Hi, this is a one-shot that just sort of came to mind. I have no idea were it came from! Lol, I just thought, 'what would happen if the ten-tailed fought against the other tailed demons?' and here it is! I know not everyone will like it, and I think I sort of rushed the end, but eh...
I hope you like it anyway :)
The trees were sparse pitiful things, each at least twelve feet or farther away from each other, filled with brown and yellow leaves-or none at all-, their branches spread outward while some of the tree's trucks were twisted this way and that way to form a semblance of a human shape. Some of the trees were barely ten foot tall, but were menacing in their own way, twisting and turning in the wind in some odd sort of dance, their leaves flying and twirling. If they didn't have leaves on them, one would say they were dead from their blackened and burned states. Some were even broken, smashed into pieces.
The terrain the trees lived on was grassless, only hard-packed, darkened dirt for miles. The breeze that would come every few minutes would barely even make the soil rise from the earth. In some places the earth and large craters, too large to be man-made. In these craters could be seen great amounts of red -almost brown- blood; sticky, and crusted from the harsh sun. Past several of the craters were enormous creatures, some would even call monsters or demons; they were biting, scratching, and ripping at each other in an almost desperate attempt to kill the other.
One of the creatures, the largest of the bunch, towering over them all was a pitch black, easily seen in the sun, with a single eye which held swirling circles and a purplish-red in color. Its body moved with cat-like grace, it's back hunched and its hind legs bunched, ready to pounce with a Cheshire-cat grin stretching across its terror inspiring face, showing its large fang-like teeth. The creature also had ten long, jet-black tails that stretched outward and smashed into its foes with chilling strength. The creature barely had any marks, save for a long, still bleeding claw wound that ran from its chin to its front left leg, down to its claw-like hand and a bite mark on its back and had a few scratches that hardly held the creature back. Truly demon like.
The beast that caused the long claw mark from the creature's chin to its leg had the form of an enormous red fox with nine tails, which swayed in aggravation as a cat's would. His large ears were pulled back, tightly against his head to show his annoyance, his nearly glowing red eyes showing his rage at the creature before him. The fox had a few bloody patches here and there and was favoring his left front paw more than his right, showing that he wasn't without a wound; though there was no blood on him, save from his clawed paw where he had attacked the ten-tailed creature. The nine-tailed fox let loose a roar from his throat, showing his impressively sharp teeth, before tackling the ten-tailed demon to the ground, the creatures nothing but a mess of tails, claws and teeth.
Another creature stood by, watching, and waiting for his chance, this one didn't have as much movability, but despite his bull/octopus' appearance, he was surprisingly quick. He had the body of a red skinned bull with four horns; one broken on the bottom right side of his head, his head was long with blunt teeth and large circular eyes that glowed white and he also had a long lower jaw, almost like a mustache. His body looked more like a massive, bulky muscle than a bull, with lines running along his skin from his eyes to his back, stopping right before eight legs-or in his case tails- of an octopus jutted out and swayed behind him, or curling and twisting as if they had a mind of their own. This creature didn't have much injures, just a few scratches here and there. As soon as the eight-tailed beast saw his chance he rammed forward into the ten-tailed beast, his horns barely making a dent into the ten-tailed beast's dark leather-like skin.
An insect-like creature was seen flying above, not really sure if he should attack at that moment, his seven lightly green wings fluttering, to keep him in the air, causing dust to swim around in small swirls, the six prey mantis-like arms slicing through the air uneasily. His dark-blue hard armor-like skin twitched lightly, trying to feel and sense where his fellow and foe creatures were, as he had no eyes, just a sharp-toothed filled mouth that took up most of his face. The creature swayed from side to side in continued uncertainty.
A white slug like being, with six slimy tails was lying still on its side on the ground not too far from the seven winged insect that was flying above. Its frog-like feet were limp against its body, its tails lying around it on the ground; strange, almost see-through blood surrounded the dirt covered creature. A large hole was on the left side of its head, where one of its antenna resembling eyes was supposed to be.
The strangest looking of all of the beasts had a heavily furred horse body with hooves, with five long tails, a turtle looking head and mouth, while two horns sat on each side of its head. Its light green eyes focused on the ten-tailed demon, as it snapped its left hoof on hard packed ground in impatience.
A red furred Ape demon with a large bare chest pounded the ground with fury, a bleeding claw mark across his bare chest, the blood soaking his fur unnoticeably. The ape demon's four red tails were still, unmoving as he kept his gaze on the ten-tailed demon. His mouth was agape, his small yellow eyes trained on the ten tailed beast, as a blue ball of energy lit up a few feet from his open mouth, ready to hit the ten-tailed demon as soon as the nine and eight-tailed moved from the line of fire. As soon as the nine tailed beast was knocked away harshly with a painful yip from one of the ten-tailed beast's tails and the eight-tailed demon quickly jerked backward as the dark tailed beast swiped at him, the ape-like demon let loose the blue ball of energy, only to miss when the single eyed demon easily jumped to the side and onto the insect demon, knocking him out of the air and onto the ground, causing another crater to form, the horse like demon jumped to the side, away from the two before the insect hit the ground so he wouldn't be trampled on as well.
