Chapter 1- Dragged Along For The Ride
Mystical Blue Fire
Disclaimed
Author's Note: "Eye of the Storm" is a companion fic to "Blame it on Love and Demons." You don't need to read the other one to understand this but it would be pretty helpful, and I would like the feedback from both stories. Kurama and Kitsuen are mainly my own characters, I created their personalities and their appearances, the only thing that belongs to Masashi Kishimoto is the name Kurama, his title as Kyuubi no Kitsune, and Kitsuen's place as Ichibi.
Summary: During the 4th (not-so-Great) Shinobi War the Rokudaime came up with a seal to send Kyuubi no Kitsune back in time to change everything. The other eight Bijuu had all been captured, so he didn't feel very worried about tuning it to demon youkai within a certain distance. However, it turns out there was a hitchhiker anyway. When demons are sealed into their hosts, their chakra combines with the human's, tweaking it a little and even when they're removed a minute amount is left in their jinchuriki if they survive. Sabaku no Gaara managed to do just that and now Shukaku is stuck, clueless, in the past and begins to change things without meaning to. Where Kurama is careful about considering possible repercussions, Shukaku is reckless, unknowing of what kind of damage she could do. With neither aware of the other, the world is in for quite an adventure. The 3rd Great Shinobi War will definitely be more exciting than the last one was.
Chapter 1: Kitsuen wakes up dazed and confused and with no clue as to what's going on, she formulates an escape plan, only to find herself in Sunagakure seeing faces of the past, where they're supposed to be dead. What is going on?
...
Darkness. Complete and utter darkness. Infinite abyss of black, only penetrated by a light groan and a scuffle, before hazel eyes blinked open. Her vision cleared slowly and she was peering into the unending stretch of shadows. Her brow furrowed, confusion obvious and she tried to stand when she realized abruptly she didn't have a body. At least, not the one she was used to. Whatever had happened to her had left her as nothing but a chakra construct, flowing around the area erratically and uncontrollably. It was trying persistently to escape, but it was sealed inside and ended up going in circles, clashing together and cancelling each other out.
She was nothing but the source of all the chakra, with two narrowed brown ovals for a vague representation of eyes. "What the-? Am I dead?" She wondered, the question echoing into nothing. Her last memories were of unbearable pain as Akatsuki extracted her from Gaara's body and trapped her soul within a statue.
…That was actually pretty insulting. However, that wasn't important at the moment. What was important was that this place actually felt somewhat familiar. A line of dark blue that was arched over the brown shape crinkled, like an eyebrow, in concentration. Then it cleared and rose higher in surprise. She recognized this place! It was exactly like the jar she had been ensnared in before getting resealed into Gaara.
Carefully, she extended a tentacle of chakra, prodding tentatively at the invisible fence of black and a seal glowed orange. Her eyes widened, which looked unusual and watery with the ovals. This was unerringly similar. Even the seal, which was a temporary barrier technique that only lasted a few years, conserving youkai in an inanimate object, was identical.
The first time she was in something like this, she had been too enraged to even consider finding a way out that didn't use direct force, but now it was serious. One: she was alive and she knew that people would need her help if Akatsuki had gotten all the Bijuu. Two: she needed to know how she survived and who had captured her. Three: she was cramped, wanted her body back, and was getting a little claustrophobic.
Her attention averted to the seal again and she studied it quietly, mentally labeling the components and determining their chief uses. It could have been minutes, hours, or days before her eyes lit on a mistake. Time had no meaning here. The loophole was obscure, located directly at the central core of the seal. It was originally added at the last minute to expand the seal's life by leaking a bit of youkai into the outside environment. It was harmless, simply absorbing into the nature chakra in the desert, but if she could direct it maybe she could lure someone to release her?
That was one of the rare benefits of human's prejudice against demons. They believed that they relied solely on feral instinct, and couldn't solve problems like people could. It was the typical stereotype and very helpful in a scenario such as this, but also deeply offensive. Demons occasionally lived among humans, taking their form, and no one was any the wiser, but as soon as they revealed themselves everyone was afraid. It didn't matter how much of a saint you were before.
Retreating into a trance-like state of meditation, she expanded her consciousness, allowing it to drift along the flow of chakra and float outside, where it was absorbed by the natural energy. Spreading her will over it, she pulled it back together, creating a thin, misty gold snake of chakra. Under her silent coaxing, it slithered forward, out of the old, crumbling temple. Internally, she frowned. There should have been guards at the entrance, any sane person would keep sentries posted where a demon was sealed, unless they didn't know…or something bigger was happening?
Whatever it was, she blindly followed the vague tug of another chakra signature. It was small, a child, most likely. The perfect target. It didn't take long to find the girl, obvious by the finer, more delicate edge to her chakra signature. The capacity of her coils put her at maybe four or five years old, and either a promising civilian or the daughter of a powerful shinobi.
The golden, almost translucent snake swirled around the girl's ankle, making her start, and than giggle when it wriggled, tickling her. It retreated than, a few feet, and paused. The girl stumbled after it, tripping a bit on the sand and her eagerness to reach the snake.
It backed away faster, and when the child continued it began a slow pace to the temple, occasionally pausing to keep the kid's interest. The girl didn't even pause at the steps, scrambling up them and into the dimly lit room. The security seals around the perimeter were designed to pick up on a ninja's chakra, but a child didn't have enough to set them off, thankfully.
The snake swirled upwards, into the form of a human, but it was moving, roiling, the color of a grain of sand, and completely transparent. It was pure spiritual chakra, which was lighter and less noticeable than its physical counterpart.
The girl reached out a hand, awed, but it went straight through the golden form and she drooped, disappointed. The chakra moved, gliding across the floor, to the vase, and motioning to it. Confused, the child advanced on the column where the poreclain vase was settled. It was painted mahogany, decorated with vivid red ancient symbols scrawled around it until they jumbled together senselessly.
When the girl was within arm's reach she noticed the leak of essence, that fueled the construct. She put two and two together, it was like a cracked cup; leaking meant the rest was trapped, and no one should be stuck in a stinky jar all day. The chakra mimicked pushing the vase over and to the girl's credit, she did hesitate for a second, than copied the movements.
It shattered like glass on the hard concrete, and shards exploded from the force of the release of chakra, missing the little girl, but blinding her with a flash of light. When it died down, the girl gasped. Sitting on the floor, blinking away spots, was a woman, maybe somewhere between eighteen and twenty-five, but very beautiful.
Her hair was very blonde, almost white, with an undertone of dark brown and her eyes an expressive, and stunning mix of blue and green flecked with gold. Due to quick thinking, and the telling feel of a suspicious draft, she had henged herself an outfit, just sandals, orange shorts, and a white shirt. Enough to be modest and not attract attention.
Not until she knew where she was. Or more, why she was, considering this temple is a carbon copy to the one she had been locked in nearly twenty years ago.
"Who are you?" The child asked curiously.
She glanced at the girl, frowning. She looked strangely familiar, gold hair that fell around her ears and blue eyes.
"My name is Kitsuen," she replied. "Who are you?"
"I'm Sabaku no Temari." The girl declared proudly.