[table][row][cell][color=green]Natsuo Aburame[/color][/cell][cell][color=green]"Everyone talks big till there’s a bug in their mouth. Then they can’t talk at all, cause of the bug in their mouth!"[/color][/cell][/row][row][cell][sup][color=#2E2C2C]_______________________________________________[/color][/sup]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/DFeSMtX.png[/img][/cell]
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It was the strangest thing!  Natsuo had noticed some peculiarities about this mission from the very start, but the slightly mysterious elephant-in-the-room feelings he’d been getting had now become a whole stampede of uncertainties. Even their supposed enemies were confused by the whole thing. If everyone thought the children weren’t supposed to be there… then why were they there? 

Luckily, Hideo turned out to be evil rather quickly. Unluckily, this made it clear to Natsuo that he and the other genin were hostages. They’d been lead into the cave and were likely to be killed or held captive to get an edge on whatever was happening up top. Natsuo supposed it was nice that someone thought that they were important enough to keep alive. Hideo could have just lopped off all their heads if he’d wanted to.

Natsuo found Hideo remarkable. The strange man was unlike anything he had ever met before, human or animal.

People said that insects were inhuman in action, but that wasn’t true. They had needs and urges just like any other living thing. One might be surprised by the sudden bite a beetle, but if you knew it was hungry or scared or bored, it wouldn’t be so surprising. Hideo didn’t need to be hungry or scared or bored to bite. He could smile one moment and bite the next, and he seemed to have no emotions about it whatsoever. It was like he had decisions clicking around in a collection of gears and numbers, making his actions as precise as a watch, but his reasoning was silent and cold. Natsuo was sure a person like that could kill a lot of children if they wanted to. 

Then again, Natsuo thought he could be missing something. Perhaps Hideo was a type of person he just didn’t understand at all, with reasons Natsuo didn’t understand. 

These chunnin they were with didn’t seem as mysterious, though. They seemed like rough teenagers, and one of them definitely wanted to bite… but their leader wasn’t hungry for a fight. If the group skedaddled back to the forest entrance, they had a chance at getting away from their unmotivated pursuer. Natsuo thought it a good thing when the best plan was also the safest.

[color=green][b]“Why don’t we just go back the way we came?”[/b][/color] Natsuo said brightly. 

 He was pretty sure his bugs could swarm up and buy them some time to escape, if it came to that. Since Ari was too loud to sneak, she could melt a path ahead or close the way behind them. Yue would be easily able to hold back at least one of the chunnin with her shadows and his bugs to help. Bakuto may well have been the fastest of the group, and he seemed the least fearful - he’d have a good chance of surviving no matter what. 

Of course, it was possible that Hideo was waiting for them and would still slice their heads off, but Natsuo set that thought to the side. One couldn’t plan for what they didn’t know. 


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