What the hell? Why is she submissive to me? I haven't earned her respect yet, she shouldn't bend to my will. Actually this whole thing is progressing too smoothly. Why is everyone doing exactly what I tell them to without complaining?
...
"Hmm... I have minor sensing capabilities so we don't need you for defense. Knowing exactly where and how our opponents are set up will prove invaluable, go on offense." I order her.
She quickly obeys me, almost like she's scared of me. If I didn't know her I would have missed the hint of fear she has around her. That's why everyone is falling in line, they're scared of me.
"You really want seven on offense and only three on defense?" Temari harshly asks. Finally! Someone stands up to me. Leave it to Temari to not be scared when everyone else is. "That's stupid. I'll join the defense."
"How dare you question Leader-sama!" The Taki shinobi furiously spits out at Temari.
Everyone looks at him in confusion, myself included. Leader-sama?
~Keep an eye on that one. There's something... familiar about him.~
"Well... that was weird. Anyways, the only people in these Exams that I think can get past me is your brother or Red, my teammate. I know that Red won't attack me and I'm banking on your brother not wanting to attack you either. Plus we have around forty five minutes to trap the hell out of this forest, defense will be fine with only the three of us." I assure her.
She backs down a little, but I can tell she's not entirely convinced.
"Besides, I want you to lead the offense." I blandly inform her.
"What! Me? You want me to lead? Why?" Temari sounds confused. Her eyebrows are scrunching together as she tries to figure out my logic. She looks adorable right now like a puppy trying to play with a string and getting tangling itself up.
"You have experience leading if how well you helped corral your fellow Suna nin earlier means anything. Sure they're scared of your brother, but they respect you. Respect is earned, respect is a sign of a competent leader. So, how about it? Want to lead the charge into the enemy defenses?"
"I... but shouldn't... arg! Fine, I'll do it." Temari caves.
Good, I need her on offense. She's going to be a powerhouse with her wind jutsu. We're probably the only team that is skewing our numbers. The logical thing to do is have an even split, but I know we don't need five on defense. I'm just a tiny bit overpowered for this. I doubt I'll even need to use jutsu. I can probably overwhelm anyone who gets here with pure speed and taijutsu alone.
"Alright, go ahead and start planning an attack. I'll leave it all to you."
"Wait really? You're not going to tell me who to attack? You're leaving it all up to me?"
"Yeah, I've got to set up some defenses. All I'll say is don't attack the Red Team, you'll lose. Alright defenders, over here!" I walk away from the flabbergasted Temari.
I trust her to come through, that being said I'm going to have Shirokumo tail her and make sure. If she fails then I'll have to get creative.
"Alright defenders, what are your names?" I ask them.
"Leader-sama, I am called Hiro." The Taki shinobi says with a glorious bow.
"Uh... nice to meet you?" Wow this is awkward. I hope Hiro isn't always like this.
"I'm Ikki." The Iwa shinobi says. Short and to the point, I can respect that.
"Nice to meet you too. Call me Green." I get questioning looks from both of them at the unusual name. I don't bother to elaborate. "Alright, defense. What are you two capable of? The more I know the better plan I can come up with."
"I have access to Earth Release and Wind Release techniques. I can use Earth to make barrier walls and wind to push enemies away." Hiro happily tells me. He's completely ignoring Ikki.
"That's a strange combo to have." Ikki says. "I use seals. I can make exploding traps, kunai launchers and I've recently made a barrier seal that can be activated by me from a distance. They're a bitch to make, so I only have a few." Smart, he didn't tell us exactly how many he has.
"Wow, that's actually really cool." I really should start looking into seals if they can do stuff like that. Once I've truly mastered incorporating the Spiders into my style of combat it will be the first thing I do. I'm sure Orochimaru would be more than happy to teach that branch of shinobi skills.
"What about you?" Hiro eagerly asks. He gazes at me with big wonder filled eyes. Creepy.
"Oh, it'll be better if I just show you." I walk a few steps away from my temporary teammates. "Summoning Jutsu: The Weavers!" I slam my hand to the ground.
A massive cloud of smoke surrounds me.
"Summoner?" A familiar scratchy voice asks from the cloud.
"Summoner? Did she say Summoner?"
"We get to meet the Summoner!"
"The Summoner is here! He summoned us!"
"I've been hoping for this forever! The Summoner!"
"Murasakino? You in there? I thought I heard you." I ask.
"You remember me!" A bulldog sized spider with a purple scarf rushes out of the smoke.
"Of course I do! Excellent job on the hammocks." I kneel down closer to her level. The smoke finally clears.
"He's got a contract! Amazing! He can summon so many at once!" Hiro is idolizing me. I can't wait to ditch him.
