Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Eve of the Spiders ❯ Hunting ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter #4

Hunting

 

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Co.

 

Hey, sorry for the long wait. Things have been very crazy lately (and the next few weeks are going to get hectic). I hope you enjoy!

 

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“I might as well still be sleeping in the hospital,” growled Saori.

 

Saori stared disapprovingly at the shoebox apartment she was living in just down the street from the hospital. The walls were off-white, just like the hospital, and the little bed in the bedroom looked virtually identical to a hospital bed - chrome, white sheets, and all. The room also looked like it wasn't used in quite some time. The windows were opened so the air didn't feel so stale, and it also needed to be dusted, but it looked about the right size for one girl who may or may not even stay all that long.

 

The village provided her with a tiny one room apartment and a small loan so she could buy food and toiletries. She was required to start looking for any job with a decent supporting salary and start paying it back as soon as she was financially stable.

 

Seaka was busy running back and forth across the room, exploring everything she could. They were only together a couple of days and Saori already discovered that their connection had some cool little perks. Seaka wasn't only just sensitive to the sound of Saori's voice, but she was also sensitive to Saori's thoughts and emotions. It helped because then it didn't look like Saori was talking to herself.

 

I want to go hunting, announced Seaka, the only thing I've eaten in the past three days are the puny little insects outside the hospital window. I want something a bit tastier.

 

“You could have gone hunting while I was in the hospital. There was no need for both of us to stay,” Saori reminded.

 

Where you go, I go, she stated.

 

“That is going to look lovely when I go hunt for a job…”

 

Is hunting for a job similar to my type of hunting?

 

Saori laughed, “No not, really.”

 

Seaka made a funny noise, which Saori guessed was her way of pouting. She climbed up onto Saori's back stubbornly, Where you go, I go!

 

`You act like a four-year-old,' Saori impressed mentally. She was starting to get used to Seaka crawling up her back, or at least the sudden extra weight didn't make her fall over.

 

Whatever, you're still going to take me hunting later.

 

Everything about her life would take some getting used to. Saori had to start completely from scratch starting with a home and job. She hoped that maybe some memory would spark to life again, but she wasn't about to get herself worked up over it. For the time being she settled for caring for a giant spider with the maturity of a toddler - at least it was entertaining at times.

 

`I'm not dressed for an interview though…' Saori sighed as she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She was allowed to go through the clothing donations at the hospital, but almost everything there was too little or too big so everything she had was loose and very casual. The most professional combination of clothes she could come up with was a pair of old kakis and a loose t-shirt with a grinning rice ball on the front.

 

Armed with the news paper classifieds and a two foot tall, twenty-five pound, spider Saori left her empty shoebox apartment in search of a job.

 

0000

 

“I'm heading out,” Hinata waved to her father and cousin as she headed to the front door of the Hyuga complex. The two of them were concentrating on a sparing match so they barely responded, but Hanabi smiled and waved at her elder sister as she left.

 

It was time to train with old teammates again, and this time it didn't look like it would start raining on them again.

 

The training grounds were on the other side of town from the Hyuga complex, past the hospital and ramen stand, so it wasn't uncommon to run into a lot of old friends or her long time crush, Naruto.

 

What she didn't expect was to hear Ayame start screaming out of nowhere. The girl had a real set of lungs, Hinata could hear her and she was still a few shops down from the ramen stand.

 

Her expert eyes could see in perfect detail, even from a distance, so the answer to the question `why is Ayame screaming' was blatantly obvious. A girl roughly Hinata's age was backing out of the tiny ramen shop and gave a shallow bow with a hefty sized black spider in her arms.

 

“Gomenasai, Seaka did not mean any harm. She was just curious about the smell of ramen. I swear, she wasn't attacking you or anything. Seaka is more like an immature little kid actually,” she rambled in embarrassment - her face was almost the same shade as her hair. “I'll pay for the dish she broke, I promise, but right now I am looking for a job. At the first opportunity I'll pay you back.”

 

“Just get that thing out of here!” screeched Ayame.

