The Night Is Dark & Full of Terrors [ KOMORI ]

Well, she couldn’t really say anything to that piece of information. Not really. The first time Komon and Saya met it was under some unfortunate circumstances, and the girl couldn’t remember if the Hyuuga had activated his bloodline or not. Her primary attention were on the three genin of her year. As such the girl simply kept her mouth shut and threw laser beams from her eyes in the form of a heated glare.

She huffed at his lack of reaction as the group were stopped before the roped gates by the Team Leader. He gave them a once over, frowning slightly before pointing to Saya and Komori. ”You two can go ahead and go in. It’s been five minutes since the last group.” He lifted the thick ropes with ease and that made Saya raise a brow. Looks like Team Leader was stronger than he looked. A little less than half of the men in the village wouldn’t have been able to pick it up with a single arm.

Either way, the Chief’s (as Saya was now dubbing him) decision caused the girls to instantly protest. They were quick to latch onto either side of Komori’s arm, pressing themselves against his frame. "What! No way we’re going in there with just them. It’s so big and scary, like, how are we even going to make it out without Komori?" Pouted the Strawberry Blonde. And similar to a cat, she tightened her grip onto him by digging her nails into flesh just a bit. For Komori, it would feel like little pin pricks. Mostly an annoyance rather than anything painful.

"Yeah! You really can’t expect us to go in without him, right?" Brunette, it seemed, went with the flow and continued to latch herself to Komori. Nevermind that she was just grilling Saya over his twin’s physique and other things. Seriously, chest hair? She blanched at the memory of the girls’ eagerness and dependence on Komori. And such acts (the complaining and attaching themselves to the Hozuki’s side) drew the attention of the meager groups that were waiting their turn. Three groups, six people in total, and most of them were girls that were now clambering and pulling at each other to be in Komori’s quote-on-quote group.

”W-Wait a moment here!” Yelled the Chief as he tried to calm down the mob of girls. But his protests were drowned out by the complaints and sudden cat-like hissing. ”No! T-That’s enough!” His voice boomed, taking on a deeper baritone and giving off a threatening vibe. Again, Chief looked pointedly at the shinobi duo and jerked his head towards the forest. ”The test only allows ONE PAIR at a time. Don’t ruin it for others just because a jounin is here. Let him test his courage and have his own fun too!”

Saya couldn’t help but feel and nod in approval. No wonder why he was the one directing the event. She ducked under the rope and took a few steps forward before turning back to see if Komori had joined her. It would be hilarious to see him having to scramble and pry all those hands off his figure. A lopsided grin dominated her expression at the thought.

WORD COUNT: 546
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2111 + 546 = 2657

Her half-smile immediately morphed back into its unimpressed line. It was such a disappointment that Komori was enjoying all the attention being placed upon him. Instead of panicking and trying to escape the horde of young girls scrambling to be in his “oh-so-powerful” arms, he merely brushed their hands off his person in the most half-hearted way she’d ever seen from a man.

For a few moments, make that two of the longest minutes ever, Saya had to wait patiently for Komori to disentangle himself from the newly formed fanclub before he finally made his way to her. She merely rolled her eyes at his antics (particularly the two fingered salute that she would eventually associate with him in the future). Within a minute the pair were deep enough that they could no longer hear the bellyaching of the girls and the light from the entrance had faded to simple darkness.

The only light guiding them was the light coming from the half-moon. Saya felt that she should feel remotely in danger considering that the forest was dubbed the most terrifying of the training grounds. It was even used as part of the chunin exams half a century ago, when the villages would put forth their best genin teams and test them on whatever criteria they deemed fit for the rank of chunin. Now, however, each village held their own exams rather than showing off their current power to the others.

”It’s probably nothing.” Saya replied, eyes forward and refusing to give Komori a glance. ”We are shinobi and a mere civilian activity should not give us any pause.” A sharp nod was punctuated, indicating that she was expecting this to be easy-peasy.