Hiro's not wrong though, I summoned ten spiders at once. Every one of them is around Murasakino's size, some are a little bigger or smaller. Each one has a different colored scarf that accents their unique color schemes. This is more than I expected, I was hoping for three or four!
"Oh please, those hammocks are dreadful! You should have let me prepare!" Murasakino bashfully swats a leg at me.
"So she wasn't lying."
"Wow, I want to make something for the Summoner too!"
"You made his socks."
"Next time I will." I say to Murasakino as I ignore the byplay from the other spiders.
I stand up to address all of the Weavers. "As much as I would love to meet you all, I have a task for you that takes priority. I need you to trap the surrounding forest. I want you all to make this forest into a labyrinth of webs. I want you to make it impossible to make your way through. I want you all to make a Nest here."
Silence falls on the summoned spiders.
"Well ladies! You heard him! Let's get to it!" Murasakino scuttles off to the treeline and disappears into the foliage.
"OI! Murasakino make sure to leave a path for my teammates to get through!" I call after her.
"Come on! We can't be out done by her again!" The rest of the spiders scuttle off to different parts of the forest.
"Well that settles that. You two can have free reign to trap the clearing. It's best to stay out of the forest if you don't want to get stuck in a spider web."
"Dude. That was..." Ikki trails off.
"Cool! Amazing! Awesome! Inspiring!" Hiro happily chimes in. He's really impressed. About damn time someone recognizes the talent of the Spiders!
"Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying." Ikki says.
"Oh shut up and trap the clearing. We only have 30 minutes till the start." I order Ikki. How dare he say that about my Spiders!
"You know, now that I'm seeing him in person he doesn't seem that bad." I hear Temari say to Hinata with my enhance hearing. "I mean, that's the same guy who was ready to slaughter one of Suna's teams before the first task but he's giving me a leading role? One moment he hates Suna then the next he doesn't. I don't understand him at all!"
"I know. He seem completely different than before. We tried talking to him before the second exam. He was brisk and rude, but now he's assuming the leader role almost perfectly. He's not trying to micromanage everything, he's letting us think for ourselves. It doesn't make sense. Were you near him during the first exam?" Hinata asks.
"No, I wasn't. Gaara led us away from him. He didn't want to cause a scene. Well, any more of a scene. As much as I hate to admit it, Green-boy over there did us a favor by knocking out that particular team. They needed a reality check. Why do you ask?"
"I was close to him. The bloodlust he radiated was... indescribable. It felt like I was facing down a monster. No, like I was being toyed with by a monster. I wasn't even close to him, I can't imagine what that poor team felt."
"Alright, enough about our mysterious leader. We need to get a plan together. How are we going to get a flag?" Temari asks. "If they're in forest like us, I can cut down a good chunk of it and that should remove a lot of their planned defenses."
"You're not a monster." Hiro's voice startles me so badly I visibly flinch. "You heard them too, didn't you?"
"I did. It's alright, I won't blame them for telling the truth." Right now I'm glad they don't know who I am.
"You're not a monster. Believe me I would know."
"How can you be sure I'm not a monster? You don't even know me."
"I know a real monster." He says with a faraway look in his eyes.
"Kid, you don't know shit. Go set up some traps." I order and he eagerly obeys.
He must have been referring to Fuu, Taki's jinchuriki. Jinchuriki aren't monsters, hell the bijuu aren't monsters either. He doesn't know a damn thing about monsters.
"Hey Suna girl, need any help?" I call out to Temari.
"No. We've got it." Her voice is brimming with confidence. That's good, I don't want an unsure subordinate.
"Awesome. Cuz if I'm right we have about five minutes before the start. I'll summon a guide to get you through the webs."
Poof
"Sup?" Shirokumo lazily asks from on top of my head. How did he get up there? I put my hand on the ground!
"Hey. I need you to take these gennin through the webs. Also let me know if they need help."
"That it? Simple enough." He hops off of me and crawls over to Temari. "When are we leaving?"
"Uh... once the bell rings." Temari is pale, ridiculously pale. "Anyone else find this strange?"
"If by strange you mean terrifying, then yes. I hate spiders." Says one of the Kusa shinobi.
"Spiders hate humans so it's an even trade. Now shut up until you have something important to say."
"Shirokumo, don't antagonize them. They're temporary partners for the second exam. We need to cooperate if we want to pass."
"Fine. Doesn't mean I'm going to like it." My summon huffs in annoyance.
"I don't like it either." The Kusa shinobi speaks again.
DING DONG
"Oh thank Kami. Let's get this over with." Shirokumo bolts towards the trees.
"Let's move!" Temari calls as she sprints after him.
The offensive group leaves. I hope they succeed, I don't know what I'm going to do if they fail.
...
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