Chapter 30

I'm whisked away to an unknown place. I land gracefully on my feet and immediately take stock of my surroundings.

It is dark, very dark. If the Jiongu didn't replace my eyes and make them better I wouldn't be able to see at all. Barely any natural light is piercing through the canopy. The animal that I'm most fitted for is nocturnal or really likes the dark.

I take in the rest of my surroundings. I'm in a forest, trees are everywhere. Good, this is the terrain where I am used to fighting. I look upwards to see what is blocking out the sun so well.

"Honestly I really shouldn't be surprised." I mutter out loud to myself. "I mean, come on! Was I really going to get another animal? Pfft how did I not see this coming? Once I really look at it, there's only one animal for me."

The stuff that's blocking out all of the light so well isn't leaves. It's webs. The entire canopy is covered in innumerable webs.

"What's this?" A scratchy voice comes from above me. The webs shift. "There is prey in our home." The creature talking finally passes through all the webs. "Prey doesn't usually make it this far without being caught in our webs."

I was summoned to the Spider realm.

It is a monstrous spider that is talking, it is easily the size of a horse. It's mostly brown with a shockingly white diamond on the back of it's posterior. Each leg is a thick as my own legs and they're all covered is bristly black hair. The massive spider has six completely black eyes, there's no pupil, there's no iris, just black.

Terrifying, these are the creatures I am best suited for. What does that say about me?

"I am not prey." I boldly call out to the spider. I can't afford to show any weakness.

The spider stops moving towards me. "You say you are not prey?" More spiders appear around me, taking up guard posts on the edge of the clearing. I'm surrounded by spiders of various size, anywhere from the usual size to a small dog up to the horse sized one who I am talking with. This would make a great genjutsu. "Then that means you came here willingly. You've summoned yourself here."

"Yes." This is very dangerous. I'm clearly outnumbered by hundreds -thousands- and I have no idea what they can do. "I wish to be the Spider Summoner."

The nest of spiders is silent. Before there was a rustling, the noise of hundreds of thousands of spiders moving around but now it is pure silence. It is unnerving.

The biggest spider speaks. "You must prove that you are worthy of us. The last who have tried have perished."

"What do you ask of me?" I formally respond. I really don't want to make any of the spiders mad. I'm only going to get one shot at this.

"We have a few tasks that you must do, things that you must prove to us." The rustling is back, the spider are anxious. "We are spiders. Our silks -our webs- are what defines us among the other summons. Show us something like it. If you can't, you die."

That is incredibly lucky. I slowly raise my hands to my sides and let the Jiongu out. I let it form a protective mesh sphere around me. I've never noticed it before, but it could be mistaken for a black web.

I withdraw the Jiongu back into me. "If this isn't enough, I have another I can show you. It makes the elements into webbing."

"Interesting." The giant spider says. "The last one who came to us tried to deceive us with illusions, yet you say you have more than one type of web. That is a rare trait even among my own kind, human. Show us."

"I can make the web either fire, water, lightning, earth or wind. Which do you want to see?" I don't want to surprise them, that could be very bad.

The spiders start to move like crazy, the sound is deafening. "Do not make fire!" The horse sized spider shouts out in its raspy voice. "Never use fire here. Our Nest would burn."

I extend out my ten chakra strings and make them into water whips. I twirl them around, attach them to things. Basically the spiders got a twenty second display of what I can do with them.

"That is sufficient." The biggest spider present says. "We spiders are known for our many limbs and eyes. Do you have either of those traits?"

This is very convenient, maybe I do have a lot in common with spiders. "My webs are my limbs, I can control them to do what I want."

To demonstrate I have the Jiongu pull out one of my kunai and toss it around. I'm taking playing catch with yourself to a new level.

"I can have many eyes, as many as I want. They are not true eyes, it is an illusion." I spawn eyes everywhere on my body. Chest, arms, legs, I even put one in the middle of my forehead.

"That is sufficient." The huge spider sounds excited. I wonder how far the last prospective summoner got. "What can you offer us? Why should we let you be our Summoner? We haven't had a true contract holder for many of your generations, only minor contracts have been made."

What can I offer? What would the spiders want? Sasuke, you better back me up on this.

"I can offer an alliance with the Snakes. Their next Summoner is family in all but blood to me." The forest around me goes quite once again.