But soon after their walk started Saya began to feel something caressing her bare arms. It was an extremely light touch that the girl brushed the area nonchalantly with her hand. That is until she felt it clinging over her face and hair, and her upper body, causing her sputtering and whip her arms around herself.

”W-What the hell!”

WORD COUNT: 352
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2657 + 352 = 3009

”It’s just this… Huge cobweb!” Saya felt the chills running up and down her spine just from the notion of a spider web. She shook her head and continued to frantically pull off the sticky substance from her figure until it was all gone. Goosebumps began to form over her bare skin when Komori pointed out that he hadn’t heard the other pairs that had gone before them.

Saya paused and tried to strain her hearing. But just as the jounin had alerted her of something going on, something moved in the darkness. Its shell giving off a light sheen with the small amount of light peering through the leaves. She took a hard swallow and tried to suppress the scream clawing at her throat. Because, there, right by the bark of the tree that Komori was standing by was… a centipede.

And though the girl was absolutely fine with a lot of things, bugs, insects, snakes, and other creepy crawlers were something that she could not stand in normal circumstances. Such encounters made her forget about the jounin’s ominous observation for a brief moment.

”K-Komo… Komori!” She whispered, face stricken as she reached out to him with a shaking hand. She would attempt to grasp at his sleeve or wrist to gain his attention before pointing to the long bug chilling right by his head with her free hand.

WORD COUNT: 233
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3009 + 233 = 3242

“Oh, ew, gross.” That was not something that the Hozuki wanted to deal with. Insects, arachnids, any creepy crawly that goes bump in the night. He was still observing the area when he heard Saya try saying his name a few times. Komori was only used to hearing his name repeated during arena battles from his adoring fan among other activities, so he was confused at first. She grabbed his wrist, since his sleeves were rolled up like always, which caused him to give her his full attention. “What?” he asked quizzically. He turned his head to see the 2 meter long freak of nature clinging to the tree, which promptly to try to leap at him. caused him to freak out a bit, letting out a small but still deep yell of surprise, since he refused to scream like a girl, as he pointed his index finger at the bug and shot it with a water droplet that pierced its body and caused its bug guts to explode from the force of impact all over the pair. “Not cool not cool not cool,” he shuddered as he stepped away from its carcass, eyes closed trying to ignore it. “I fucking hate bugs. Hate hate hate.” Aside from creeping the ever living fuck out of him, they also seemed to make him repeat things three times each. He exhaled deeply turning back to Saya, slightly embarrassed. “You didn’t see that.”

Komori immediately went to sign the half tiger seal, placing his hand on Saya’s shoulder as he did so. His chakra would flow off of his hand and onto her, taking shape over the both of them as he expelled all the bug guts and whatever else they had on themselves through the chakra cleanse technique. Withdrawing his arm, he took solace in the fact that his outsides were no longer covered in something’s insides. He then noticed her bare arms for actual shinobi reasons at this point, as opposed to what would automatically be assumed. “Would you mind if I placed a mark seal on you? It would just help me keep an eye on you out here.” Consent is important, anyone who makes a joke out of that line can fight me. If she agreed, he would just place his hand on hers and a small, millimeter wide dot would appear before fading away from view. If not, then cool, whatever, rude. “Come on, we should try to find the others. If insects out here are as large as that thing was, they could be in trouble.”

WC: 2975

The scream that emitted from Komori was definitely a surprise for Saya. For he certainly sounded like a damsel in distress. However, if it were not for the obviously dire situation they were in, the kunoichi would have certainly made some kind of witty comment about it. Instead she stood there, shaking like a leaf as the centipede wriggled around the surface of the tree. It was as if the thing was laughing at Komori’s reaction. That is until said jounin immediately blasted it to smithereens with a technique the girl hadn’t seen before.

