The Island
"Summoning Jutsu!" I slam my hand to the ground and a small cloud of smoke spawns into existence.
"Hey Al. We're outside now. Why can't you summon me somewhere consistent recently?" Shirokumo halfheartedly whines, judging by the way he's stretching and preparing to bask in the sun he's happy.
"I need to keep you on your toes. Do you even have toes? Whatever that doesn't matter. I've got some questions for you."
"Really? That's why you summoned me? Dude. You totally could have done this back in your room while lazing about on your dumb couch as I'm working on my web. Those things take time for me, I'm nowhere near as good as our best builders. I'm rambling, what's up? You said you had questions?"
"Yeah. I need a way to keep people out of my lab and room. There are too many people that are simply okay with walking into it. That's going to stop. I don't want anyone messing with my stuff."
"Why not install a good lock?"
"That wouldn't even slow down Academy students. Why do you think that nothing is ever locked at shinobi villages? There's just no point. So I need something better. I was thinking that maybe the Spiders have a gate keeper or something? Someone to stand watch over a specific location for me?"
"Nope, we don't have anyone like that. I suppose Keji might come close if he could block the entrance with his legs, but that's not his style at all. He likes to run around like an idiot then once an opportunity arises he traps his prey. Plus I have no idea how he'd contort his body to make that work, spiders aren't exactly the size and shape of doors."
"Dammit. There goes that idea. Do you have any other ideas? Cuz all I've got left is some elaborate seal traps or leaving behind a Jiongu monster to stand guard. There's no way I'm doing that last one, I'm not going to willingly separate from two fifths of my strength."
"Hmm. Maybe. I'll need to ask a couple questions to a handful of spiders first. I'm good, but even I don't know everyone's own personal skill set."
"What are you thinking?"
"We have some spiders that lace genjutsu into their webs, they spin them in a specific pattern and color to trap prey in illusions. Some of them get so good that their webs actually mimic the environment and are nearly invisible even by our standards. Maybe they can put one on your door or something."
"That would be awesome. Yet another reason I'm miffed that I can't use genjutsu." I could have done that myself. Maybe. Probably? I suppose I could bully Sasuke into doing it for me but that feels like a waste of his debt.
"You can't use genjutsu?" Shirokumo stops his lazy stretches to look at me in worry. "Did the Jiongu screw that up?"
"Kinda." I indifferently shrug. "Basically since I have five chakras whenever I try to place an illusion I also break them out of it."
"Huh, who would have guessed? It'll be fine, you have Sasuke for genjutsu."
"Exactly." Sasuke and I make one of the strangest pairs of shinobi ever. Almost nothing of ours overlaps, yet that is our strongest trait. What I don't know he does, and vice versa.
"So I've got my own question for you." Shirokumo rustles around some leaves, making a bedding of sorts. "You rigged the last base to explode. You had the trapdoor spiders work night and day to accomplish it."
"Yep. Really glad they did too."
"Then why is it still standing?" Shirokumo asks me with as much seriousness as he can muster. "You went on a couple huge tirades about how you hate Orochimaru and want to burn him, skin him, murder him, force him to watch as everything he's built falls, and so on. This seems highly out of character for you. Plus now you have to run all the way back there to set it off. You're a better planner than this."
"So you did notice that." I let a sinister smile form on my face. "Yes, I left that base standing. I've used the Spiders to leave behind hundreds, thousands, of seals that are hidden inside the walls. But do you really think that I don't have a plan?"
"No, I think you do have a plan. That's why I'm asking, I want to know what it is because right now I don't see it."
"It's simple really, I left behind more than just explosive seals." I pull back my left sleeve to bare my arm to the world. A long slit forms on it, spanning the entire length from elbow to wrist, and the Jiongu slowly leaks out of it.
But it's not just the Jiongu that comes out, with it comes a sealing scroll. It's a small scroll, only being ten centimeters long and barely a centimeter in diameter.
I take the scroll and gently unfurl it to show Shirokumo exactly what is inside. It isn't something grand and inspiring, it's not even impressive. All that's on this scroll is a simple seal that is surrounding numbers in a circle and on the very bottom there's a label. It says Land of Sound Base.
"What is that?" Shirokumo asks me. "Hold on. Are those numbers changing? They are, they're counting down."
"Correct. I've made other seals like this. It's a little bit more complex since once the timer hits zero on that one it sends out a pulse of chakra while this one just remains at zero. But what's nice is that the seals were activated at the same time, this is a clock. It's a timer that shows how long that base has left to live.
Even if I die right now this very instant that base will explode. There's nothing that will stop it, nothing short of dismantling the entire network of seals there. And thanks to some very helpful spiders that entire network is hidden away within the walls, the floors, and the ceilings."
"Well, and I know this is a long shot already but hear me out, what if someone accidentally destroys your timer seal that's over there? Then the entire network is defused."
"Who said I just made one timer? There's fifty. The entire network is linked together and it has fifty unique timers to set it off all in different spots. Even if one is destroyed the others will tick away until they reach zero. Then boom. No more base."
"Wow. You really planned ahead didn't you?" Shirokumo praises me in his own way. "You even made a timer to carry around yourself so you know when it does explode."
"There's more to it than that. Having this timer also lets me synchronize this base, and the next base, and the one after that together. Otogakure is going to burn, and it will all burn together in an instant of pure glory."
"I take back what I said. You've been planning that from the beginning, haven't you?"
"Yes. From the moment I asked you about spiders that can tunnel. That's why I haven't taken any actions against Orochimaru yet, that's why nothing has gone terribly wrong for him since I've sworn vengeance upon him. I could be sending every single Kage his personal itinerary for the next year, but I won't. Because that isn't personal enough."
"Wow. How far ahead do you plan these things out?"
"I play the long game. I'm already focusing on countering something that might happen around... three to four ish years in the future. I think? I've never been that good with the timeline. Anyways I have Orochimaru fooled, he thinks I'm making the Sword of Totsuka because I want to. I'm making it because I need to."
"Jeez kid, when are you not scheming?"
"Actually that's what my next few hours are going to be. Mindless senseless destruction of the highest possible scale. That's one of the reasons we're out on an island."
"You're blowing up an island? Why am I not surprised. Wait you said one of the reasons, what's the others?"
"Oh, my room here is closer to the rest of Orochimaru's shinobi. I don't know their skills yet, I don't know if they can hear us talking about the more unsavory things. Like skinning their boss for instance. This will be a one time thing, I'm making some sound dampening seals for my room and lab. They're just not done yet."
"Ah, gotcha. I'm going to go back to the Nest now. Since you're about to go fire crazy."
"Wise decision."
Shirokumo poofs away back to his home.
"Now, let's try out some new moves. I want to see just how durable an island is."
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