Naruto : Venom : Chapter 92

"Ahem." Orochimaru's voice stops our argument before it could take off. "Any questions? No? Good. You all leave for the Land of Grass tomorrow. I want you three there before the day of the Chunin Exams to get a feel for the terrain. Now go do something else, I have business to attend to." We leave his office.

...

Works for me, I can set up a spider network to get some info on the competition. Now that I think about it, I should check in with the spiders around here. They haven't sought me out with any information. Maybe I should specify what I meant when I said spy on people? What would spiders consider strange or abnormal, especially if they've been living here for a long time. They could grow used to the freakishness here.

Actually, I should talk with Shirokumo about setting up a spy network that could encompass the entire Elemental Nations. Sasuke had a good idea when he wanted me to find out where his brother is. I could keep tabs on all of the Akatsuki, that way when they finally make their move I can be better prepared. I have a feeling that Tsunade will attempt to keep me out of that mess. Plus if I'm still missing nin at the time how would I know when go help Gaara or the other jinchuriki?

"You're thinking too hard." Sasuke's voice yanks me from my thoughts. "Please say you weren't plotting Tayuya's death. As much as you two argue, you know that Orochimaru's wrath would be extreme."

I chuckle darkly. I'm intimately acquainted with Orochimaru's wrath in ways that Sasuke couldn't imagine. "Oh, I could easily frame another country. I'm confident Konoha or Suna would love to kill a Sound nin. All I need to do is convince you to collaborate my story." Tempting, but I better not. "I was thinking about using my spiders to gather information on the contestants at the Chunin Exams, then I remembered your idea of trying to find Itachi. Figured I could use the Exams as a sort of test run."

Sasuke eagerly turns towards me. If I didn't have his attention before, I certainly do now. "You're going to start a spy network?"

I casually shrug. "Might as well. The Spiders would excel at it and it would help me never be caught off guard. I'll have to summon Shirokumo to ask him about it. See if there is a special spider that does that and all that nonsense."

"Can I watch?" Sasuke requests. This is important to him, I could help him find Itachi. "I can describe Itachi to your Spiders." He's even offering to be useful.

"Sure. You should meet Shirokumo at least, that way you two will recognize each other. Then I can use him to get messages to or from you."

"He can do that?" Crap, I might have said too much. I have to remember that there are things I can't tell Sasuke.

"Yep. It is pretty neat, but I don't really have many people to write to." I need to distract him, throw him off a trail a little. Oh I know! "You know, I could probably convince him to get a letter to Ino. I bet you miss her."

A hand firmly grasps my shoulder. "Alvarcus." Oh boy, he's mad. "You need to understand this. Ino and I have never been and will never be a thing."

"Whatever you say loverboy." I break out of Sasuke's grip and step into my room. "Now, if you want to be there when I ask Shirokumo about my possible spy network get inside. I'm not going to wait for you."

Grumbling obscenities under his breath Sasuke enters my room and plops down on my desk's chair. Then he looks up. "Holy crap. Your ceiling is covered in webs."

Huh, he's right. "What do you know, it finally took up all of it. I knew he was getting close, but damn." That is an impressive feat for a single spider of Shirokumo's size. I do have him over a lot though so it is explainable. "Summoning Jutsu!"

POOF

"Sup Al." Shirokumo greets me like usual. He lackadaisically climbs up the nearest wall to his web. "You need something? A lett-"

"I have a few questions for you." That was close. He didn't notice Sasuke in the room and almost let slip that I'm sending letters to Tsunade. "Well, we do sorta. It was his idea to begin with." I gesture to Sasuke who has an open mouth. "Shirokumo, Sasuke. Sasuke, Shirokumo."

"Ah, so you're Sasuke. I've heard a great many things about you." Shirokumo says in a disapproving tone from the ceiling. Ouch, he's barely met the guy and he doesn't like him. "You're a Snake Summoner."

"And you're a giant talking spider. Alvarcus, that is a giant talking spider. How are you so calm?" Sasuke is on edge. Maybe he lied to me when he said he wasn't afraid of spiders?

"Are you scared of your snake summons? No. Same thing." I explain in as few words as possible.

Sasuke stares at me in disbelief. "Giant spider, no issues with that at all?"

"Do shut up. I'm not even a big one." Shirokumo reprimands Sasuke for his blatant dislike of his species. I don't blame him, Sasuke is being very rude. Shirokumo turns to me, "I can't believe you are friends with this guy. Anyways, you have some questions for me? There isn't much you don't already know about me."

"Nah, it isn't about you. It is about the Spiders in general. Sasuke gave me a good idea a month or two ago that I'm finally getting around to working on. Basically I want to know if the Spiders have a spy master. I want to use the spiders of this realm to gather information on important people and the things they do. Is there a spider that specializes in that kind of thing?"