 

`How unusual,' thought Hinata as she watched the girl carry her spider down the street.

 

After the spider incident Hinata hurried to the training grounds. Shino was already waiting as usual but Kiba wasn't there quite yet. Kiba wasn't late, in fact he was almost always on time, it was only the fact that both his teammates had a habit of being early that made him appear late.

 

“Good morning, Shino-kun,” greeted Hinata.

 

Shino nodded with a quiet good morning.

 

Kiba made his usual noisy entrance not long after. Neither of his teammates were expert conversationalists - a quiet bug guy and a stammering Hyuga girl - so the dog lover took it upon himself to be noisy enough for all three of them. He was very good at that job.

 

“So what have you been up to the past two days, bug freak?” asked Kiba. “I heard from Naruto you found a girl in the river.”

 

Shino cocked an eyebrow, “How would Naruto know that?”

 

“Well he is teammates with Sakura, and apparently she needed to vent after that girl decided she needed to go out for a walk. You know Naruto somehow he never shuts up when he starts eating ramen.” Kiba grinned, “So who was she? She must have been pretty interesting for you to plant a bug on her.”

 

“Shut up,” Shino responded in a growl of annoyance. Only Kiba would try and make rescuing a girl into something perverted just to be annoying.

 

“Well, bug freaks of a feather, I guess…” Kiba snickered.

 

“W-what do you mean, Kiba-kun?” asked Hinata.

 

“I haven't seen it yet, but apparently she has this really big spider as a pet.” Kiba grinned, “Sakura has a slight arachnophobia problem so she was a little freaked out.”

 

The part about the spider most definitely sounded familiar to Hinata, `Is he talking about the girl I saw at Ichiraku Ramen?'

 

“Enough, Kiba.” Naturally Shino sounded angry, he always did hate Kiba calling him `bug freak', but Hinata couldn't help but think his voice was a little colder than usual that time.

 

Even for Hinata, Shino was a very hard person to read, for many reasons. He showed so little emotion it was like looking at a mask, and outside of the odd annoyed tone he never sounded particularly angry or defensive. Maybe he had some sympathy towards a fellow bug wielder?

 

0000

 

“Good lord,” Saori dragged her feet along Konoha's main market street. She could not believe how very tired she was. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did. All she wanted to do was get back to her apartment and collapse on her hospital style bed.

 

If it wasn't one thing it was another. If Seaka wasn't getting into something she most certainly wasn't supposed to, her interviews totally bombed. One thing she hadn't anticipated before job hunting was the fact that she didn't have a clue what her own talents and strengths were, so most of the questions were making her draw blanks. She also didn't have any knowledge of any prior job experience or a surname - which she didn't even consider until she tried to fill out an application.

 

I know you're feeling down, but could we please go hunting? Pleaded Seaka. You can take a book and wait if you want. You don't have to be right beside me, just nearby.

 

`Fine, fine, I could use some fresh air to help me think anyway,' Saori glumly stretched her arms above her head. She hated feeling so down because feeling so down also made her feel exhausted. That was why she was thankful for some fresh air - it energized her and almost cheered her up.

 

One of her stops she made earlier in the day was at the library. They were looking for a new librarian who would be spend all day checking books back into the system and putting them on the shelves. The head librarian didn't have a problem with spiders, but without any knowledge of how to work the computer system Saori would have been next to useless in the library. Not that Saori was particularly crushed, the air was extremely stale inside the library.

 

But just because the library couldn't hire her, didn't mean that they wouldn't give her a library card. She enjoyed the books, even if she didn't like the air in the building, she loved learning. It was probably because Saori forgot everything she'd once known so she not only wanted to know about herself, she wanted to know everything.

 

Saori almost completely fit the classic bookworm stereotype. She was slightly taller than the average girl her age, and with long limbs that made her awkward and clumsy. Her glasses were large and round, almost a bit too big for her face, and the `happy rice ball' t-shirt she was wearing was actually starting to grow on her.

