Hero 1: The Letter
There was a hurried knocking on Kuro's front door of the Estate. "Hey! Kuro, Rosu! You gotta let us in!" Misaki called for them.
Kuro opened the door soaking wet with a towel around his waist and a towel draped over his head. "Huh what's wrong Misaki?"
"Dammit Kuro put some clothes on!" Shiyan demanded.
Misaki almost forgot why she was there, "Uhhh…uhm…Oh! Kiyo sent us a letter from Konoha!"
"O really..." he sighed, "Did Kiyo write something about Rosu or something, cause she's in the shower right now".
"I didn't actually read it yet but there was a note included that said we should all be gathered together and I read it to you guys." Misaki explained.
"I'll be right back." Shiyan barged in and went straight to the still showering Rosu. Lots of screaming could be heard from the brunette over the next several minutes before both came down the stairs.
"Kuri-kun!" Rosu ran from the bathroom and hid behind Kuro.
"Well I guess we're here." Kuro yawned.
Misaki opened the envelope and took out the letter, "I see…"
"Why the funky writing?" Shiyan asked. The letter had foreign marks on it which seemed to be the writing itself
"It's in the vampiric alphabet; this is why she specifically asked me to read it aloud." Misaki paused for a breath and began reading, "Dear friends, I am deeply sorry for what I have done to Konoha. I was asked to help with the invasion just after graduating to genin level and when the Kazekage himself asked me to help with the promise of bringing back honor to family in our home village I just couldn't refuse. If you haven't heard on the news, Sasuke Uchiha turned his back on Konoha and went to Orochimaru. Tsunade, the new Hokage, requested Suna to help and I was chosen along with Temari, Gaara, and…Kankurou to go on the mission to retrieve him. It was the final amends to Konoha to complete the trust between the villages again…"
-
Temari brought her brothers drinks, "Here ya go." She said.
Kankurou took a sip of his. "Hey wait," he whined, "this is diet."
"You're an idiot…" Gaara sighed and took his drink from his brother. "It's tea not soda."
Kiyo came over with the food, "Thanks for coming with me on my way back to Kumo." She smiled. In the two months that had passed her succubus genes really kicked in, giving her a taller, curvier body at 5'2" from her 4'10" in August. Her chest grew in size as well and she had to get a complete make-over courtesy of Temari. Her hoodie was now sleeveless, cropped, and maroon. Her pants went just past her ankles from the Capri's she used to wear, the fishnet covered her arms and midriff, she had her Kumo headband re-plated on white material and used it as a belt. The tips of her hair turned black from her succubus side kicking in and her bangs covered the right side of her face.
"Well that's a long way to go alone," Temari said, taking her burger.
As they were finishing up their meal, a bird landed on their table with a letter strapped to its back, "Takamaru!" Kankurou exclaimed; the hawk was the fastest carrier bird in all of the Wind Country. His presence meant it was something urgent.
Temari read the note, "Sasuke Uchiha is running away to Orochimaru and they want us to go help stop him."
"I knew there was something off about that stupid Cockatoo." Kiyo said. The four leave and run as fast as they can to the border of the Fire Country and the Rice Patty Country. Kiyo directed Temari to Shikamaru and Kankurou to Kiba. She went with Gaara to save Lee from his face being impaled by an Oto-nin with white spikes sticking out of his body, 'Wait are those…bones?!'
Gaara catches Lee with his sand. He looks him over, seeing his right arm and leg with blood. He starts to step forward, "We'll handle this." Lee insists that we only back him up and he runs toward the white-haired enemy and Gaara trips and catches him with sand again.
Kiyo laughed at the face he made, "You're not gonna be much help in your current state."
"Do not let your guard down," Lee said, "He uses his bones to attack. He can launch them like you saw before and forces them to protrude from his body. He is able to control them all at will!"
The Oto-nin analyzes Kiyo and Gaara and shoots bones from his fingertips. Gaara blocks it with his sand shield and the Oto-nin's bones recede into his body, "This guy's a close combat type, Gaara. I think I'll fight him and you back me up with the sand ok?"
"Fine."
Kiyo ran straight at the teen, he shot bones at her and she dodged, twisting her body in a one- handstand. Then jumping and taking the water put of a patch of grass, she turned the stream of water in ice shards and aimed them at the boy. Kiyo glanced at Gaara and he started attacking with sand while Kiyo came at him with taijutsu.
Eventually they have the ninja covered in sand, "Sand Coffin!" then Gaara does his infamous Sand Burial Jutsu on him. "When I look at this guy, it reminds me of him."
"Huh?" Lee asks.
"Uchiha, his eyes…Sasuke had the same eyes this guy does." Gaara stated.
Kiyo sniffed the air, "What the hell?!"
"What is it?"
"He's still…alive." The white-haired ninja forced his way out of the sand. 'That's…impossible! I'm the only other person who's ever survived that jutsu! But…judging from the way his chakra smells…this guy is human but….he's definitely not normal.'
"That sure was a lot of pressure…" the Oto-nin started, "if I hadn't grown a membrane of bone under my skin, I would've been crushed beyond recognition."
