The Nest
Shirokumo lands with an earth shaking thud, drawing the attention of the only other spider present. No one else would dare to be in his own personal webs.
"And the Great Spider Sage returns." Arachne sarcastically comments.
"I've given up that title long ago." Shirokumo scoffs as he brings his two front legs together, as if he's clasping hands together. "You of all spiders should know that The Great Sages are meant to be gentle, peaceful and caring. They're guardians. My type of Sage Mode isn't me taking in the soothing nature of the world, it's the wild reckless destruction of it. I take in Nature's Fury when I use natural chakra. The hurricanes. The earthquakes. The tornadoes. The fires. The storms."
Shirokumo starts to rapidly shrink down. He's quickly returning to his smaller size, the one that is unassuming and nonthreatening.
"Yes yes I know." Arachne's eyes gleam in happy memories. "And it's the same style that you teach to our own Sages. The things that they would get into, the sheer destruction they could cause. It was as if the planet itself was trying to kill their enemies. That's why you've made the trials. Things that a potential Sage has to do before you'll train them to harness natural chakra. You want to make sure they can handle becoming an avatar of Nature's Fury."
"Correct, but most importantly I want to make sure they'll never use it against us. The list of things in this world that can stop a rampaging Sage is very short." Shirokumo gives himself a full bodied shake. "That is the worst feeling ever. I hate shrinking. It feels like I'm being squished."
"You don't want a repeat of our third Sage. The one who went mad when he drew on too much nature chakra." Arachne softly says. "That is when you created the trials. You could start teaching Alvarcus how to harness the chakra of the world right now but you won't. You want to make sure he can take it, that he's ready."
"Yes. I don't want to have to kill another one. The Sage Mode of the Spiders is volatile. I don't want to lose Alvarcus to it. He's grown on me, I've never been the primary summon to one of our Summoners before. It's a lot of fun. Tedious and trying as all hell, but fun. Plus he just came one step closer to passing the trials."
"Really?" Arachne asks in surprise. "Which one did he fulfill?"
"His only alliances are now to his family – or in his case who he sees as his family – and the Spiders. Konoha has turned her back on him, orders of the Hokage herself. She's bumped up his Bingo Book rating and had the nerve to get into a physical brawl with me. Now he can only rely on the Spiders and Sasuke coming to his aid and he'll do everything to make sure that he never turns us against him or vice versa."
"You didn't hurt her did you?" Arachne stares down at the now normal sized white spider in anger. "You'll push Alvarcus away from you if you did. Even if Konoha turned her back on Alvarcus that does not mean Alvarcus turned his back on Konoha."
"What? No! The only lasting damage might be to her pride!" Shirokumo quickly defends himself while waving four of his legs in a worried frenzy.
"Shirokumo."
"Alright fine! So I might have been a little too eager to escalate things with her. The sooner Al gets through the trials the better. He's good now and in a few years he's going to be amazing. But the Jiongu will only get him so far. Even if he has access to all the elements, even if he can reattach limbs and his head it won't be enough. Not for what he plans to be taking on. He needs something to elevate him to the pinnacle of S-rank and the only things that could do that are a bloodline which he doesn't have, becoming the worlds best seal master which he doesn't have enough time to learn, or becoming a Sage."
"What's he planning on doing? Stopping a war by himself?" Arachne sarcastically snorts out in a very undignified manner.
"He hasn't said it but I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he plans on doing."
"Well then." Arachne says in shock. "I suppose I should start getting back in fighting shape."
"Yeah." Shirokumo smirks. "I didn't want to say anything but you're getting fat."
"You have a five second head start. Run."
...
Deep Underground, Konohagakure
In one of the many long and dark tunnels beneath Konoha there are three men walking. Two of them are constantly on high alert even though they're well withing a safe zone. Each is clad is combat attire, a tanto is strapped to their backs, they have a kunai pouch on their waist, one on their shoulder and another on their leg. They have numerous scrolls, each and every one of them serves a different purpose. Each of these men look ready to throw themselves into the bloodiest battle of the worst war.
Yet the two obviously imposing me are not holding the third member captive. Nor are they hostile to him at all. Rather they seem to defer to him, like they're guarding the aged man who is wrapped in bandages.
After a few more minutes pass, they come upon a door.
"Leave me." The old man, Danzo Shimura, orders his Root trained bodyguards.
The bodyguards post themselves on either side of the door. No one will get past them.
Danzo hobbles into the room to reveal an office. He makes his way over to the desk and sits down in his plush chair.
Then he chuckles to himself.
He's let slip a brief moment of joy, of satisfaction. He let his iron mask crack just for a moment.
He sighs in contentment while pouring himself a cup of tea. "Of all the things I've used this eye to accomplish, this one is one of my favorite. Keep pushing him away Tsunade. Drive a wedge between the two of you. Make him resent you. Because each time you push him away, he's that much closer to accepting my offer. Alvarcus will realize that the only way for him to return to Konoha will be if he's my underling."
A true smile forms on his weary face for the first time in years.
"And when he accepts my generous offer and brings me the traitor's eyes, he dies."
...
Alvarcus's Room, One Hour After Shirokumo Left
"Where the hell is he?" Waiting for a reply is killing me. Did Tsunade realize that all I did was an act? Did she play along that well or did I really go too far this time? What was her response to my letter? "Fuck it, I'll just summon him back here."
POOF
"Arachne no not the peanut butter!" Shirokumo yells in fear while cowering in fright.
"Uh... what?" What the fuck did I just hear?
"Al?" Shirokumo peaks through his arms that he has shielding his face. "Al! Thank you so much for summoning me! Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean peanut butter off of an exoskeleton? It gets in every crack. Every. Single. One."
"You know what? I'm not even going to ask. I'm just going to chalk it up to some strange mating ritual I don't know about or want to know about."
"Oi." Shirokumo points at me in mock anger. "You can't say shit about strange mating rituals. We had spiders watch your fight with Leiko. Whips? Candles? Mistress? Hell now that I think about it maybe the only reason you got Spiders as a summon is so that you can tie people up easier. We are experts at that."
"Oh my Kami that was all an act! Why does everyone take that so seriously? I was just trying to unnerve her! Knock her off her A game!"
"Alvarcus you have serious issues." Shirokumo states. "You know there are support groups you can sign up for."
"Nope! Not having this conversation! I'm perfectly sane thank you!" I awkwardly clear my throat. "Ahem. That's not why I called you here at all. How did things go with Tsunade? Obviously you didn't get squished, that's good. Right?"
"Oh. Uh... well..." Shirokumo trials off. "Funny thing about that. You see the thing is... how do I put this delicately?"
"Man up and tell me already! If this is about the new Bingo Book ranking I already know about that."
"Tsunade maybe sorta... declared that you're a true missing nin now and that she doesn't want anymore contact from or with you." Shirokumo rapidly says as he scurries up the wall to the highest point in his webs. "Don't hurt me?"
"She doesn't even want my reports about Orochimaru?" I ask for clarification. That can't be right. There's no way. I am actually a missing nin now?
"Nor the Akatsuki. I name dropped them to try and get her to see the error of her ways. Didn't work. She all but threatened to squish me the next time I pop in so I won't be going back there. I like living, thank you very much!"
"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."
...
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