"Do you truly offer such a thing? An alliance with the Snakes?" The big spider sounds excited, it's talking faster and the tone of its raspy voice has jumped up half an octave. "To no longer be hunted by them?"

Uh-oh, I didn't know that the snakes hunted the spiders. This could backfire, if I don't deliver they'll kill me. I have no doubt of that.

"I can't promise it will happen soon, or even guarantee that it will at all. All I can do is ask the Snake's new Summoner if he will try to convince them to not hunt you anymore."

Murmurs of spiders rustling about reverberate through the area.

"That is sufficient. Even if it never happens you are willing to face peril for us! To talk to someone as vile as the Snake Summoner! Human, state your name. We will hear it now."

I raise myself up to my full height. "I am Alvarcus Mar."

The horse sized spider comes to stand before me, only an meter away. I stare straight into its big beady black eyes without a hint of fear. Okay so that was total bullshit. I'm definitely a little scared right now. Fine, a lot.

"I am Arachne, Mother of the Spiders. Alvarcus Mar, the Spiders accept you as a Summoner." Arachne reaches up one of her legs to her back and pulls out a massive scroll. "Sign it in blood, and you will be one of us. The Nest will always welcome you home." She tenderly lays the scroll before me.

I unroll it with the utmost care and read over the other names. There are only three others, faded and lost to time. I cut my left palm open and a very small amount of blood pools into it. It should be exactly enough for what I need. The Jiongu is efficient at the very least.

I elegantly write my name and leave behind five bloody fingerprints just like those before me.

"The Contract is complete!" Arachne calls out to the other spiders. "Alvarcus has become our Summoner!"

Other spiders finally approach us, hundreds upon thousands. I stand still and let them wander around me. I even let a few climb on me. One bold shockingly white spider even sits on my head, becoming the world's strangest hat.

In any other situation this would be fuel for my nightmares, but now? I'm not even phased. I know that they will not hurt me, they'll do the opposite. They'll defend me and I'll defend them. The contract must have done something to me, there is no way I could adjust this quickly otherwise.

After a long time, what must have been hours, the spiders start to disperse. Eventually it is just Arachne and I left, the others are going about their lives like normal.

"Come Alvarcus, you must be hungry." Arachne says to me. What do spiders eat again? Mainly insects if memory serves. That is not good. I don't want to eat bugs.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Please don't insist! I don't want to eat gross bugs! "I should be getting back to my realm, to let my friends know that I survived."

"Of course." Oh thank Kami, no bugs for me. "It isn't every day that a new contract is formed like this. Most end in death. Know that the Nest is always open to you." Arachne says to me. "You'll have to visit soon, I'd like to hear about the Human Realm. So much goes on there!"

"Next time we can talk as long as you want." I assure her. "I really should be going. Uh... how do I do that?"

Arachne makes a screeching noise. She's laughing I think. "I'll send you home now." Her front two legs come together like pseudo hands.

POOF

I vanish in a cloud of smoke.

I reappear in the exact spot I left. Only this time I'm alone. No Sasuke, no Orochimaru and no Sound Four.

"That's strange, I wasn't gone that long. Only a few hours. Where did everyone go?" I say out loud to myself.

I start to wander around the base, every other time I've been here someone has escorted me. Now that I think about it, I've only been alone while in my room here. As I am exploring I notice a new phenomenon.

Spiders are scurrying around. They aren't worried about being seen by me, they are boldly exploring everything. Climbing up the walls, slinking into cracks, scurrying across the floor. I never knew there were this many spiders around. It isn't innumerable like when I was at the Nest, but there are around ten spiders in this hallway alone.

An idea occurs to me. I kneel down and gently place my hand in one of the spider's path. It crawls on my hand and I raise it up to my face.

"Hello little one. I have a task for you, if you are willing." The tiny spider bobs its whole body, I assume that means yes. "I want you and the others to spy on everyone here. I want you to tell me what they do, things they say and anything that is unusual or noteworthy. Can you and the others do that?" The spider bobs again. "Thank you little one." I gently lay it back to the ground, closer to a wall so it has a place to go and it won't be stepped on by someone else.

That will make spying on Orochimaru much easier. I need to get in touch with Tsunade, I wonder if the spiders can do that for me too? I'll have to ask them later, I can hear footsteps.

"Alvarcus?" None other than Orochimaru asks. "So you did survive! You've been gone for a long time, we thought you died."

"It will take more than that to kill me. I didn't even have to fight anyone!" I proudly say. "All we did was talk and I showed some of what I can do."

