Sister Clans

Unknown Location Outside the Serpents' Pit (Kamui's Point of View)

The trio stood in a clearing outside of the cave.

They had sent shadow clones to spot landmarks they could use to pin point where they were. The effort itself had taken a few hours, which progressed into the night. At the moment, it was night time and the three of them were gathered to discuss their findings.

"From what we've collected, it looks like we're just outside the Fog Swamp. I don't know how, but your clones really made a lot of head way during our pursuit. They must have saved us at least a day of travel." Reina commented.

"The crocalisk scared away most of the animals in the area. It made running at a shinobi traveling speed a lot easier. It also helped that my clones teleported to the one with the greatest amount of progress toward the destination multiple times. Basically, after five minutes following the initial separation, they teleported towards the clone that traveled in our original direction. Then, they all headed in the same direction at slightly different speeds. If one died, another would be made by another clone. Every ten minutes, they would estimate their traveled distance in the desired direction, communicate that information to the collective, and teleport to the one with the best results. This continued till they reached this cave." Kamui explained, internally pretty proud at the strategy.

Reina paused for a moment, her eyes widening in realization on an important point.

"Wait! If you could do that, why didn't you do it earlier? It would have saved us a lot of time!" she asked, frustrated at the thought of wasting unnecessary time.

This time, it was Yugao who answered.

"That would be my call. As Kamui is a new genin, it is important she learns to function in a team during longer missions. This mission presented the perfect opportunity. It would kill the purpose if she were to rely on her high chakra capacity to finish it quickly. It would lessen the learning experience for her and diminish her overall skillset.

"Although it's unfortunate that the people of your village suffer an additional couple of days, the highest priority mission I've received is Kamui's growth as a shinobi to be presented at the upcoming chunin exams. Her skillset wasn't expected on this mission, so we're significantly ahead of schedule already. From the start, it was a lucky bonus on your part. We'll still proceed as fast as we can, but spamming shadow clones and teleporting will not be the primary traveling method unless absolutely necessary." Yugao explained, trying to be as nice about it as possible, despite how cold it sounded. Even if she was reassigned from the anbu, that didn't mean her attitude toward missions would change so quickly.

Reina sighed as her gaze shifted from the stoic Yugao to an embarrassed Kamui. Unfortunately, she was right about the skillset being a bonus. She specified a fifteen-day estimated time of arrival on the mission request. They were making great time and as long as they were in line with the specified mission parameters, there was nothing she could really say. The Hokage's assistant had made that explicitly clear when she was filing the request.

"I'm sorry about that." Kamui apologized. Although the way this was handled was her sensei's idea, it still didn't feel good to use missions to practice skills at the expense of time, even if it was a logical move from the perspective of the team and the village.

Reina shook her head.

"No, I get it. It's what I agreed to, so I don't have room to complain. Is it possible to at least speed up our travel through the fog swamp after the second day? Even if I lived on this island all my life, that doesn't mean I enjoy sleeping in swamps and I'd prefer to save my people as soon as possible." She explained, exasperation clear on her face.

'This is what I get for hiring shinobi. Their help always comes with a twist, even if this one isn't too bad.' She thought in her head.

Kamui looked like she wanted to agree, but held her peace and looked at her sensei, the commander on this mission.

Yugao nodded her head in agreement.

"That's fine. Two days should be enough time to accomplish what we need to. In the mean time, I'll have Kamui send her clones deeper into the swamp to give us teleportation points. We'll use a similar tactic as last time, but with three main targets at different points outside the village; it'll give us options." Yugao explained with an understanding smile.

She wasn't unreasonable. In fact, she wanted to get this over with even more than Reina did. Why would she want to stay on this island longer than necessary? It was just her needing to train Kamui that had her use more time than needed. If it were after the chunin exams, she'd ask Kamui to pop out two hundred shadow clones and rush the jungle as fast as possible. Of course, they still had to be careful of being detected, but at this distance, they could kill any shinobi they encountered before any alerts could be given.

"Great. Now, let me go over what we'll be experiencing in the fog swamp." Reina stated, receiving nods from the two Konoha shinobi.

She continued, "The first thing to note is the water. While not poisonous in the traditional sense, it is host to a number of poisonous/diseased organisms from bacteria to leaches. There's even a species of vampiric squid. In short, you really don't want to fall in. It's best if we stick to the trees for this one. Running on water is an option too, but still a little risky due to the attacks we'll receive from below."

"What if we freeze the surface?" Kamui asked, thinking this would be another good way to save time.

"You can use ice jutsu?" Reina asked, a little shocked that Kamui would be able to use a bloodline excusive to the Yuki clan.

Kamui nodded. "I can. Would freezing the surface help? I can have a few shadow clones create thick sheets of chakra-infused ice that we can walk on. Although it would require chakra to maintain our balance as we run on it, it should be a lot safer than moving on the water or through the trees. From the sound of it, the trees are probably filled with danger as well, right? Probably some form of venomous tree snakes."