Its pieces, shell, innards, and flesh, splattered all around them. And particularly the duo that had only been a mere yard or three away. Saya firmly kept her mouth shut so nothing of the bug would enter her system. By doing so, however, the genin couldn’t quite react or respond to Komori’s little outburst. Internally, Saya was glad that she had not been the only one to dislike the creepy crawlers but on the other hand, why was a full grown jounin freaking out on such creatures? It made her feel a lot less confident and safe despite their choice of career. There was also that small space in the back of her mind where she thought that his reaction was completely hilarious and needs to happen again (though not at her expense).

His unfortunate dip in her opinion was instantly redeemed when he used a low level jutsu to rid their bodies of the creepy crawly’s body parts. She shivered and immediately stepped away from the carcass, which was now attracting quite a following of other insects and other unfavorable creatures.

Saya nodded her permission, ”I don’t mind.” That was the second or third mark seal on her person now. Senshi. Possibly Lady Kira. And now Komori. Quite a collection she had, she mused before her focus sharpened. ”May I mark you as well then?” Saya asked, moving to place a hand against his wrist.

He was right. Civilian lives were at stake. Though she personally didn’t think it would make any difference, Saya activated her Mind’s Eye to try and see if there was any danger around. Examples being a rogue ninja having their way into Kumo’s training grounds, or some freak animal experiment that now had access to chakra.

Urgh. That would be a nightmare to deal with.

”This is… odd. I can’t sense anything dangerous.” Saya revealed as she started to make her way through the path marked by the group. They were little sticks protruding from the dirt. It made her frown. Such structures didn’t seem to be bothered either. Did the civilians just vanish out of thin air? ”Anyways, let’s just hope it’s not a spider or another centipede.” Her goosebumps became more prominent just mentioning the creatures. ”Ah. I just remembered. What was that technique you did?”

She wasn’t Saya if she would pass up an opportunity to learn.

WORD COUNT: 495
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3242 + 495 = 3737

It was more of a shout if anything. Following her compliance, he placed a mark seal on the top of her hand, before giving his silent consent and exposing his left wrist for her to mark him with, revealing the endings of his storm designed tattoo sleeve. She would not be able to see the whole thing just yet, as that would occur at a later date. “I didn’t know you had an interest in seals,” Komori said, his interest rather piqued. Fuinjutsu was his preferred specialty, and he was currently the best Kumo nin to use it. Even if it was something as small as a mark seal, not everyone bothered to learn it. He lowered his arms as he sensed a fluctuation in her chakra levels. It was similar to something that Reizo had done before in front of him.

Instead of looking out for the other kiddos, Saya’s attention was instead directed at the technique that he had used in order to clean themselves. “Oh, that? It’s the chakra cleansing technique. Skipping all the whatever, you just have to ‘pulse’ your chakra out of your body and get rid of all that grime and dirt. It’s used with a, uhm,” he hesitated a moment before sort of awkwardly showing her the tiger seal with both hands, “this seal. Tiger.” It had been a long time since he had bothered to use two hands to sign anything: most of his Hozuki techniques did not require seals and everything else he used with a single hand. He was going to offer to teach her earlier, but he did not know if she necessarily wanted to learn that, at least not yet, so he had not offered to teach her then.

After observing her attempting to learn it, or acknowledging that she would save it for later, whatever she preferred, Komori signed four handseals with his right hand. “Stay still for a sec.” He then placed his palm on top of the shorter girl’s right hand as a light blue barrier appeared over her entire body before fading away, leaving a seal that resembled a shield. “I felt like you needed this. And since it doesn’t let me track you, I figured you wouldn’t mind,” he said with a half-smile on his face. “Basically, it’s a second layer of skin for you. It’ll help you out in case we run into anything that can hurt us, you feel?” He then began walking away, looking at her and nodding as a gesture that she should follow him. “Anyways, animals and the like don’t typically have chakra signatures, so we have to rely on other senses instead of that handicap. Chakra can be manipulated pretty easily, yknow. Like this.” As he walked, Komori immediately suppressed his chakra until it was barely there, letting her observe his rather simple skill before flaring it back up. “And unless you’re up against some nasty genjutsu, your other senses usually don’t deceive you.” He smirked as he said so. Do I really want to hit her with a genjutsu? It’d be pretty low level… Hmm, maybe later. The two continued through the woods, assuming that she followed him, before a loud crashing sound emanated from their right. Komori’s head perked as he set himself up to dash, “Come on, Saya!” before dashing away at a speed of 125 towards the noise.