Orochimaru raises an eyebrow. "How unusual. When I got the Snake Contract, I had to beat a few of them into submission. What animal did you get?"

"Spiders." I proudly say.

He eyes me up and down. I feel a chill run down my spine, I hate it when he does that. I feel like a piece of meat, like he is analyzing me like one of his experiments.

"How did I not see it before?" He quietly says to himself. "It could have been no other. You're more spider like than Kidomaru, he holds a minor contract with them. Tell me, did you sign the species scroll or just a minor contract?"

I arrogantly smirk, channeling my inner Sasuke. "The whole species. The Major Contract."

"They let you sign the Major Contract? Consider me impressed! Kidomaru was much older than you when he tried. What did you offer them? What did you use to sway their allegiance?" Orochimaru presses me for more information.

"I know Sasuke very well, I figure I can have him ask the Snakes to stop hunting the Spiders." I sum up for him.

Orochimaru brims with pride. How disgusting. "Smart! Using others to further yourself!"

"No, not that. I'm asking a friend for help." I will not have that mindset. At least not with Sasuke.

"Same thing." Orochimaru dismisses my logic. I don't need to convince him. "You must be hungry. Come, dinner is soon. The others will be glad to know you are back. Sasuke will be happy you won him the bet."

"That's right, those assholes bet on whether I would live or die!" I rage. "What did they even bet?"

"I have no idea." Orochimaru tells me. "You'll have to ask them yourself." He walks away from me, presumably towards Sasuke and the Sound Four.

Orochimaru stops in front of a closed door. "They are inside. Go, I have matters that I have to attend to."

While trying to repress the knowledge that Orochimaru is going to go ruin someone's life by experimentation I walk through the door and into a surprisingly luxurious room. There are many plush chairs and couches, a few well kept beds, full bookcases of storybooks and jutsu scrolls and nice paintings of nature on the walls. There is even a refrigerator that is well stocked and a stove and microwave.

"Aw shit. We lost the bet." Tayuya says upon seeing me. She's lounging on one of the beds, she's curled up with a book on musical theory. I didn't expect something so intellectual from her.

Sasuke's head snaps upwards at her words and his face flushes with relief when he finally spots me.

"I knew you'd be back. So, what animal?" He asks from a very comfy looking chair. He's idly sipping on a warm beverage, tea most likely.

Everyone present leans forwards in anticipation. I clear my throat. "Spiders. My summons are the Spiders."

"Lame, I already have a spider summon." Kidomaru says in disappointment from near the fridge. All of the Sound Four look disappointed, it isn't just Kidomaru. Only Sasuke seems pleased with me. "What is its name?"

I grin as I plop down in one of the chairs. I was right it is very comfortable. This will be a wake up call to them. "I hold the Main Contract. I am not a Spider Summoner, I am the Spider Summoner."

Kidomaru whistles at that. "No kidding? What did they test you on? Can't be the same as me."

"Only a few things." I say in a disinterested tone. "They had me prove that I am like them, using some form of web or string. Then I had to display extra limbs or more eyes. Then they asked me what I offer in return."

Kidomaru raises an eyebrow. "That is exactly what they had me do. What did you offer?"

Everyone looks at me expectantly. "I told them I'll speak with the next Snake Summoner on their behalf for an alliance." I turn to Sasuke. "What do you say? Will you ask the Snakes to not hunt Spiders in return for an alliance?"

Sasuke shrugs in indifference. "I don't see why not. Do I have to convince them if they say no?"

"It couldn't hurt. The Spiders were happy to have the chance. I told them that I could only ask you, not that I could guarantee it." I snuggle deeper into the fluffy chair cushions. "As long as you ask I've held up my end of the agreement."

Sasuke sips his tea. "Consider it done, I'll ask when I summon next."

A loud ring sounds throughout the room. Sasuke and I reflexively tense, unknown noises mean bad things. "Sound Four, come down to my lab." Orochimaru's voice echos in the room. That was an intercom system. I haven't seen or heard one of those in a very long time. Konoha had sirens that would sound different noises depending on the situation, but nothing like this. Orochimaru must have the whole base wired.

Jirobo sighs and gets off his couch. "Must be time for the monthly data gathering session."

Tayuya snaps her book shut. "Kami I hate these. I swear he draws a liter of blood."

