LF40: Itsy Bitsy Spider pt 1

"-And I guess we're out of time. All right, class, you may leave. Don't forget to study for the semester exam!" A few chairs squeaked against the floor as the class exited the final classroom of the day. Just a couple of minutes later, Hinata laid her books on her bed. "Oh, I almost forgot," she said, turning around. She lifted up her calendar and flipped the page so that the word "November" was no longer showing.
"I think I've got it," Raven said, letting her books, previously bobbing in the air, fall to the ground. She still held one in her hand. A knock at her door echoed ever so slightly through the room. The dark-haired girl stepped over and slid the dark grey door open.
    "Oh, it's you." She stepped out of her room into the Titans' hallway and faced Neji.
    "Have you found it yet?"
    "I may have. You said you need to get to the Konoha, right?"
    "Yes." Raven reopened the book, whose cover had intricate silver markings on a violet background. She flipped through a few pages before stopping. "All right," she mumbled, "let's see what I can do." Two sets of footsteps thumped on the floor toward Raven and Neji. The two occupants of the corridor turned to see two more Titans, who had now stopped being as they were close enough to speak. "Did you find something?" asked Robin. "Mmm-hmm," Raven responded, still holding up her book. "So I take it you're leaving?" Cyborg asked Neji.
    "Yes, as long as everything works, I will be back in Konoha soon."
    "All right. Thanks again for all of your help with Hot Shot. We may not have defeated her without you. And..." The leader of the Teen Titans paused. "Remember, if you ever think you want to come back..."
    "Right." Neji gave a blunt nod. The communicator he had recieved earlier was in his back pocket. "But as for now..."
    "All right, step back." Two of the Titans did as the girl said. Raven closed her eyes and began a sort of chant. After the long string of words, she yelled out "Konoha!", and a circular tunnel surrounded Neji, who soon disappeared.
"Ugh!" The shinobi faceplanted on the hard ground. He rubbed the side of his face as he got up and looked around. "I made it!" he remarked, a bit stunned.
    "Neji?!"
"Yeah, you're telling me." Ulrich shook his head. "That was insane back there; I'd probably be dead if you didn't step in."
    "Always glad to help, I guess."
    "Hey, guys, what's up?"
    "Oh, just talking about that incident the other day with all the girls. How'd you hold up?"
    "Not very well. I guess I got off lucky since only one of them was after me, but still, I'm pretty sure-- what was her name, Lauren, Lori, something like that--anyway, I'm pretty sure she was psychotic or something."
    "Yeah, try five of them; believe me, it's a lot worse."
    "Well, I'd better get to class. See you guys later!"
    "Bye, Jeremy!"
    "See ya."
"Finally. 'Sabout time the ship showed up." The brown-haired worker got off the lamppost where he was previously leaning and walked to the harbor. He adjusted his brown hat as the medium-sized ship pulled in. A few other men secured the boat to the docks, and the brunette walked forward. A gray-haired man, probably in his 60s, appeared. He fiddled with the collar on his suit and stepped down onto the pier. "This is the shipment for the zoo, right?" the brown-haired man asked gruffly. "Yes, sir," the older man replied, "A koala and her cub fresh from Australia."
    "All right." The brunette wedged himself past the other man and boarded the boat. Soon he located the bright green crate, two pairs of eyes staring out from one of the gaps between planks. "Hup," he grunted, lifting the crate at waist height and waddling off the ship. The brunette set the container on a red-painted dolly. He swiped his hands across each other a few times to rid them of dirt and swiveled the dolly around. Within minutes, the man and the two koalas had arrived at the zoo. The green crate plopped down on a mattress of leaves. The brown-haired man jiggled the side of the crate, and it slid off. The mother koala, her baby in her pouch, hesitantly crawled out the chamber into the chilly daylight. The man turned his head to cough, and the other occupant of the crate crept out. The brunette cleared his throat, picked up the much lighter crate, slipped the lid back on, and carried the container away. New to this territory, the mouse spider walked forward and took in its blurry surroundings. The arachnid jerked and locked in position as a grey, phantom-like entity engulfed it. The spider recovered, but with the Eye of X.A.N.A. in two of its eyes.
