Naruto
Heart and Soul
The Demon
"W-What the hell is h-he!" a masked man shouted as he burst through yet another wall of overgrown bushes, sprinting out onto another random split in the thick forest area he had charged into. The natural pathway that broke the thickness of the undergrowth only lasted several paces before he was forced to push his way through yet another layer of thick vines, leaves, branches and moss. If the thickness of his surroundings weren't enough, then the lack of sense of where he was going was an even bigger problem.
After all, how the heck do you know where to run when being chased by a fiend that knows the forest like the back of its own clawed hand?
To say the man was being chased by another man, a crazed murderer or a person of monstrously insane capabilities was sort of an understatement. But by the way he was acting; it was like he was being chased by a man-eating creature! The thought that he was actually being chased by a human being never escaped his mind, yet he was tripped up by the thoughts of a bloodthirsty, carnivorous creature pursuing him through this forest. He had a lot of initiative to enhance these thoughts.
His once brand-spanking new black and light grey ninja battle robes and standard issue vest and headband, were ripped and torn in all sorts of places imaginable. Of course, to say that they still resembled clothes was something to think about. The vest was so blood-drenched and shredded that it looked like red sea-weed lacked over his shoulders. His nighttime forest camo trousers looked like a pair of tattered shorts now, and his shirt and fishnets were hanging by singular threads. The man, partially masked by grey gauze straps wrapped around his head, covering his mouth and nose, looked as though he was tossed into a blender and spat out the scrap dispenser. Finally, underneath the tattered wear and guise, slashes from close-combat weapons, bruises and cuts from sharp nails could be seen protruding from the tears and exposed skin. A person would immediately think that he was mauled by a bear! But the first, terrified statement shouted aloud by this figure gave a surreal picture that it was no bear that attacked him.
Panting and sweat bullets, joined by the tell-tail signs of blood trickling down the sides of his face, the man pushed his way through thorny undercroft and barriers. He slashed away at any offending branches with a kunai, cutting his way an opening in which he could continue running. He did not stop, even though the agony in his limbs was bringing him close to passing out. Collapsing in sheer exhaustion was the last thing he wanted to do. If he faltered even for a split second, there was a good chance that he would be leaving this world sooner than he thought. He kept on running, desperate to escape his pursuer.
Suddenly, as the man quickly pushed his way through and down an open, uneven dirt pathway, he was unexpectedly set upon by what seemed like a swarm of snakes, slithering along the ground straight toward him on the route ahead. He saw the slithering formations in front of him before they reached him, which immediately triggered his reflexes. The man let out a gasp and skidded to a stop, the slippery shades also stopping before rising up into the sky above, the sounds of loud cracks, crashes and crunching booms of thunder joining them. The shadows extended their reach along with the ground that was brought up with them. The ground was the main focus, as it shaped and took the form of a giant…a behemoth with fore arms and piercing, blood red eyes. Once the nightmarish form was completed, it towered over the man with clearly visible claws.
The battered ninja let out a horrified scream and leapt into the forests to the left of the pathway, just as the artificial fiend before him struck out with the intention of grabbing him. It remained stationary, watching as its target retreated into the dense undergrowth.
"NO!" the man shouted, looking back, trailing a sweat. "Stay away from me…DEMON!"
He took to the treetops the instant he entered the forest, continuing his feverish sprint away from the 'dark spirits' chasing him. He concentrated on a side-winding retreat, moving in a zig-zaggy pattern, in an effort to throw off the fiend hunting him. The man put forth all his energy and effort in running away, and since it was dark out, he believed that he could lose whoever or whatever was chasing him. But so far, he was having no luck.
For several minutes he continued leaping from branch to branch at a faster then sprint pace, and so far, he sensed nothing. While still forwarding this obsessive game of cat and mouse, the man looked back with a grin, only for his eyes to widen when he suddenly saw a group of figure like shadows leaping through the treetops out of the corner of his eye. They were right beside him, moving through the trees just like he was! Gasping, he glanced left from his right, spotting more similar figures monkeying through the trees. They were fast; faster than even he was!