The Sound Four all leave. Sasuke and I are alone in this luxurious room. I get up from my chair and throw myself onto one of the clean beds.

"Oh sweet bed, how I have missed you. It has been months since I've felt your glory."

"Alvarcus you were sleeping in one not even ten hours ago." Sasuke says.

I wiggle under the covers and cocoon myself in the blankets. "Months I tell you."

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Spiders. What do you plan to use them for? Their combat ability can't be that high."

"You're not wrong." I agree with Sasuke. "The Spiders have few fighters, they like to trap their prey then kill them. It is okay, I don't plan on using them in combat, even if I do it will be as a support role. They'll help me, I don't want them to fight on their own."

"What do you plan to do with them then?" Sasuke sounds intrigued. "Most summons are revered for their battle prowess."

I smile evilly from my blanket cocoon. I must look like an odd sight. "Information. I'm going to use them as informants."

Sasuke gives me a questioning glance. "Information. How? The chakra drain for keeping a summon here is no joke, even for you." He's right, even with my Jiongu enhanced reserves I wouldn't be able to keep a summon here indefinitely.

"I don't need to summon them. Sasuke, spiders are everywhere. All I need to do is ask." I smirk at his surprised face. Suddenly the Spiders are cool in his eyes where before they were mediocre.

"Prove it." He demands of me. "I want proof that you can gather information from them."

I level a look at him. "How would I do that?"

"Spiders are everywhere?" I nod in agreement. "Then tell me what kind of tea I am drinking. Let's see how knowledgeable your spiders really are."

With a shrug I untangle myself from my cocoon of blankets and walk towards one of the corners of the room. I have a feeling I'll find a spider there, I can't explain how. Maybe an effect from signing the contract?

Sure enough, a small spider is there. I kneel down and gently lay my hand next to its web.

"Come here little one, I have a question for you." The tiny spider crawls out of its web and onto my lowered hand. I bring it to the counter and pull out one kind of each tea present in the room. "Can you show me what my friend over there is drinking?" The spider bobs its body, I'll take that as a yes. I lay my hand on the counter and it scampers straight past the tea leaves and makes a bee – spider in this case – line right to the coffee pot.

Once there the tiny spider bobs in victory. I turn to Sasuke. "Trick question. You're not drinking tea, you're drinking coffee."

"I am impressed. I never considered using summons that way. How do you convey more complex concepts? For instance if you were to ask about someone's location." Sasuke asks while sipping on his identified coffee.

I scoop the spider up and return it to its web. While I'm doing that I reply. "I'll probably have to summon a spider to translate, or if I have a detailed map ready it could just stand on the correct spot. That is assuming the spider in question knows how a map works."

"So you can't ask them about Itachi's location? Or even what he has been doing?" Sasuke asks with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Maybe. I figure I can give standing orders of sorts to the spiders in this world. If I ask them to tell me if they see someone fitting your brothers description I could probably get some basic info about him, or at least narrow down where he is likely to be. I promise nothing, the odds of anything happening soon are very small. It would take time to build up a spy network vast enough to be effective."

That is a great idea. I could be a one man spy network. I wasn't lying when I said spiders are everywhere, I bet there is at least one in every Kage's office. If not I could ask one to go there for me. I have the potential to be one of the most powerful people in the information business from my summons alone.

Sasuke leans towards me and the spider in the corner. It hasn't crawled off my hand yet, it is climbing around my fingers. He's very interested in my summons now. "Could you? How long would it take?"

"How would I possibly know how long it would take? I haven't even asked if they can do it yet! Years, at the minimum." The tiny spider repels down from my hand, it has had enough fun with me for now. It scuttles back to its web. "I might have to ask Arachne if something like that is possible." Sasuke has a bewildered look on his face. "She's the equivalent to Manda."

"Ah. The boss summon for the Spiders." Sasuke clarifies.

Is she the boss summon? Arachne never told me who the boss summon was it might not be her. "I don't know if that is true. She introduced herself as Mother of the Spiders, so it might not be her. I'll have to ask next time I visit."

"Visit?" Sasuke sounds revolted. "You want to visit a world full of spiders? Are you crazy?"

An evil thought occurs to me, one that I never considered. "Sasuke, are you afraid of spiders?"

"Me? Afraid of spiders? Please, I don't have a problem with spiders." He's not lying. How unfortunate I could have had so much fun with my summons at Sasuke's expense. "What I do have a problem with is being in a world where there are only spiders." He shivers. "How can you want to visit that?"

