause of the strange spiritual energy fluxions that were rampant inside the country's borders? It was a little interesting but there weren't any real clues to the events that happened back then, which then led the man to a set of stairs that descended down into the ground to a manmade tunnel system. What its use was when it was made, he had no idea, perhaps a tunnel that connected to other parts of the broken kingdom or maybe it was used as an escape route. From the looks of things, it appeared that it had once been covered but the stone struct that had once concealed it was in ruins from some type of explosion from the looks of the circular scattered remnants. "What power that must have been in order to destroy this chakra reinforced sealing stone." There were still partial fuuin inscriptions from what looked like a strengthen seal and barrier seals, though fuuinjutsu was somewhat foreign to the bug user so these were just educated guesses on his part really as his fingers traced over the seals on the broken stones around the area.

'Seems I can't find anything outside.' Shaking his head the man mentally understood that time and weather had erased most any significant evidence that would have been on the stones or structures in the area, but just how long had it been since the fall of this great kingdom? It had been a mystery that he'd heard whispers about since he escaped and began operating in the shadows with those at the black market, any useful information about this place always sold for a high price to a select few customers back then. "Heh." A half laugh, half scoff left the scarred lips of Kemuri as he thought about them, who would have thought he'd actually find himself in this ominous place, 'time to head down...' With that the man steeled his resolve and found some broken wood nearby and used a storage seal producing some length of cloth that he'd prepared for this kind of occasion. Wrapping the oil-soaked cloth around the thick wooden stick he crafted a makeshift torch and then proceeded to use his zippo-like lighter to ignite the cloth as the warm of the orange flames were nice to feel in the cool night air of this place. Then the man took the first step onto the step stone stair case, the torch only illuminating ten to fifteen meters in front of him as everything past that simply faded into darkness at this point which was enough to slightly unnerve even the hardened missing-nin as he kept about five sync worth of his hornets and about the same number of his black beetles out, the hornets hovered in a defensive formation around him as the beetles crawled on the walls and the ceiling searching out for any type of traps or similar mechanisms that might have been left over in the dark tunnel. After about two hundred stairs the descent finally seemed to come to an end as he stepped down from the last step onto the stone tile floor. 'Two hundred steps exactly, that probably places me about fifty meters underground, that's quite deep for just a simple tunnel...' He pondered slightly on the depth as he sent his beetles forward to scout out the area as one sync worth of his sensing beetles crawled about on his person, constantly seeking out any foreign chakra signatures but up to this point they had not sensed a single other living organism within a hundred meters besides their host and the other two swarms with him. It was a little strange that them didn't seem to be any other small creatures or animals using this place for shelter, it was enough to put the senses of the old man on high as that potentially meant that it was safer outside than inside.

"Just how dangerous is this place?" Part of the man was about to turn around, exploration was one thing but to put oneself in potentially grave danger was just stupid, who would do that? Shaking his head the man spit out the cigarette that had burnt into the butt of the filter now and began to turn around before a sweet scent cause his attention, it was very faint, but he did smell something through the smoke of his now extinguished cigarette. "This..." Suddenly he found himself, despite understanding the danger compelled to move further into the dark abyss of the tunnel, this was almost irrational for the old nuke nin and he tried to figure out just what was going on as his steps shuddered and he managed to bring himself to a stop. "What is going on?" He knew something wasn't right with his mental state, was it from that smell? Just what was that smell and from where had it originated from? As he struggled to hold himself in place to prevent his body from pushing deeper now a bodyless voice drifted down the hallway, a young feminine sounding one that spoke directly to the old man. "Oh, aren't you an interesting man. I wonder what you look like under those clothes. " 'What the fuck?' The voice had a certain seductive nature to it as it teased playfully at Kemuri and he felt his head starting to spin slightly now. 'Defend me!' Without a doubt he had unknowingly fallen under some sort of technique that stemmed from that smell, but who did that voice belong too as he couldn't sense anyone nearby, but they sounded to be only ten or so meters away. Quickly the man fell to a knee, supporting himself with both hands now as he tried to remain conscious as his vision began to become darker around the edges and every time, he blinking he grew darker and darker despite the torch that burnt on the ground a few meters ahead of him.