"Those are exactly what's up there for the most part. Well, those and the infamous man-faced demon spiders. Those really aren't fun to deal with. Actually, if you could freeze the water's surface, we might be able to make it to the village in a day at most with the increased speed we'd be able to travel at." Reina excitedly stated.

It'd be great to be able to get there a day earlier than anticipated. She wouldn't have to spend two days waiting for Kamui to teleport them; they could just run there.

"That's a relief. I'd really rather not find out why those things are called 'man-faced'. It doesn't sound pleasant." Yugao commented, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"I agree. Although, I'd love to bring some back to Konoha for the Aburame clan, I'd rather just invite them to explore this place themselves. There's a limit to gifts I'm willing to give in situations like these." Kamui mumbled trying to imagine what a man-faced demon spider would look like. Tens of different possibilities came to mind; none of them were pleasant.

"Trust me, you're right in your revulsion. Those things really shouldn't exist in this world. It's said that they're an invasive species originally created by the Jorogumo Clan. While the spiders' failed the clan's original purpose, they easily became an apex predator in this place."

"Jorogumo Clan?" Kamui asked, curious on a clan she'd never read about before. On her side, Yugao was also interested. There was no Clan by that name in Konoha's records.

"They're the descendant's of a member of the Otsutsuki Clan; the Spider Demon Jorogumo; her full name was Jorogumo Otsutsuki. According to our clan's records, she fell in love with a common wood cutter, was impregnated by him, and sucked out his life force to feed her kids. The resulting kids were the progenitors of the Jorogumo clan. To make it simple, they're the equivalent of the Uchiha, Senju, Kaguya and Hyuga Clans. Except, the Jorogumo Clan descended from the Spider Demon, while those three did so from the Rabbit Demon."

[A/N: The Otsutsuki Clan will not be a family of space aliens in this novel. That's all I'll say for now.]

Yugao's eyes narrowed in confusion. Although she had heard the three great clans of Konoha were powerful, she hadn't heard anyone say they shared a common origin with any level of seriousness. After all, why would two clans who descended from the same line war with each other like they had. She had heard the Hyuga were related to the Uchiha, but she hadn't taken that seriously; their dojutsu were too different to compare.

Kamui's eyes, on the other hand, narrowed in suspicion. Neither of the three Konoha clans would have let information on their heritage slip, not that the Senju knew; they did too poor a job at record keeping compared to the two dojutsu clans. Even then, she only knew more than most due to Indra's memories, which were accessible by Yume.

"What makes you think that these clans descend from the same clan?" Kamui asked, wanting to validate the Kocho clan's connection to this type of intelligence without validating anything herself. She would ask more about the Jorogumo clan after that.

Reina smiled knowingly.

"It's because we Kocho fit into a similar category. We descend from the Butterfly Demon, Kocho-onna Otsutsuki. The difference between our clan and yours is that we isolated ourselves on this island rather than participating in the warring states period conflicts. Record keeping became possible as our stories remained undiluted by hatred. We may have lost a lot of records due to on-island calamities, but we've at least maintained a basic understanding of the prominent clans in this web of heredity." Reina explained, her smile showing just how proud she was of her clan's knowledge of this information, knowledge that should have been lost to time.

Shocked at the revelations, Yugao muttered, "It looks like the fourth was right to push for them to join Konoha."

Kamui nodded in agreement.

"I agree. Reina, could we go over this information later if you don't mind? As you said, our clans' information on this subject is incomplete." Kamui asked, interested in learning more about their parent and sister clans.

"Sure. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'll set up something with the Uchiha and Hyuga clan heads when we finish this mission; I'll invite the Hokage too. It'll be refreshing to share this information on the past with our new Konoha brothers and sisters." Reina happily replied.

"Great!" Kamui exclaimed. Then, her expression became serious. "Do the Jorogumo clan live on this island? Do we need to know about them now, or can it wait till we complete this mission?" She asked. As much as she'd like to learn about this sister clan, now wasn't the time to be considering the implications of what would likely be a major piece on the continent's chess board.

Yugao nodded at the question, being of a similar opinion.

Reina shook her head.

"No. They shouldn't be a problem. The closest you'll find is that bastardization of an experiment in the sound four. He isn't a member of the clan, just an experiment to mimic their capabilities; you already know about him." She explained.

The two Kunoichi sighed in relief. It was best for this mission not to get anymore complicated than it needed to be.

"Perfect. Well, let's call it with that. Let's set up camp, so we can start moving in the morning. I'd rather we not travel into a new part of the island at night, regardless of how advantageous it'd be to arrive with low visibility."

Reina and Kamui nodded in agreement and started toward their night-time preparations. As always, Kamui would have a reinforced shadow clone on watch for the night. She would simply have Yume block out the memories from the previous night to prevent the transfer of fatigue. She could always get a basic memory read using her sharingan, even if it's not as efficient as just letting the full memories through during the dispelling.

Seeing her two companions start toward their preparations, Yugao sighed.

"What have I gotten myself into?" She mumbled, shaking her head in exasperation.