"Shikamaru!" Lee came up to the lunch table and set his tray down. "What is it?" Shikamaru asked, some remnants of food still in his mouth.
    "I think I remembered the second hand sign!"
    "Really?! What was it?"
    "It was like this." The green-clad shinobi folded his hands together in the Snake sign.
    "All right, got it." Shikamaru pulled out a piece of paper from a folder. He slapped the folder shut and grabbed a pencil. The word "Snake" appeared between two other words on the paper, which was replaced in its holder.
    "Great. All we need is the last hand sign. Then we can finally get home."
    "Right. I will keep trying to remember. Hopefully I will come across it soon, and then we both will get to see the people we love!" Yeah, sure, if you say so, thought the other occupant of the room.
The possessed spider crept onto the campus unnoticed, though it would not stay that way for long. The mouse spider flickered, splitting into two possessed spiders. The process continued until there was a huge, writhing mass of arachnids, all intent on one goal. The group silently scuttled to the outside of the cafeteria building and entered via the open door. "I can't believe Daddy was so rough on me!" Sissi proclaimed to the rest of her group. She humphed and bit down on the food on her fork. "That's weird; I feel like something's crawling on-Aah!" she shrieked. She jumped up and madly shook her arm, yelling, "Spider! Spider!" Her fork went flying and clanged on the table. The mouse spider eventually fell off the girl's arm, and she stopped yelling, making the badly stifled laughter more easily heard.  "Hey! It was a big spider," she muttered, sitting back down.
"And you never saw anyone else from here?"
    "No, ma'am. I was the only one from Konoha as far as I know."
    "All right. So how'd you get back?"
    "I met a group of people from an organization called the Teen Titans. A girl there figured out a way to send me home."
    "Did she cast the jutsu?"
    "No; she used some sort of spell, but it wasn't a jutsu, or at least not a type I am familiar with."
    "What makes you say that?"
    "She never made a single hand sign; all she used was a book as well as some sort of chant."
    "I see." The Hokage leaned back.
"So it's just some mystery virus out of nowhere?"
    "Yeah, I don't have a clue what it wa-" A loud shriek interrupted the chunin. Heads turned and gaped at the cluster of possessed spiders invading the room. The arachnids stayed in place for a moment, but soon charged at the humans in the room. Kids ran around screaming, trying desperately to kick off a spider or shake it out of their hair.
    "Yowch!"
    "Augh!"
    "It bit me!"
    "What the?!"
    "Get off of me!"
"Any ideas yet?" the blonde moaned.
    "No."
    "I thought as much." Ino plopped down on the grass. "We've been walking for days, we don't know what's going on, we have no idea where we're going, we haven't seen any signs of civilization since we showed up here, and... I'm just sick of it!" She uprooted a few blades of grass and threw them into the breeze.
    "It's not exactly a party, but I guess we'll just have to deal with it." The brown-haired ninja sighed. "We might not get back to the village, but... we can still try."
    "Yeah, I guess so." Ino shifted her legs' position as orange light glared at the landscape. "Well, it's getting late. I guess we'll set up camp here." She yawned, and her gaze slid across the grass.
    "Huh?"
    "What is it?"
    "It's..." The blonde reached forward and plucked a stem from the ground. "It's a fujibakama flower..." She twirled it in her fingers and blankly stared at the horizon.
    "Okay..." Of course you wouldn't get it, Choji, the other ninja thought. Back before I made genin, at the flower arranging classes... Her focus returned to the rotating flower in her hand. Wasn't this what Sakura compared herself to? I wonder how she's doing. Is she wrapped up in whatever mess this is, too? Probably not. And what about Sasuke? He ran away from the village, but surely he's back by now, right? Ino set the flower down. How did we get here, anyway? She sighed and fell back on purpose, a small poof of dust floating away from the impact. I guess I'll try and figure it out tomorrow, she thought, drifting off into sleep.