I shrug. "I'm pretty sure that signing the contract skewed my perception of spiders a lot. Before I became the Spider Summoner I would never want to visit the Nest, yet now I find myself looking forward to seeing it again. Did the Snakes influence you at all?"

"I don't think so." He pauses and thinks for a moment. "Now that you bring it up, I have been seeking out warm things more than usual. Like this coffee for instance."

I nod my head sagely. "Snakes are coldblooded. They seek out warmth naturally. Maybe you've picked up that trait."

Sasuke shrugs in response. "It is better than changing my entire view on a species."

I agree with him, my change is severe. It does make sense to have this be a part of the contract, this way it helps insure I will treat spiders with respect and care. I don't see them as a pest anymore.

I throw myself back onto the bed I vacated earlier. It is still a little warm from my body heat. I snuggle in deep. "So, are we done training today?"

"Yeah. Orochimaru called it quits after I signed the Snake Contract. He told me to practice summoning the smaller snakes first and I did that for an hour or two. Then we came here and relaxed and you showed up." Sasuke says over his coffee.

"Good." I gather more of the blankets around me. "Because I'm not moving from here until tomorrow."

Sasuke chuckles at me. "You have issues."

"Oi. I'm supposed to get you back to your room." A female voice says from above me, bringing me out of blissful unconsciousness. "Don't make me get my bucket."

I crack open an eye and peer at the speaker. It's Tayuya. Why is it always Tayuya? "Why? I can sleep here. I was doing a wonderful job of it too. Then you showed up."

"Cleaners are coming in." Is her brisk reply.

I sigh, that is a valid excuse. "Fine." I escape from the blanket cocoon I made around myself. "I'll learn where things are around here eventually then I won't need the escort."

Tayuya laughs. "You'll have an escort until you prove your loyalty to Orochimaru. Better get used to it, it took me the better part of a year to be trusted and I didn't tell him that I'd pick someone else over him."

I sigh in exasperation. "Fair enough. Lead the way, oh great trusted one." I gallantly bow to Tayuya. She walks out the door and into the hallway. I hurriedly follow after her.

"That's better!" She arrogantly says. "You look good when you know your place, bowing down to me. I wonder if I can train you? Sit, stay, roll over, play dead, go on a bloody killing spree, you know the usual."

I roll my eyes. "Sweetie, we both know I can beat you in a fight."

"How would you know?" She aggressively rounds on me and pokes me in the chest with a finger. "You've barely seen any of my skills." Poke. "You have no idea how I fight." Poke. "I'd wipe the floor with you."

I catch her finger before it can poke me again. She tries to tug her hand away but I don't let her escape my grip. "You haven't seen me go all out either. You haven't seen all of my skills. You don't know how many different styles of combat I can switch between at the drop of a kunai. You don't know me. I could be a crazy lunatic that gets off on torturing others." I release her hand. She yanks it back to her side the moment I do.

Tayuya snorts at my last words. "You're too soft for torture. I've seen how you interact with others. The viciousness and malice aren't there in you."

I grin deviously. "Haven't you heard the tales of the Heart Thief? How he ripped open the chest of a Suna nin and destroyed every organ he had in unique horrifying ways? How he didn't stop even when the Suna nin died? How he took the heart for himself?"

Tayuya rolls her eyes. "Orochimaru made sure to tell us himself after the invasion. He made sure we knew to not engage the Heart Thief, that we would probably die if we did. What does he have to do with anything? We're talking about you."

"We are." I smirk and wait for Tayuya to figure it out.

Comprehension dawns on her face. "You're the Heart Thief?" I graciously nod. "I don't believe it, you're too soft. Too nice. Too innocent."

"Tayuya, I literally have the hearts of my fallen enemies beating in my back." She cringes at that revelation. "How could I possibly be innocent?"

We walk the rest of the way in silence. Tayuya walks me right up to my designated room and lingers outside of it. I walk right in and plop down on the bed. It isn't as comfortable as my previous sleeping spot. I'll have to switch them sometime.

"Alvarcus?" I look up at Tayuya. She looks timid. I've never seen her without an air of confidence around her. She's standing uncertainly in the doorway, she wants to both leave and stay at the same time. "What did the Suna nin do? I don't want to believe you would do that to anyone. He must have done something. Something so extreme, so unforgivable that it pushed you over the edge."

