Naruto no Rei
(Spirit of Naruto)

Ch. 1 – Hollow

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"Rasengan!"

"Chidori!"

These were the nearly simultaneous shouts of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto was covered in a fox-shaped shell of angry red chakra with a single tail. Naruto was gray-skinned with longer more lavender hair, black sclera and Sharingan retinas, huge hand-like wings extending from his back. Naruto and Sasuke continued pushing power into their individual attacks. But as the only power to rise to became lethal force, Naruto stopped increasing his power. Sasuke didn't.

They became encased in a huge black sphere of power. It became solid, within the sphere, Sasuke smirked, punching a hole through the center of Naruto's chest.

"This is the end, Naruto. I get the power I've needed, and you die. It's perfect for me!" Sasuke said, Naruto's eyes narrowing as his vision blurred.

"Go to hell, Sasuke…" Naruto's eyes closed, as the black sphere collapsed. Naruto fell to the river below, sinking straight to the bottom. Sasuke lands solidly on the water, gazing down with his Sharingan eyes. His eyes widen in anger when he sees a copy of Naruto's normal form, bearing the wounds, floating as if still alive on the surface of the water, connected to the sinking body by a chain over his solar-plexus. Unnaturally enraged by Naruto's apparent survival, Sasuke performed the seals for the Chidori once more. The ball of electricity now crackling in his hand once more, he charged the floating Naruto.

He dragged the Chidori through the water, frying all life remaining in it. He brought it up, cutting through the chain, dragging the Chidori across Naruto's torso, ripping a four inch deep tear through Naruto's chained body. Sasuke, feeling a black fire beginning to burn through his eyes, shouted in pain and triumph, before passing out, floating atop the energized and bloody water. Due to the trench in Naruto's torso, his chained body also began sinking. As it sank, the chained body opened its eyes.

'What…?' Naruto watched as he drifted away from the surface. 'I lost…' He looked over himself, seeing the huge hole and the broken chain with naught but a few links remaining. 'What's with this chain?' Naruto saw teeth appear on the broken link at the end as the chain began to eat itself. 'Why's it doing that?' It came down to three chain links. 'Why does it hurt?' Two chain links. 'Why don't I care?' One last chain link. 'What's going to happen to me…?' Darkness.

--

Kakashi arrived to see blood everywhere, Sasuke bloody only on his hands, unconscious with black flames burning atop the river that flowed with streaks of blood and the corpses of the formerly flourishing wildlife. He picked Sasuke up and put him over his shoulder, before looking to Pakkun.

"Please tell me I'm wrong, but is this blood…?" Kakashi asked, letting the question hang, Pakkun looking up at him. Pakkun stared for a second, before looking away quietly. Kakashi sighed with disdain. "I have a feeling that things are about to go straight to hell."

After he said that, he felt a heavy uneasiness, while Pakkun looked completely shocked. "No way, that roar…"

"Roar? What are you talking about Pakkun? All I can tell is that everything got dreadful all of a sudden." Kakashi said, Pakkun looking up at him, before looking down into the river. Kakashi looked as well, but seeing nothing, pulled up his headband. His eyes widened when he saw… something zooming up towards them in the water. "What the hell is that thing?!"

It was roughly humanoid, but it was clearly animalistic. It was bleach white, spiky hair pointing back out of a mask on the creature's face. The hair was a pale pinkish color, the color of blood mixed with a bright hair-color. It had a large broadsword held in its right hand, the sword fairly intricate.

It was five feet long, its blade four of those five feet. The blade was the same shape as a normal long sword up until the end where it fanned out and curved to a point, to triangular gaps in the curve. Its hilt was a demon skull with its jaw closed, the only cross guard to speak of a bone on either side of the demon skull running about seven inches up the blade. Above the demon skull was a ribcage overtop the blade up till where the bones on the sides stop.

The creature's arms had blood red hands, the center of the back of its wrist having a single two=-inch line of blood-colored marking running up the arm. The single line ran up to the shoulder where a spike extended outward, the marking spiraling around the spike to the point. It's legs were like an animal's, like a werewolf or something. It's tail was fluffy like a wolf's or a fox's, the fur mostly white with nine blood-red lines running from the base to the point of the tail. The tail was three feet long. These were the only markings Kakashi could see as it flew towards himself and Pakkun. Except after it grew a bit closer, he was able to see the mask.

The mask looked very similar to a human skull. It had two separate jaws, a lower and then an upper connected to the rest of the mask. It had teeth that were vaguely human, but this was in placement only as they were all very sharp. It's eyeholes were nothing but dark slits in the mask. It was the eyes that threw Kakashi for a loop. As well as the design on the mask. The eyes were golden with slit pupils, and pitch black sclera. The design gave Kakashi a huge startle.

The design, in a bold blood-colored clarity, was the perfected Shiki Fuujin seal located on Naruto's stomach, centering over the center of the mask. Kakashi jumped back in shock, which saved him from meeting the huge broadsword in a body-splitting slash. As the creature stood up on the water it had burst from, Kakashi saw the Shiki Fuujin again, centered around a hole over the creature's heart that went straight through its body in a perfect circle. He saw that the nine markings from the tail spiraled around to the stomach, forming a whirlpool to where there were the nine ends of the marking in a circle. As it stood, Kakashi noticed, oddly, that it was unnaturally muscular. He also noticed a red aura covering the sword in its hand. It opened its mouth, an evil, unnatural hiss escape its mouth as Kakashi saw two sets of teeth, the first those of the mask, the second the size and shape of a human's teeth.

"Ka-ka-shi… sen-sei…" The creature said, taking a step forward. Kakashi was about five seconds away from a psychotic breakdown. "You… abandoned me… to help Sasuke… and he… he…" The creature grit its teeth, unable to continue speaking, instead roaring in anger. It pulled the sword back, sliding it into a reverse grip. He slashed down and through the water, a huge red shockwave traveling atop the water's surface toward Kakashi. He dodged to the left, Pakkun to the right.

"No way, this has never happened, no way, Naruto couldn't have turned into one of those…" Pakkun muttered in fear, Kakashi over-hearing.

"Pakkun, you know what's going on?! That- that- thing is Naruto, but it's some kind of monster! What the hell is going on here?!" Kakashi asked, hearing a loud bang as he turned to see the shockwave had hit a boulder, slicing it roughly in two, as if a giant chainsaw had gone through it.

"Not here! We aren't safe now, we need to get out of here, quickly! Before he kills us! I can explain it in Konoha!" Pakkun said, jumping out of the way as Naruto went charging toward Kakashi. Pakkun ran through the forest, while Kakashi used Shunshin to run as fast as he could. As they fled the battlefield, Naruto roared another inhuman, unnaturally evil roar.

\-/

Chapter End