 

Seaka chose the spot where she knew she would find the best prey while Saori waited in a well lit clearing with her book. The spider ran off into the bush to find food and Saori was absorbed into her reading material - their connection making them aware of each other constantly.

 

00000

 

Training ended early that day so nobody would head home in the dark. Aside from that, each of them had patrol duties early in the morning. It was the most boring job a Jounin was required to do because it involved standing on top of the patrol towers staring at nothing but miles of forest surrounding the village walls. More often than not nothing ever happened on patrol rounds, and if something did happen it would get messy. It was a no win situation, and no one ever looked forward to it.

 

Hinata was planning on heading to bed early so she would be alert when she reported for her shift at five in the morning. To get home faster she took a shortcut through the thicker part of the woods. She knew the woods so well - even without her Bayakugan - it didn't make a difference that the light was poor and there was no path.

 

The woods were teaming with wildlife, as the pearl eyed Hyuga heiress expected, and each creature simply continued on its way like she wasn't even there. What she didn't expect was to stumble across someone sitting in the dimly lit clearing.

 

The girl was familiar, and so was her happy rice ball t-shirt. The natural red and dark brown highlights stood out in the setting sunlight which also glinted off the rims of her large round glasses. It wasn't hard to guess why she wore such strong looking glasses, she had a thick book in her pianist hands, reading in such poor light would ruin anyone's eyes.

 

`Is she the one that Shino-kun found in the river?' Hinata wondered.

 

The redhead looked up from her book and blinked - presumably to bring the world back into proper focus.

 

She smiled sheepishly, “Oh, hi there.”

 

“…H-hi,” Hinata replied awkwardly.

 

“I didn't expect anyone to come through here, especially since it is getting a bit late,” the redhead stretched out the sore muscles in her long legs and arms, “I suppose that sounds odd coming from me. You're the one that is the Kunoichi, right?”

 

With a slight nod Hinata asked her own question, “W-what are you d-doing out here all by yourself?”

 

“I'm waiting for my … friend to get back, so I thought I'd read to kill time.” Her stance was casual but she still had a very good posture as she held her hand out for a casual handshake, “I'm Saori.”

 

`We come across each other and she just strikes up a conversation…?' Hinata took the handshake shyly, “H-Hyuga Hinata…”

 

Saori grinned, “Pleased to meet you.”

 

“… Ano … y-you dropped something.” Hinata's delicate pale finger pointed to what looked like a deeply creased piece of news paper that used to be in Saori's back pocket. They could both see the word `Classifieds' in large bold font on the front.

 

“Oh, that…” tone dropping, Saori picked up the paper and shoved it back in her pocket, “I was doing a bit of job hunting earlier…”

 

“…I-It didn't g-go well…?”

 

“Not really, I actually just got released from the hospital,” the redhead ruffled her already mussed up hair, “I was injured and lost my memories, so I'm starting over from scratch right now. There were a few more complications finding a job in my situation than I thought there would be…”

 

There was an awkward silence. That awkward silence was then interrupted by a couple spiders that crawled on top of Saori's head.

 

`…Sakura wasn't kidding about the spider problem…' Hinata's inner voice couldn't help but mumble in the back of her mind.

 

Saori's happy high note voice returned with a vengeance almost immediately after, “You know what, I'm out here to cheer up, and if I'm talking about the bad parts of my day I am not cheering up! I'm just going to have to think over the game plan and try again tomorrow.”

 

Hinata watched Saori grin like an idiot right after she finished explaining that she had no job and no memories of her past. That probably would have given her at least some right to be a bit depressed, but she was smiling.

 

Another spider made its way out of the bushes. It was black with a bright red marking on its back, and about the size of a large housecat. It was the type of thing that would send someone with arachnophobia into a coma.

 

“Oh, look who is finally back,” Saori had a sarcastic tone, “I hope you're stuffed because I lost feeling in my butt two hours ago.”

 

“… Ano … S-Saori-chan … i-if it doesn't s-s-sound w-weird … ano … my h-house is looking for n-new maids…”

 

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