WC: 3570

Jutsu: Chakra Cleanse
Rank: E
Requirement: 500 Words // 250 words w/ a teacher

Once Komori gave her the “okay” to mark him, Saya inserted a bit of her chakra into his system. He probably didn’t even notice it due to how small and low leveled the technique was. Then again… Saya glanced at him when he posed his question at her, half-thinking he might have felt her place the mark on him and half-pondering on his inquiry. Was she interested? Of course, but that pretty much applied to every kind of specialty known to shinobi. ”I have a lot of interests in everything,” she replied before they continued on. ”But seals have become more and more appealing lately.”

Without sensing anything from her jutsu Saya tilted her gaze towards him with a raised brow. Ah, the cleansing technique. She had heard of it but decided that it had not been something that would aid her in her future endeavours and decided to forgo the jutsu. But it was interesting to see Komori out of his usual vainglorious environment. Saya noted that there was a slight hesitancy (one she might have not noted if she weren’t paying attention) in performing the seal. Was he… trying to teach her? That was kind of him. And such things boosted her opinion of him to a higher level. Not much as it was a basic technique, but Saya appreciated it all the same.

As a medical ninja it was easy for Saya to release her chakra in a “pulse”-like action. She formed the seal with ease and, not knowing who else to use it on, placed her hand on Komori’s wrist and tried to emulate what he had done earlier. Since the duo were not covered in any bug splatter anymore, the only thing Komori would probably feel disappear had to be some other kind of dirt or grime that settled on himself after he had performed the technique. ”That was surprisingly easy to learn,” she commentated, her mind recalling the other two things she was curious about - the water gun technique and his one-handed seals. Those really intrigued her, but the girl was aware that time was against them and decided that her curiosity will have to wait to be filled at a later .

Before the duo went off Komori added another layer of defense to Saya’s person. It felt a little weird when it settled over her skin, engulfing her in a soft blue glow and leaving a pictorial shield on the back of her hand. Call her impressed. Saya never really had much control over how her mind categorized people, especially when they had so much knowledge for her to pick from. But what had she been expecting from a jounin? Clearly, Saya had been quick to judge and his fanclub had not helped in that regard. Either way, Komori was all business now and the girl followed his lead.

”No, I don’t mind. Thank you,” Saya said, nodding as the extra information about animals and chakra sank into her. Something extra for her to chew on after this whole mystery was solved. He even demonstrated how his chakra dimmed to almost nothing before it flared out once more. Something familiar hit her senses. The setting was familiar but some things were “off” to her - a winter white landscape with a semi-frozen lake in the distance. The water beneath the surface was still warm enough for some life forms to be swimming around. In contrast to it, however, was the scent and taste of something warm and cozy.

How odd. It was quite a polarizing chakra signature, and it was very curious to her that she didn’t catch the specific taste or smell of it. Perhaps it would become clearer if they happened to spend more time with each other after this whole fiasco. Saya wasn’t counting on that, however, and merely walked beside him. ”I see. I’ll keep that in mind, Jonin Komori.” His rank was attached, and while the usually laidback shinobi would have seen it as odd, Saya thought it fit to stick on there to show her appreciation for the small lesson.