A jet of water from a turtle-like demon hit the single eyed demon right in the chest before it could damage the seven winged beast much more, the jet of water sent the black colored beast crashing into a few pitiable looking trees, which stuck into the demon's hide, though it didn't seriously harm the one eyed creature. The turtle demon remained silent as the insect creature lifted himself back into the air with a thankful nod in the turtle's direction. The turtle had spikes all along its grey, hardened shell body, besides the only slightly softened reddish-pink underbelly, the only thing keeping him up were its two stubby front legs. The turtle creature's three spiked tails were lifted and curled into the air, ready to defend at any moment, as he focused his gaze on the grinning, single eyed demon as it lifted its self from the ground with a dark chuckle.
A red ball of fire erupted from the mouth of a feline demon. The demon was engulfed in blue flames that swirled and twirled along its body. On the dark blur flames were black tattoo-like swirls over her body. She let loose a rumble of satisfaction, her twin tails whooshing side to side when the large ball of fire smashed into the face of the black demon, just missing the large eye. The single-eyed demon growled lowly, its chest puffed out in annoyance and opened its mouth wide, but before it could let loose a ball of energy, the fox demon tackled it to the ground, and once again the two became a fury of tails, growls, claws and teeth.
Sand swirled around the fox demon for protection once he was smacked to the side again landing on his wounded foot with a howl, the pain causing the fox to lose consciousness, a new gaping wound right above his left eye was added to the collection of wounds. When the ten-tailed demon tried to charge the fox demon while he was down sand was jabbed into the ten-tailed demon's eye like a sharp, jagged knife, prompting the demon to jerk away with a shrill ear-piercing scream. The more hearing-sensitive demons jerked away from the sound with painful shrieks of their own. A large demon with tanned skin and the head of a raccoon dog who was near the turtle demon, pretty far from the fox and black skinned demons, snickered in amusement from the pain he had caused. The sand demon had only one tail that was longer than he himself was, with jagged triangle plates, his tail swished from side to side in an almost playful manner, and slight smirk only added to the affect.
The cat demon hissed at the sand demon angrily, knowing he was amused with the ten tailed beast's pain just as much as theirs. The sand demon merely snickered louder, though his disturbingly, somewhat beady yellow eyes were trained on the fox and the ten tailed demon.
When the fox didn't get up immediately, the bull-like demon roared in rage and rammed right into the right side of the single eyed demon, and with a pained howl he jumped away with three holes in his side, his dark colored blood not really noticeable because of his dark colored skin. The black skinned demon, let loose a powerful roar and charged into the bull demon with such force it knocked the bull demon into the seven winged insect demon, once again knocking him onto the ground in a painful heap.
Before the ten-tailed creature could release anything at the two fallen demons, the cat demon smashed into its wounded side, instantly burning, her claws digging into its sides while the cat's tails wrapped around its middle so the smaller, cat demon could stay on. The ten-tailed demon howled in pain and ferocity, its single eye still shut, and burning from the sand. The cat demon clawed furiously into the black creature's back, the cat's claws having a hard time cutting into the hard leather-like skin, but still somewhat succeeding. As the cat clawed at the demon's back, its tails smashed into the cat's back, burning its self in the process, but also weakening the cat demon with the harsh, powerful hits.
With a strange sounding roar the horse-like demon rammed its horns into the neck of the ten-tailed demon, catching both the cat and the single eyed demon off guard, causing the cat to get knocked off the ten-tailed's back and onto the hard packed ground, with the black skinned demon handing on the cat demon with a painful crying screech.
The cat demon cried out once again as the black skinned demon bit into the soft underbelly, before the cat yowled in pain and fury while making the fire on her body flare hotter and hotter until the black skinned demon jumped away gasping for air as smoke puffed from its throat, its body trembling from the sting of the fire, but it soon recovered and hit the cat demon with its tail, only to miss when she rolled away and onto her feet, her twin tails swishing in annoyance, dark blood dripping onto the ground from under her.
With its eye still closed the dark skinned demon titled its head to the side slightly with a wide Cheshire cat grin aimed at the feline demon. "Here kitty, kitty," it crowed, its voice grating and inhuman, filled with dark power, and the catlike demon bristled at the mocking.
With a roar of rage the cat demon pounced onto the ten tailed demon with little warning, smashing them both to the ground, but the brawl didn't last long, the cat demon was soon thrown to the side as the ten tailed demon smashed two of its tails into the cat's side.
Once again before the black skinned demon could get a heavily damaging hit in, it was stopped by a jet of water that knocked it on its back as it roared in frustration, its tails all over the place. A dome of sand went over the still cat on the ground for protection until she was able to stand again as the ape demon leapt onto the dark skinned demon still on the ground, getting his turn on the demon, and pounded his powerful, large fists onto the demon while he was still on the ground, without mercy.