I stare straight into her eyes for a long time. She doesn't back down, she stares right back at me. If anything my aggressive stare down has strengthened her resolve. "He killed all of my family right in front of me. I watched him butcher them like animals. I hope he is burning in hell for what he did to me. And when I get down there, I'll drag him to the lowest pit and break his legs so he can't climb back out."

Tayuya nods her head in satisfaction. "I know you are a good person." Those are her parting words. No I'm sorry for your loss, no are you okay. She just walks away. It is strangely refreshing to not be doted on like I'm emotionally compromised.

I'm alone in my room. I slowly go through the hand sings for the summoning jutsu.

POOF

Once the smoke clears I can see a white spider the size of a small dog. "Hey I know you! You were the one who sat on my head!" I say while pointing at it.

The spider bobs in excitement. "You recognize me? The Summoner knows me on sight?"

"Enough of that now." I cut in before it can go on a rant. I don't have the time for that. "None of this Summoner nonsense. My name is Alvarcus, all the Spiders are free to use it." The white spider takes a step back in shock. Okay, it is more of a scuttle than a step.

"I would be honored. My name is Shirokumo." Shirokumo bows. I think that was the spider equivalent of a bow, it lowered its head and raised its abdomen.

"Shirokumo, are you male or female? I keep referring to you as an 'it' in my head and that is incredibly rude." I ask politely. Or impolitely depending on how you look at it.

"I am male." He tells me. "You'll learn the different characteristics between males and females eventually."

Glad I could clear that up. "Shirokumo, I have a task for you. I don't know if you can do it so I'm going to outline what I want done." He bobs in agreement. "I need to get in touch with someone far away. If I tell you who it is, could you get a letter to them for me?"

Shirokumo thinks for a moment. "It depends on who it is. If you know their general area that would help significantly. I can get reverse summoned to where ever another spider is, regardless of realms. It is one of my talents, not every spider can do that. Who did you want the letter to go to?"

I take a deep breath. This is the entire point of me getting summons to begin with. "Tsunade Senju. The current Hokage of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"I can do that." Shirokumo assures me. "Do you have the letter? I can take it now."

"I don't have it ready. I didn't expect it to go this smoothly. Can you wait a few minutes while I write it?" I ask.

Shirokumo climbs up my body and rests on my head. "Only if I can stay here while you do it."

"I can live with that." I walk to the desk and pull out paper and pen.

I whip up a quick letter to Tsunade saying I'm okay, Sasuke is okay, we're as safe as possible while living with Orochimaru and there is no need to worry. I also explain that Shirokumo is my summon and he'll be our messenger, so don't be surprised if you randomly find him around. I take the time to write out a letter just to Kakashi explaining everything to him. I don't doubt he's blaming himself for Sasuke and my defection.

I get it all done within ten minutes. I'll get the truly important information to her later. Things like Orochimaru's shinobi forces, base locations, details on what his elite can do and who they are.

"Shirokumo I have the letter ready." He hops off my head to the desk and picks up the letter and secures it to his back with webbing. "It would be best if only Tsunade saw you, I'm not supposed to be contacting her. Best not to mention it to anyone really."

"Don't be seen and don't tell anyone. Got it. Anything else you need?" He looks disapprovingly at my bed. "Better sheets perhaps?"

I raise an eyebrow in surprise. "You can make better sheets than these?" The sheets are already a very high quality, Orochimaru didn't spare any expense on them.

"Me? No, but we have many weavers back at the Nest. They would love to make things for you, they rarely get to use their skills for someone important to us. They mainly make the clothes for other summon creatures." Shirokumo informs me.

"Hold up." I get down to his eye level. "You're telling me that I have high quality garments on demand whenever I need them?"

"Pretty much yeah." Shirokumo replies. "The weavers can make just about anything. Our silks are better in every way to those of this realm. Sheets, shirts, pants, you name it they can make it. Want to place an order for anything? I can pass it along when I go back to the Nest."

This is a dream come true. My shirt problem is fixed! I don't need to worry about shredding shirts by using the Jiongu anymore! "Better do a whole wardrobe. The people here have the worst fashion sense ever. Stick with blacks as the main color choice. Add in some dark blues, maybe even a few greens too. Oh, and a sandy yellow in case I go to the Land of Wind. How long will that take?"

"Since you want a whole wardrobe, that's at least eight sets of everything, it'll take a couple hours." Shirokumo informs me.