There was a sudden thud and crash, causing Saya to immediately chase after Komori’s blurred form as he sped in the right direction. She was a tad slower but the kunoichi entered the scene just after the Hyuuzuki twin. Huddled together were at least two or three groups of civilians cowering under a much bigger arachnid. Its eight legs weaving some of its threads over a suspiciously human sized bundle. That was odd. Why hadn’t they heard a scream?

Saya looked closer. Their mouths and appendages had been covered closed with thick spider silk. Immediately, the girl jumped towards the group at full speed. She stopped about three to five feet before the civilians, and brought a kunai in each hand as she stared down the outrageously huge spider. Its spindly mouth flickered with all six or eight teeth-legs (she didn’t know what they were called) as its eyes observed both shinobi.

”Everyone calm down!” Saya hissed over her shoulder as she glanced toward Komori, trying to see if he would give her some kind of sign that he had a plan in mind.

WORD COUNT: 878
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3737 + 878 = 4615

Jounin Komori? The Hozuki gave her a quizzical look upon hearing this, as he was not used to be treated with… respect. It was her tone more than what she had said. An odd feeling  arose for him, making him seem as if he was somehow above her? In rank and power, it was undeniably so, but as a person? It just felt strange.

Back to the action, Komori looked outwards at several groups of civilians. This seems to be most of them based on my earlier count… He took note of the giant spider and a smirk appeared on his face. He had a brief flashback to his chuunin exams and the hulking man/spider hybrid that came with it. His first kill. Komori took note of Saya moving without thinking of the danger, her protective nature seeming to shine. Curious… It wasn’t until she looked back at him pleadingly. He looked towards her with a cocky grin. “I got this,” he said confidently as he winked and charged towards it. The last time he had dealt with a giant spider thing, he had been forced to hide in the ceiling and shoot it from cover. Not anymore. He signed Ox → Rabbit → Monkey faster than anyone besides Saya was able to perceive, his arm lighting up with chakra and the cry of an army of birds echoing through the forest. While he was being flashy, he hoped that this would draw the remaining civilians towards him with their own curiosity, assuming that they were not also in danger.

His smirk had turned into a determined smile as he charged towards the bastard, charging underneath it as he used chidori to rip open a hole in its abdomen, moving out of the way before any bodily fluids were able to touch him. On the other side of the beast, the lightning would die out, Komori turning around at the beast in pain. He withdrew his Tsubasa sword, coating it in lightning chakra through the chidori katana technique. With a sharpness of 80, Komori charged towards the beast, severing two of its legs and landing on top of its head, causing a hissing sound to emanate from the beast which attempted to throw him off, dropping the civilian it had been holding for Saya to hopefully catch, otherwise he would drop safely into the web. Komori stood triumphantly on top of the spider, taunting it. Quite frankly, he started dancing on top of it, surprising himself as the lightning began taking effect, numbing the goliath. He was at ease. It was usually boring to fight something so easy for him, but he was a jounin of Kumogakure. While typically light hearted, he could be a force to be reckoned with should anyone ever discover his vengeful side. And boy, did he hate creepy crawlies.

In the mood for some more lightning jutsu, Komori placed his hand on its hairy back, its numb body twitching beneath him, now standing on six legs. He reached his other arm into the sky, a bolt of lightning striking from beyond the tree tops and hitting his arm, channeling through his body before electrocuting the bastard. It slumped to the ground, coincidentally not on top of anyone as its remaining legs shriveled up against its body, the life draining out of its multiple eyes. He looked triumphantly towards the civilians and Saya, standing on top of its corpse in a heroic pose. After he had gotten his king of the world fill for the day, he sheathed his sword and leapt off the beast. He reached into his weapons pouch, withdrawing a handy dandy kunai, looking towards Saya with a nod. He would begin to cut through the silk for one bound person, and upon his release, Komori would hand him another kunai. “Mind helping us out with the others?” He would then go around setting the others free, allowing for Saya to help cut them out as well. Undoubtedly, he was being barraged with affection and gratitude from members of his fan club.

WC: 4265