Ultimately, he found himself in complete darkness as his body seemed to be floating in this abyss, and then without warning the environment around him shifted and when he opened his eyes, he found himself laying in a bedroom that was familiar to him. He opened his eyes to take in the surroundings, it was no daytime, and he was inside a room that was something he remembered, he used to live here as a kid. 'This is my room?' Kemuri didn't speak the words aloud as he set up in the bed, glancing down at himself the man was now a boy, he looked around trying to make sense of what was going on here but just as he did a lovely woman opened the door to the room and called out to him, "Hurry up son, you need to eat breakfast and head out before you're late again." This was of course Kemuri's mother, but that woman had died several years ago, not long after he escaped from the Konoha prison and became a missing-nin, yet here she was just like he remembered her back then, alive and well and always nagging him about his punctuality during his time at the academy. Without even thinking his mouth moved in response, "Yes, ma'am. I'm coming!" The shinobi's body moved on its own as he practically leaped out of the bed and onto the floor, throwing on some clothes and his sandals before rushing to the breakfast table where his mother set on the opposite side also eating some noodles while sipping on tea. At this point he seemed to finally regain some of his mental composure as he sat down and just stared at the middle aged woman across from him, he'd been the youngest of four children so he'd always been the baby of the family and doted on by their mother as the others had already started their own careers and lives as shinobi for the Hidden Leaf while he was still in the academy at the time himself. But this didn't feel like a memory, it was as if the man was truly living this moment and emotionally, he didn't want it to end but the rest of his mind was screaming danger at this point, yet he continued to simply take in the sight of his old family home. Reaching out to touch the table, feeling the grain in the wood tabletop and the warm of his own noodle bowl, everything was just like it was back then, even down to the delicious smell of the seasoning used by Sora, his mother. Even his father being absent due to his numerous duties as a senior shinobi checked out..."I..." He tried to speak but as he did the older woman with her gentle face gave him the hush look from over the gently steamy wisps from her teacup, telling him without speaking that he needed to hurry up and eat.

This caused for him to unconsciously reach out with his left hand, taking hold of the engraved chopsticks, but even as he tried to stop the hand from moving it shuddered and shook slightly but didn't completely stop as it soon grasped hold of them. 'This isn't right...' Part of him just wanted to truly let loose and indulge himself in this warm moment in his life, though he continued to subconsciously fight back now and just then he felt a burning pain in his right arm that continued to grow hotter and hotter as the pain quickly became overwhelming now as his vision went black. A few moments later his vision fluttered open as he was struck with the bitter coldness that was the dark underground tunnel he was in and a few meters in front of him he could see the torso slowly burning as it barely illuminated the immediate area of five or so meters from its point. Turning his ocean but eyes that were illuminated by the flickering flames he could see blood trickling down from his arm starting at the shoulder as his own insects had attacked him for some reason. It was then that he began to truly realize the danger he had been in, if it wouldn't have been for the insect swarm then he would have ultimately succumbed to the illusion that he had been secretly trapped in and then what would have happened? Just who was the caster of such a technique and what would have happened to him if he hadn't been able to break free with the aid of his companions? It was at that same moment that a somewhat surprised voice of a young female spoke to him, "It seems your friends have saved you, little shinobi. It's too bad, you were having such a pleasant dream too. Your mother was a very lovely person..." This person, this woman...she was able to see the illusion or was she somehow able to read the thoughts of her victim? Kemuri truly didn't have a lot of experience against genjutsu as one could tell with how easily he was trapped within the previous technique, and it caused him to even feel a hint of fear from the unknown figure who was still hiding themselves within the dark depths of that old tunnel. Exhaling slowly, the man reached out an picked up the torch before he stood back up on both feet calling out to this stranger, "Perhaps you'd like to come introduce yourself?"

Regaining his composure now, the bug user reached his hand into the pocket with the pack of cigarettes in it now pulled it out, taping the top of the pack on his arm a single stick slid out and it put it between his thin lips now before the man leaned closer to the torch flame, lighting the end now as he took a long, slow draw as the ember glowed bright at the end of the tobacco filled paper. "Ah...now then." The sharp gaze of his eyes returned, and he glared down the hallway into the darkness that swallowed up the other end as he began to hear the gentle tapping of footsteps, but strangely he didn't sense whomever or whatever was approaching, but it sounded like more than one person from the number of steps he could hear. There was even what sounded like a sort of unique rhythm to them that was slightly puzzling, but he continued to stare into the distance until the slender figure of a woman's upper torso and face barely became visible before stopping. But it was enough for the shinobi to make out the rather petite and attractive figure of the person, or at least who he was correctly presuming was a human, even if something didn't seem right about it. He was honestly a little surprised that this foe would expose her hiding position at his slight mention of revealing themselves. This in itself spoke of the figure down the hall from them, either they were very powerful or didn't see the older man as enough of a threat that they needed to continue to attack him from the shadows like earlier. It caused the man to shake his head lightly, a bit of laughter escaping his lips as he stuffed the pack of cigarettes back into the jacket pocket and began to once more address the young woman.