Terrified, the ninja broke track and leapt from the tree tops, landing crouched on the grassy base of the forest. He leapt away a split second later at the incoming sounds of objects zipping through the trees, breaking leaf and branch. The man jumped away just in time, as dozens of shuriken stars embedded themselves in the very spot he was once crouched.
Rolling across the dirt, the man steadied himself into a crouched stance once more, and hid himself behind a shadowy tree, eyes wide in paranoia and breathing coming out in heavy heaves. Sweating more then he was before, the man raised the kunai he was gripping iron in his right hand, the slightly rusty blade sparkling in the night, as he stared through the darkness from his hiding place. It was perfectly clear. He wasn't just being chased by one man; he was being chased by an army.
A pack! He was being hunted down by a pack of demonic beings! He would even go as far by saying he was being chased by phantoms! Every where, all around him he could hear noises: bushes rustling, sticks breaking; the atmosphere was so tense! He swallowed a mouth full of saliva, ignoring the taste of copper, and tried to calm himself. By steadying his breathing, he was able to extend his senses to try and pinpoint the location of his nearest enemy…
…and attack it!
But the noises around him were confusing him! Wherever he was to look, he would see a faint shadow sprint by, and then disappear into the darkness of the surrounding trees. It was being in the center of it all that made it highly difficult for him to even control his breathing. A panic attack was inevitable at this time.
He heard a snap of a twig go off right next to him, and he gasped. The ninja spun around, bringing his kunai up to full thrusting action, and striking at the empty space he heard the noise. His weapon sliced through the air, and pierced the side of the tree he was hiding behind with a loud thud. With his teeth gritted and eyeballs threatening to pop out of their sockets, his mind unraveled to one solid conclusion…
…he had missed…
Reeling in a quick breath of air, the ninja looked up into the tree tops above him, his knife still impaled. It was right then and there, he came face to face with the demon himself…
A cry of terror was all he was able to give out before he was cut down in a series of blade attacks and dragged up into the tree tops. A second later, his body came falling out of the treetops, and crash-landed in the middle of an open patch of grass within the area with a loud, mangling thud. It was here the ninja met his final end, all life completely ripped from his body.
Falling around the lifeless form of the corpse appeared the small, thin forms of scattered leaves, which gently swooped down onto the grass, which was now becoming stained with a pool of blood oozing out of the latest victim of the night. Once the leaves had stopped falling, silence once again blew into the forest. The light of the full-moon above shone through the trees, illuminating the body lying sprawled out and battered on the grassy plate. And if that wasn't enough, the fiend or more appropriately, person, responsible for the ruthless onslaught committed this hallow night, was still here.
The soft crunching of light footsteps was heard entering the midst of the corpse, the shadows appearing to move under the presence of the phantom. Quietly, with a steady breath, and with no signs of any exhaustion, damage, or fatigue, the figure emerged from the darkness of the trees, and stopped right above the body of the death frozen figure. The person's foot came just several inches away from the dead man's head, and the person looked down at its victim with hard, sympathetic eyes, which pierced through the darkness, yielding it.
The sight of the figure was a complete opposite to what was expected from the supposed demonic figure that terrified the soul that once existed inside the now lifeless body. It was almost as if this figure was completely opposed to the form of an actual fiend, which was highly strange. The person didn't look threatening, heck he looked as though he couldn't even hurt a fly. To top it off, the figure was merely a boy, around six or seven years old.
However, his appearance still played a strong manner of deceit, which was commonly shown in the philosophical descriptions of evil entities.
This was exactly what this boy was. The present form is merely a mask hiding an even greater force beneath the flesh, as was shown now in his eyes. As the boy began to slowly sheath the blood stained duel dao swords he was holding into a single scabbard on his back, he slowly backed away into the shadows. The last trace that was to be seen of him, were the blood red eyes with black slits for pupils piercing through the darkness, before being blinked away into the night.
TO BE CONTINUED…