Chapter 159

- Here ... - the guy took a couple of steps back and froze abruptly, as he felt a strange movement on his back. But this is not the most important thing, but rather the walls of this cave! Everything around was filled with spiders! The eight-legged creatures shrank slightly under the light of the torch, but all as one continued to sit quietly on their web. Moreover, in some places it was still possible to clearly see strange cocoons, yellow clutches with eggs, and even ancient bones!

Shikamaru slowly turned around and instantly met four pairs of red eyes. With his movement, he woke up one of them! This was the first time Shikamaru showed such an expression. As much as he tries to hide it, being in a spider cave is simply the worst place of all! He was afraid of spiders, even if he had previously thought it was not! The spider looking at him did not look at all like those small creatures that could be accidentally crushed. This spider was about the size of a baby! Red and fluffy, spotted and fanged! Eight of his fur-covered paws slowly moved, and he slowly crept up to one of his relatives, looked at Shikamaru again, hissed and closed his eyes. At the same moment, the guy exhaled with relief ...

“It scares you to the point of shivering ... Everything is in a web,” looking higher, he saw the same picture, huge lines of cobwebs and whole wicker areas filled with hundreds of these creepy creatures rose a hundred meters up.

Shikamaru swallowed and decided to follow the only path available. The spider allowed him to come here using a summon. If not for this, Shikamaru might have gone to a completely different place. Only this was not at all happy, even the shark family did not look so scary. Shikamaru believed that even in the lion's cave, he would be safer than here. Whatever Ninjutsu he possesses, but to escape from the clutches of thousands of these monsters, possibly also poisonous ... It is definitely not an easy task!

"Brrr!" - Grimacing, the guy slowly trudged forward, stepping over the bones, and sometimes whole cocoons that fell from the cobweb. He tried to behave as carefully as possible so as not to inadvertently anger these quiet creatures. If they didn't attack him, then there was definitely a reason for that. The main thing is that their king does not want to eat a man ... This was possible, but Shikamaru still did not believe in it. It is very doubtful that the king had never tasted human flesh in his life and then decided to lure one for dinner. Although, you can expect anything from spiders.

Swallowing, Shikamaru continued to move in this darkness, lighting his path with a torch.

***

Hidden Leaf Village.

That evening, Hiruzen received a rather curious report from Shukuba, and before that he got acquainted with Kakashi's report. In addition, not so long ago, a report came from the border town about the completion of Shikamaru's assignment.

Looking through the report from Shukuba, Hiruzen smoked his pipe and continued to grin:

- And what are you up to ... I also decided to fight with Tsunade. Eh, - the old man shook his head: - That's why my students are always doing God knows what? Well at least they carry out their tasks.

Putting the document aside, Hiruzen leaned back in his chair:

- Looks like it won't be back soon. Judging by Kakashi's words, this is expected ... Now even I'm not sure what secrets and abilities he has. It would be nice to make him return, but I'm afraid I have no one to send for him ... Yes, I hope, unlike these two stunned, he will still return to the village, at least for the exam.

Suddenly there was a knock on the Hokage's office. Hiruzen immediately returned to the report and made a serious look, after which he said:

- Come in.

After the words of the Third, a strange-looking shinobi immediately looked into the office. Long green jumpsuit and orange striped stockings. Hiruzen immediately recognized the hardest ninja in the village, so he relaxed and asked:

- What is Guy? How is your team doing?

- Ah ... Well, everything is great! - the man smiled brightly and fell silent again, which was definitely not typical for him. Hiruzen, of course, understood everything:

- Say what you wanted.

- Ah ... Well ... This is the case. This is about one of my students - Neji Hyuga. I wanted to ask Mr. Hokage for advice.

The third rose and walked to the door waved his hand:

- Come on, it is better to think in the fresh air.

Guy rarely looked so serious, so the Third decided to help him ...

***

At the same time, in the deep dark world, the small flame of the torch moved farther and farther, and now, it finally reached the end. At the same moment, Shikamaru froze in amazement, because something incredible appeared before his eyes!

Four bloody eyes opened as torch fire illuminated an enormous spider's face. This monster turned out to be so big that the suddenly appeared arachnophobia only intensified. One paw of this creature turned out to be even thicker than Shikamaru's entire body, this, not to mention its overall size. He was certainly no less than the main toad on Mount Myёboku. The spider moved its front paws, its chelicera, and after that his gloomy voice was heard:

- Human ... For a long time, a living person appeared in mine. Interesting! - the spider's voice was much quieter than it might seem with its size. He resembled a mixture of hiss and at the same time, some kind of senile fatigue. However, this was not surprising, all the hair of this spider had already noticeably faded, turning into completely gray. Even his red eyes did not look as bright as those of his kind. Gray turbidity accompanied the central eyes even more than the lateral ones.

Shikamaru hastily examined the situation, but did not notice anything special, except that there was no longer a crowd of spiders, but only a huge web on which this eight-legged monster was located. Although the cave itself still looked a little different, different minerals appeared from the wall, ranging from green and red stones to silver and gold, but only when Shikamaru's gaze dropped down, he was again amazed! It turned out that he was standing on a round surface, and an immense abyss stretched from all sides. Ahead, the spider continued to silently examine the man. When his gray paw touched the boy's torso, the spider hissed contentedly:

- How strong. You have a lot of human chakra, and it is special! And your eyes ... Impressive.

Shikamaru was silent, the spider clearly did not mind, he removed his paw and hissed:

Show me what your body is capable of.

- Show? Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

- Cut yourself, let me taste your blood, - noticing doubts on the boy's face, the spider said a little louder: - I know why you are here, I have already met people. My instinct allows me to see a lot. I know very well what they want from people like me. You can be sure that I will give you what you want, but first you have to prove to me that you are different from food!

Shikamaru sighed and nodded.

- Okay, - he already understood that this is quite possible and just like that no one will give him anything. Words can do little - action matters. Since this spider wants to see, he will show him!