"I guess you're the reason nothing lives down here, but what are you really?" Kemuri was straight forward with his words as he was curious just what kind of entity, he was interacting with which caused a wide smile to form on the young woman's face, to wide in fact for a human's normal smile which was slightly disturbing to look at. 'This...' It was then that the female took a few more steps forward and it became obvious what was wrong with her figure that the missing-nin couldn't put his finger on, it wasn't the fact that her upper torso was barely clothing but the fact that he couldn't see her lower torso. That was because when she drew closer into the light the multiple footsteps suddenly made complete sense, because it sounded like there were three or four people but now that the faint light from the torch's flame hit the hairy lower body of the half spider half woman spirit, he understood. A few drops of sweat began to form on his back at the thought he had been probably only a few short minutes away from becoming the next meal of this creature. "A Jorōgumo?" The words slipped from scarred lips as he nearly dropped the cigarette from between them in the moment but at the last second just managed to keep the tip of the filter from slipping out. "How smart, I figured that you humans had forgetting about our species." With her words the Jorōgumo spirit licked her lips and tilted her head seductively, "We really know how to treat our meals to a good time, hehe." Kemuri had really only heard of the spirits in passing, nothing that would be useful but when the spirit spoke, she said 'we' instead of just I or me, which could only mean that she wasn't the only one down here. If one of them was already this difficult to deal with then more than one would surely spell a disaster for him. "That's too bad, seems that I have dinner plans elsewhere, I'm afraid dear." The smart-ass mouth of the missing-nin couldn't help but speak back with his rejection of her offer to become her dinner as he took a few steps back, ready to rapidly retreat at a moment's notice.

"Well, that just won't due. My children have never had the privilege to taste the flesh of a human, my my...how the thought of your tender flesh makes my mouth water. Mmm..." Her words trailed off as she looked at the man like a delicate piece of meat for her to devour, but that wasn't what scared him, it was the mention of her children and as he understood it being an insect subject matter expert was that spider could lay hundreds of eggs at a time. As for what a spirit version of a simple spider was capable of he could only guess that it was at least that or perhaps several times that. It was just then that he heard the sound, the sound he knew all to well was the tiny movements of thousands or more small insects mixed with the echo it caused in the stone tunnel now. "Time to go!" Two kunai appeared in the left hand as it whipped forward towards the half woman, half spider creature as she spat out two balls of webbing to intercept them, but they weren't meant to harm as the webbing impacted the kunai the light balls attacks to them were activated an explosion of light that exposed the entire tunnel behind the creature as Kemuri shielded his own eyes. Out of the corner of his eye as he turned to flee, he could see that behind the spider demon, that the entire floor, walls, and ceiling was filled with the movement of tens of thousands of fists sized to small dog sized spiders...hungry ones at that! 'Delay them!' Mentally he called out to his giant hornet swarm as a massive wave joined the others that were already outside the container, pouring out like an orange wave of death as it caught the spider lady a bit off guard causing her to retreat a few steps as she inhaled a large breath before exhaling a series of layered webbing that caught a decent portion of the flying insects, rapidly thinning their numbers but also preventing her from immediately following her true prey. "Why are you running my little snack?!" She called out as the light from the torch could barely be seen as it rounded a small bend in the tunnel, and she battled back the powerful hornet swarm between her and the thousands of other spider spirits that used the tunnel as their lair.

The older man could only laugh quietly to himself, knowing that she would have to take some time to deal with the nearly thirty sync worth of swarm that he had unleashed which would create and almost unbreakable wall of deadly insects, perhaps one could look at it like a trade of sorts. Though he was able to escape the man still had to sacrifice a large number of the giant hornets from that swarm to do so which would allow for the Jorōgumo to feed her children for the time being, but Kemuri also knew that in order to feed that many spiders they would soon start to adventure out of the lair and their territory would quickly expand. "So, these are the kind of threats that lay hidden within this cursed land, what a drag..." Shaking his head the man realized in the quick escape that he had to make and in the echoing sounds of fighting behind him that his cigarette had been lost causing him to sigh quietly to himself at this point. "Son of a bitch, this place really does such..."

3754 words - 5 Willpower trained.