"Damn. That is crazy fast. Could you bring them by next time I summon you? I'll probably get around to doing that tomorrow."

He does a spider shrug. "Whatever works for you. Fair warning, the weavers might go a bit overboard. They don't get to practice their craft as much as they would like to, and even then it is rarely for one of our own."

"Wonderful! I go through shirts like crazy, tell them to focus on them." This is very convenient! "Now, could you go to Tsunade for me? That letter is two months late."

Shirokumo waves one of his legs at me. "I'll get going. See ya tomorrow Al!"

POOF

He's gone. I hope Tsunade doesn't accidentally smash him, he seems like a nice guy. He even gave me a nickname!

Hokage's Office

Tsunade is sitting at her desk working on the final piece of paperwork for today. She's almost done.

POOF

"Hey, you Tsunade?" Shirokumo asks her.

SLAM

Tsunade stomps down viciously at Shirokumo. "That's it! I'm officially crazy! The paperwork has driven me insane! I'm seeing giant talking spiders!"

SLAM

"OI! Lady stop trying to squish me!" Shirokumo dodges out of the way of Tsunade's furious stomps.

"Hold! Still! DAMMIT!" Tsunade is chasing Shirokumo all around the room, hell bent on smearing his guts on the floor.

Shirokumo pulls the letter off of his back and holds it up as a peace offering. "Alvarcus sent me!"

Tsunade pauses in her rage fueled stomp fest. "Alvarcus?"

"Yeah him. Male, young, pale skin, black hair, badass looking scar on his neck, has a strange fixation on sunglasses no matter how dark it is. That Alvarcus. I'm his summon." Shirokumo wiggles the letter. "This is for you."

"Oh. I... uh... Sorry about the stomping?" Tsunade weakly says. Its more of a question than an apology. She bends over and takes the letter. "Could you give him a message for me? Tell him to be in touch sooner this time. Two months! How irresponsible, it was his stupid idea to play spy in the first place. I have half a mind to make him stay a missing nin even if he wants to come back! Making me worry like that."

"I'll be going now." Shirokumo says. "You're obviously crazy. BUSY! I said busy. Uh... bye?"

POOF

Shirokumo flees in a cloud of smoke, leaving Tsunade is alone in her office again. "I was done with all the paperwork too. Alvarcus, you have the worst timing." She opens the letter and quickly reads through it.

Lady with the Hat,

I'm alive! Crazy right? I thought for sure the Traitor would have killed me by now. Anyways that is unimportant. Obviously you've met our messenger if you're reading this letter, he'll be running communications between us. Do try to not squish him, he does grow on you. Like a fungus. I figure for secrecy I'll refer to everyone by a code name. Yours is obvious, you know which traitor I'm referring to, I'm Spider (it is fitting isn't it?) and the other wayward leaf is Snake. Yes, snakes are to him as spiders are to me. Anyways, I should be going now. I would hate to be caught.

I've added in a letter just for my sensei. Can you get it to him for me? I'm pretty sure he's blaming himself, I hope it will clear things up for him. There is nothing sensitive in it, it is pretty much "Quit blaming yourself! I chose this."

Spider

"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade thunders out.

Shizune bursts into the office. "Tsunade! What's wrong? What do you need?" Worry is etched on her face.

"Fetch Kakashi, he should be in the village. Tell him it is an emergency, I need him specifically. That'll get him here without any fuss."

Shizune sighs, "Okay. I'll be back in an hour or three. You know how he is." Shizune leaves the office.

In a surprising half hour she returns with Kakashi in tow. He's ragged and worn, his clothes are unkempt and his jonin vest has seen better weeks. There's three different kinds of stains, one is obviously alcohol, one is dried blood and no one is really sure what the other is. He's been throwing himself in mission after mission. Even his naturally vertical hair is drooping down in defeat. He took Alvarcus and Sasuke leaving harder than anyone else.

"Hokage-sama? You summoned me? Is there another mission you need done?" Kakashi asks.

Tsunade dons a very serious face. "What I am about to say is an S-class secret. If this gets out, one of Konoha's most loyal shinobi will die a very painful and agonizing death at the hands of one of our worst enemies. If you can't keep this quiet, then walk out the door now."

Kakashi steels himself. "I will take it to my grave."

Tsunade casually tosses the letter to him. "Alvarcus says hello from Otogakure."