Shirokumo says nothing for a minute. "Yes, there is. That explains so much."

"Sorry, what?" I ask in confusion. What would that possibly explain?

Shirokumo lazily repels down from the ceiling to hang at my eye level. "My subspecies are the information gathers. It must be why you summoned me, you subconsciously knew what you wanted in a summons."

That does explain a lot. I needed someone to help me spy on Orochimaru, who better than a spy master? It also explains why Shirokumo conveniently has the ability to summon himself to other spiders, it is so he can get reports easier.

"Unfortunately, I am the last of my subspecies. I can set something up for you, but it will take time. A very long time, a year at the least. I'll need to convince the spiders in major villages and towns to report to me, that will be difficult. I haven't done something like this in generations!"

Generations? How old is Shirokumo? And a year? That is incredibly quick to set up that large of an information network, I'm impressed. "Would it help if you told them I was the one asking through you?"

"Why would that help?" Sasuke cuts in. I forgot he was here. Oops.

"He's the Spider Summoner." Shirokumo dryly retorts. "Use your head next time."

Sasuke bristles at the insult. I speak up before they can really start insulting each other. "Yeah I know I'm awesome. On my travels I can ask the spiders myself, that should help. Can't promise I'll be getting out that much though."

"You misunderstand, it isn't convincing them that will be a problem. It is getting a system in place, a chain of command and organization. That is what will take time. I'll need to teach the others how to structure reports and what is deemed as relevant information. The spiders of this realm really like to talk, it is bothersome. Lack of social lives I think."

"Train others to teach for you." Sasuke interrupts again. "Train a batch of ten, then send them to teach the others. Simple."

Shirokumo rolls his eyes, which is very creepy since he has eight of them. "I already though of that. That is why it's only a year and not a century. Why are you here again?"

"Because this was all my idea." Sasuke haughtily replies.

"And to tell you a description of his brother, the whole reason he want's me to make a spy network in the first place." Playing peacemaker is difficult with these two. I don't understand why Shirokumo is so antagonistic to Sasuke.

"Don't bother." Shirokumo cuts in before Sasuke can speak. "It is too early to be looking for specific people. That will have to wait until I have at least a exoskeleton crew set up, someone in every major village at the minimum. Hopefully most of the minor ones too."

"Fine. How long will that be?" Sasuke demands.

Shirokumo pulls himself back up to his web on my ceiling. "I don't know, six months? Eight? These things take time."

"Perfect, we still need to train before we can take on Itachi and Kisame again. Last time I lost my head, we need to be much better than we were." Even if Shirokumo does find out where Itachi is in six months I'm not telling Sasuke. We need to be way more skilled than we are to actually survive through another encounter. "Actually, could you start working in Kusa? The Chunin Exams are in a week, can you have it ready by then? I want information on the contestants."

"Sure, I'll start there." Shirokumo agrees.

"Acceptable." Sasuke eagerly says. He's already envisioning his victory, the arrogant brat. "I need to go pack for the Chunin Exams. Come find me when you're ready for a description of Itachi, I'll tell you everything I can." He rises up from his chair and leaves my room.

"What's the real reason you want this spy network?" Shirokumo asks from his web. Great, he's expanding it downwards now that it covers the entire ceiling. He's going to take over the room at this rate. "I don't believe you would do something this extreme for something so petty."

"You're right. There's a group called Akatsuki that his brother is apart of. They wanted Naruto to extract his bijuu, the nine tailed fox. I plan on stopping them, the spy network will help with that. Plus it will help Konoha out if I can send tell them 'Hey the Raikage is going to try to kidnap a Hyuuga again.' Also I will be better prepared for my missions if I have that resource. I can walk into any town and ask what shinobi are present, where is the one am I looking for, and who should I avoid." And now I can let some of my future knowledge slip and I have something to blame it on. Why wouldn't an aspiring spy master know certain unique pieces of information?

"You try to do too much. Not only are you here to protect Sasuke and spy on Orochimaru for Konoha, you want to take on this Akatsuki group. Please tell me that Akatsuki is less threatening than Orochimaru."

I wince. "Well... probably not. Orochimaru used to be one of them. Their ranks are small, only ten, but each member is a S-rank shinobi."

"You are insane. Do you realize how crazy that sounds? You want to take on ten S-rank shinobi?"

"Yeah I know. It isn't going to happen soon, that's not until years later. I have a little under three to be ready for that. It is also part of the reason I came here. Say what you will, but Orochimaru is training me quickly and effectively. I'm growing at an insane rate."

"You're also submitting yourself to torture. In any other situation what he does to you is torture. The only reason it isn't is because you're allowing it to happen, and even that excuse is flimsy at best." Shirokumo sounds concerned for me. Very concerned.

...

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