Chapter 132: Naturalistic Savagery! Pt 6

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Shino's POV (East Forest of Irminsul - Terra)

It was admittedly a fantastic experience, teleportation. Over in an instant, but was different in a way far from anything else Shino had experienced. Shino could immediately tell they were no longer in the Land of Iron. His insects buzzed worriedly from within him. Unsurprisingly any of his allies that had been outside of him had been cut off. They would be fine of course they would stick to their post. Content with the fact things were in order. Shino allowed several scouts to his body to get a sense of his surroundings. Oddly enough, they were not in some wildland as Muri had warned them.

They were in a thick and damp forest, though many of the trunks of trees had carved out into wide pathways. In fact, some force had created a complex system of pathways that led up and down the forest as far as his eyes could see. But there were no buildings, furniture, or anything to suggest this was a living area. It was some sort of road… One that had appeared on. Though there was no sign of life…

Shino flinched as a returning scout communicated its find to him. His allies had found Hinata a short distance away and led her to him. In fact…

Shino closed his eyes and focused on the light tingling sensation in his head. It felt similar to when his allies left the Hidden Leaf. It was as if one of his insects were outside of his range… That was it. Shino often, with or without the permission of his teammates, kept a few beetles on his friends. They would feed and live sneakily on his friends, harmless and with them, Shino could always find them should he need to. The connection was shaky and loose. So much so Shino was not sure if it was Yuno, Choji, or even both. However, it was a lead…

Hinata zipped onto the same road as Shino. Smiling widely, seemingly glad to see a friendly face. I saw your insects leading me to you. Thank you, Shino-san, let your insects know I am thankful to them as well." Hinata nodded politely. "It seems we are in some kind of forest, well a forest that someone turned into some kind of road system."

"Not someone, something." Shino countered, looking at the road in more detail. It was roughly assembled wood, smooth and connected well but crude and unsanded. It was certainly functional, though Shino doubted a human would leave it so. Furthermore, anyone would construct something so crudely by anything but choice. "This roadway or system of roadways is intelligently built, but not by humans. It seems like an intelligent creature made this but lacked the finer tools to construct it well. In fact, these roads are larger than even carriages. As if whatever uses them is much larger than a mere human." As Shino finished, he sent out even more drones to provide more information.

"Likely the results of one of these summoning clans." Hinata agreed. She understood Shino's goal, which was aided by activating her Byakugan for a moment. "I don't see any life within the area… isn't that strange?"

"It certainly is… though it seems there is some life… my allies found some underneath the dirt, only one kind, ants," Shino explained.

"Only ants, if they are ants, wouldn't there be other insects too? In fact it's quite rare for a lively forest to be mostless lifeless." Hinata asked, confused.

"Indeed insects, no, all life, live only where they can find food, water, and shelter. Otherwise, they would never last… for a location with these resources and space for only one species to be found suggests they are apex predators, a near impossibility for a normal ant species… we're near a home for the ants. These small ants have likely realized they were here and communicated it to their nest. If we assume they are a summoning clan, well… there should be much larger ones."

"Ah, so the littles were not incorrect. They are indeed chakra-enhanced humans here." A voice sounded out, interrupting Shino. It was raspy and somewhat hard to understand. It was as if someone was speaking by scraping two pieces of metal together. The two shinobi turned to face the voice and saw it came from a massive ant. The creature was dark and seemingly covered in a sheeny armor covering its body. At each bend, dark orange hair poked out; its eyes were dark and menacing, its antennae twitched in the air. Worse yet, the monstrous ant was not alone. There were six larger ones and many ants of varying sizes beneath the larger ones' legs. It was clear Shino had been correct; the area must've been the territory of this ant clan… "Hello, humans; as this is the queen's territory, we must insist you explain your presence. If it is for resources, we may have to force you to leave."

Hinata eyed the large crowd nervously. Shino could see why. The giant ants looked durable and had managed to sneak up on them. And while the two of them could likely fend them off it was doubtless there was more on the way. Shino was confident they wouldn't perish; but fighting would be risky. "We are Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga of the Leaf Village." He answered honestly, "We have been sent to search for our allies. We seek no trouble and if unwelcomed will vacate the area after we ensure our allies are not present."

The giant leader made a strange clicking sound. Shino assumed they must be laughing. "Ah, a bit of a shame; the littles were looking forward to feasting on your flesh. But if you are of the Leaf, you must be the group of shinobi the Okama clan referred to. They warned that some may come through and that we should aid them. I am Number 743  of the Antuni Clan. We shall aid you as asked… under certain circumstances of course."