A strange new life

6.13

Tension thick enough to cut with a kunai pressed on me. Tsuchigaru’s massive eyes bore down on us. Karin’s grip on my arm reached the death-grip settings. I fought the urge to shrink back. That’s not how I expected things to go after the somewhat peaceful start, but I noticed a few things. For one, that the big one hadn’t killed us yet. For another, what was this about the snake’s stench? The only thing I could think of regarding the snake was my eye and Orochimaru. Orochimaru also meant Ryuchi Cave and his summons.

That gave me an idea to try. I wasn’t a friend of the snakes; I very much had a blood feud with Orochimaru. I could use that, but I wasn’t willing to give that information for free. I remembered the murals, and the pictographs of badgers and humans trading. Maybe they liked to barter? Why else would they have a history lesson over that? I could do bartering. It was even in my favor since I had nothing else besides information to offer.

The best case scenario was to enlist their help with a contract, gather supplies, and have them send me back from wherever their lands were. In a worst-case scenario, I’d settle up to leaving here alive, with information on how to return to Konoha.

I puffed my non-existent chest, raised my head. Confidence, that was now my middle name.

“I am no snake friend. I fought and killed them before.” I mean, not me, me. It was Naruto and Sasuke who killed those giant snakes in the Forest of Death, but I helped, right? I even had a hand in their training. I hope they didn’t mind me taking credit.  “I have a blood feud against their summoner; I orchestrated his fall.” Even if I didn’t believe that was the last I had seen of Orochimaru and that it wasn’t me who killed him, but the Hokage and Shisui. I was the one that moved the pieces years before. That also counted as my kill, right? Right?

Alliances declared, boast stated, I started my sales pitch. “You’ll sign a summoner contract with me,” I rasped, held in the urge to cough. I wasn’t good at negotiations, but I knew you should always shoot up for the biggest you can and negotiate to a more realistic outcome. “You’ll send us back, give us supplies and equipment. In return, I’ll provide you with news regarding the snake-clan.”

A rumble from above followed my declaration. “You want to barter?” The voice asked, amused. Tsuchigaru’s eyes glinted in the semi-darkness of the cave.

Kumoko’s tiny chakra bundle moved. She dashed from the big paws side until she was at Tsuchigaru’s face. “Pops! Lemme handle this!” Her small, fur-covered frame shook. She looked a bit silly, glaring up at her giant father.

“And why should I let you, cub? You’ve already meddled enough when I ordered our guests to be left alone.”

“Cause I earned my name!” The answer came in a high-pitched, squeaky growl. “I can handle this stuff now!” Kumoko’s puffed tail pointed straight up. She turned to me. “Let me barter with the snake girl. If she’s lying, I can always eat her eye after.”

Why was Kumoko so obsessed with my eye?

Another quake-chuckle rumbled through the room. “Have it your way then, Kumoko.”

Kumoko preened, tail still straight up. “Snake girl,” she squeaky-growled my way. Was she trying to be intimidating? “Here are my terms for you: The snake girl will surrender all her secrets, give me her eye, and the Iron Skin clan will let her leave this place alive!”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I wanted to feel insulted that I was relegated to deal with his kid, but wasn’t that to my advantage? Hoodwinking—I mean, convincing Kumoko might be much easier than her father.

“No!” Kumoko’s tail lashed out.

The she-devil paced in front of me. I had, at some point, sat down. Karin had also sat by my side and now rested her head on my lap. Gentle breathing indicated she was fast asleep. I couldn’t blame her, the negotiation had gone on for the better part of an hour, and Karin hadn’t recovered from me sucking her dry of life force the previous day. I was worried. Karin displayed an uncomfortable level of trust and familiarity with me for someone she barely met a few hours ago. Was this one of those cases of abuse victims imprinting on their saviors or some bullshit like that?

I was holding a bloodied piece of Karin’s shirt. The redhead was kind enough to offer me a scrap of fabric to clean the blood from my mouth before she fell asleep. My throat was a stinging mess, and I was ready to be done with this. Maybe this was Kumoko’s strategy. Drag this out as much as possible until I give up and agree to her inane demands.

Kumoko looked at her giant dad again. She’d done that whenever declaring her terms. Was she looking for the approval of the patriarch? She looked back at me, eyes narrowing.

“The clan will give the snake-girl supplies, help her find her way back to human lands, sign a summoning contract with her.” She said with another frustrated lash of her short tail. “She’ll give us the information about the snake clan and their summoner, pay in high-quality honey for each summon, help us acquire supplies from human lands, and give me her eye.”

We had come to somewhat agreeable terms.

A summoning contract with the Iron Hide badger clan, each summon paid in honey, the amount depending on the badger summoned and the task performed. Honey wasn’t that cheap in Konoha, but I had contacts. If I didn’t abuse the summons, I wouldn’t have problems with the payment. I also didn’t mind summoning them from time to time and providing them with storage seals so they could move stuff from Konoha back to their land.

Shinobi equipment for Karin and me. I was tired of walking around half-naked. It wasn’t the worst here, because none of the badgers seemed to care about my state of undress, but I often caught Karin’s averted gaze whenever I moved. Yeah, nope. I was too young to be flashing redheads.

A way back to Konoha. Unfortunately, the badger clan couldn’t reverse-summon me back to the Land of Waves. About a decade ago, they had cut ties with most of the shinobis in the great countries. There was no agent in the human lands to perform the summons, so we settled up for the Iron Hide clan providing a guide to help us on the long trip back.

The problem was that Kumoko was obsessed with my eye, and I wasn’t sure why. She never budged on that one demand. Trying to negotiate around it was a waste of time. Trying to learn why was also a waste of time. I wasn’t keen on going blind because the cub wanted my eye. That left me trying to compromise.

“I agree with most of that,” I started, and Kumoko’s head perked up. “I even agree with your demand for my eye,” the she-devil took a step toward me, and I rushed to add through the pain in my throat, “with conditions.”@@novelbin@@

Kumoko stopped, tail puffed, and lashed out again. “What conditions?”

“I’ll give you the eye if and when I recover my own to replace it.” I rasped out.

I wasn’t sure if I could ever recover my eye from the Hyuga or where the other eye was, but on the chance I did, I wasn’t against letting Kumoko have the snake eye. I’d even cheer her on if she wanted to snack on the thing. I just wasn’t about to set myself on fire to make her feel warm, so to speak.

Kumoko growled and clawed the ground. I saw the refusal coming, but a rumble from the silent patriarch ended her building comeback. Kumoko shook for a moment, pawed the ground again, and lashed her tail even more.

“What do you mean?” She finally asked.

I shrugged. “Someone stole my eyes; put this one in its place. I want to get my own back.”

Kumoko stared for a long while, then she nodded. “Agreed.”

I let out a sigh of relief. That had been way more difficult and tiring than I had anticipated.

“Good job, cub,” Tsuchigaru praised and ignored the growly “not a cub” from Kumoko. He turned to me. “Thank you for letting my daughter have her first barter, the opportunities are rare these days.”

I nodded at the patriarch. Mostly, I was glad this was over.

“Kumoko will take you to our storage to gather equipment and lead you to the hive; I’ll have the contract ready once you return.”

What was he talking about? Return from what hive? “Return?”

Tsuchigaru’s eyes bore on me again. “Of course,” the clan leader said, “no respectable badger clan will sign a contract without a gift of royal jelly. Kumoko will guide you to the Bee’s hive.”

My shoulder slumped. Of course, why had I thought it would be this easy? I could even hear the capitalization of the word bee from the patriarch. These were going to be some giant killer bees, weren’t they?