As the ape demon continued his pounding, the fox demon shakily clambered to his feet, leaning heavily on his uninjured side, while he shook his head to get some focus, as his tails stayed on the ground around him to keep him on his feet easier. The horse like demon easily made-nearly prancing- his way around the ape and black skinned demon and over to the fox demon, his hooves slamming into the hard packed earth, leaving hoof prints. He came to the injured side of the fox, so he could lean on him, and the fox gave the horse an annoyed look, but the horse stayed where he was, giving the fox a stubborn look. With a frustrated huff the fox only slightly leaned on the horse with as much dignity as he could.
"I don't need help," the nine-tailed fox growled with exasperation, his voice gruff and slightly strained.
The horse merely snorted, and didn't say anything, only watching the ape as he was flung through the air landing on his back. The black skinned demon snarled his sharp teeth the main thing on his face now that his eye was shut, his chest heaving up and down in a tell-tale sign of exhaustion. The creature's dark blood ran down his body and onto the dark dirt at his feet from all of his wounds. The demon suddenly coughed loudly, dark blood coming from between his teeth and dark skinned lips.
The other tailed beasts, that were awake, watched with mild fascination as the dark skinned demon continued to cough up blood, its head bowed to the ground, its tails falling around him weakly. The ten-tailed demon's legs shook, and it moved to the side to try to fix its balance only to fall to the ground with on its side with a groan, still panting heavily.
The demons watched and waited for the ten-tailed demon to get back up. They knew he wasn't down for good, he didn't fall that easily. Though they had all been fighting for days now, so long that their healing factors had slowed very much from the lack of sleep, nourishment, and water, but the ten-tailed demon, couldn't be defeated yet. Could it?
The sand demon refused to be tricked, and used this time that the black skinned demon may be unconscious. Immediately after he got over the shock of it collapsing, the raccoon-dog demon gripped for control of his sand and brought from the unmoving cat to bring it slowly, gently under the ten-tailed demon, then with no warning stabbed it through the head and all over its body just for good measure. The sand looked like large spikes peeking out of the demon's skin, black with its dark blood, before they seeped back over and through the ten-tailed demon to sway beside the sand demon, almost in happiness from the blood that covered it, leaving the motionless body behind.
The rest demons stared. And stared for a long while, the ten-tailed was dead.
Though, as the demons looked around them, finally taking notice of their surroundings, they noticed a few things.
One, the slug-like demon and the cat-like demon were dead.
Two, everything around them was dead or just gone.
Three, there were no villages, large trees as far as they could see; there was no grass, no water, and no people.
And four, they realized that they couldn't feel any life for thousands of miles all around them in every direction.
Why should they care though? That meant they were finally freed from the annoyances known as ninjas. Why did they feel a strange crawl of sadness seep over their bodies?
The fox huffed, breaking the silence, a growl in his voice when he spoke, as he continued to lean on the horse-like demon. "Well, wasn't that a waste of time."
The horse stomped on of his hooves, but didn't comment, while the ape sat down tiredly, not really thinking of anything. The turtle blinked slowly, looking at the lifeless cat for a moment before looking at the demons around him, unsure what to do at that instant. The insect remained in the air, since he didn't have legs, which was kind of annoying in a way, but just like the turtle he was unsure what they should be doing in that moment. Mourn for the lives they didn't like nor known? The bull was in agreement with the fox, it was a waste of time. Everyone was killed anyway.
The sand demon suddenly grinned widely, "I am going home! Finally!"
The others paused at this, before blinking at the sand demon in shock. Of course, how could they forget this little detail?
The horse looked thoughtful for a moment, "Yes, I haven't seen my mate in so long." The others nodded in agreement to this.
The fox laughing suddenly, though it was kind of disturbing to see, the other demons merely glanced at him, "My kits."
The sand demon guffawed, "My cubs are probably pretty grown now. Damn, think they'll remember me?" He snorted, "They better."
Suddenly the ape disappeared in a puff of smoke, slightly startling the others. "Thanks for the 'bye'," The turtle commented with slight aggravation. He sighed before jerking his head down in a fashion similar to a bow. "Sayonara," Then he to left in a puff of smoke.
As soon as he had left the other demons were soon saying their own 'sayonara', before leaving themselves, until only the fox was left by himself.
All nine of his tails swirled around him, as he sat easily on his haunches. His paw was still wounded and remained in the air, but his wounds were slowly healing. The fox's ears were up straight on his head, while he looked around with bright calm eyes, the breeze ruffling his red fur gently.
"Yakuharai," The fox hissed with distaste before disappearing in a large amount of smoke, leaving the dead land to finally return to his realm.
Sayonara- bye
Yakuharai- good riddance
Thanks for reading :)!
Please review so I know what you think :D