"More bones… he's a monster, a freak." Gaara stated.
Kiyo coughed, "Jerk." reminding him that she was really the only 'monster' there.
"Kiyo…" Gaara says as he starts making hand signs. Tons of sand starts appearing in waves heading for the enemy, filling the entire field before them. "Sand Tsunami!" A moment later a grey hand appears, grabbing what's left of tree. Gaara makes sand swirl around the ninja, "Sand Coffin!" and crushes him again. He breaks out of it like it's nothing and his new form seems to be that of an animal that existed long ago.
-
"Wait, wait, wait." Shiyan interrupts Misaki, "You're telling me that they fought a guy that turned into a dinosaur?"
"That's what it says." She went back to reading it.
-
Gaara shot sand at him, the now grayish-purple-skinned ninja dodged easily. The redhead made a wall of defense, but the Oto-nin went through and shoved Gaara with his shoulder making the Suna-nin fly back several meters. "Is that the best you can with your Ultimate Defense, is that all?" he mocked. "I'm very disappointed."
Gaara glared at him and he realized he was covered in a shell of sand. "Hey, remember me?!" Kiyo suddenly punched him in the stomach, making the boy skid back. He coughed as she started to attack again; the Oto-nin swung his tail and hit the kunoichi in the back and she landed several feet away. She struggled to sit up, 'Fuck that hurt!'
The Oto-nin looked at Kiyo then back to Gaara, "I'm tired of that sand. Very well, Gaara, you're first." A circular bone starts peeking out from the top middle of his back and he pulls it out.
"Oh gross! What the fuck dude!?" Kiyo shouts as she almost loses her breakfast.
"Clematis Dance…First the vine…" he swings his spine around Gaara, who makes a sand cushion around himself. "Then the flower…" bone grows around his arm in a swirl, ending in a sharp point, "this bone is my strongest. It will bore right through you…" he coughs again. Kiyo summons twin black katana, runs at the "vine", and slashes it. The boy gasps, "No one has ever broken my bones before."
"You've never faced a demon before…" The Oto-nin threw the rest of it aside and stabbed Kiyo in the stomach. She threw up some blood and she skidded back and grabbed onto the "flower." She smirked, "Tell me something…is this jutsu part of a Kekkei Genkai?"
"It belonged to the Kaguya, but now it belongs to me and me alone…"
Kiyo was slowly drawing the boy's chakra away, "The last of your clan huh? Seem to be a lot of those around these days. Why don't you tell me your name before your clan dies off."
"Kimimaro…My clan dying off….that may very well be the case…My body has weakened, it may not last much longer." He pauses, "However…I will still live on…because I am not alone."
"Not alone?"
"That's right; my existence has been subsumed into Orochimaru-sama's ambition. That means a part of me will survive in Orochimaru-sama's heart forever."
"Gaara, now!" Kiyo slams her fist down on the bone and it shatters in thousands of tiny pieces.
"Orochimaru's brainwashed you well…you sad little pawn." She jumps out of the way as Gaara activates a quicksand jutsu and buries him 200 meters underneath the earth's surface.
"You did it! This time I am certain of it!" Lee exclaims.
"Dance!" comes from the ground just as her says that, "Bracken Dance!" Giant bones spikes spring up from the earth all over the entire field.
Kiyo jumps and her wings come out as she floats above the field of bones. Gaara and Lee are on sands clouds. "That…was really close." She goes to them.
"A tenacious opponent but this time it's over." Gaara says, "We won't be seeing him in this lifetime again."
"I am not his pawn!" Suddenly, Kimimaro appears from the bone right behind the boys. "He is the one….he is the only one who ever gave my life meaning!" he pulls his flower back, "But how could the likes of you understand that?!" right before he digs it into Gaara's eye, he stops. A blood river flows from his mouth as the three genin hold their breaths.
"He's dead…" Kiyo exhales. She picks up Lee and Gaara and sets them on the ground at the tree line to rest; she retracts her wings.
"I should've been killed…" the younger redhead says as he regains composure.
"No, it was not meant to be." Lee starts, "My sensei has often said to me that a good ninja always makes his own luck."
"That meddlesome mother hen."
Kiyo breaks out laughing and scolds them, "It is not funny! And Gai-sensei is nothing of the sort! Yes he stepped in, but only that once, and only because I was not yet strong enough. I am grateful to you for saving my life but I will abide anyone speaking ill of my sensei." He warns.
Gaara goes on a monologue about how even being with an evil person is better than being alone. After Lee soaks it in he glances over at the Suna-nin, "G-Gaara?" the redheads turn their attention to him. "Do you have someone like that? Someone who is…precious to you?"
"No." he says without hesitation.
"Then what about your siblings? ...Or your friends?"
"Do you think a monster like me has friends?" he says with bitterness.
Kiyo simply hits him upside the head. "You're a retard." Gaara looked at her with a shocked face. "You're not a monster, Shukaku and I are."
"Wait what do you mean you're a monster?" Lee asks.
Kiyo looks at him, 'Geez this guy is denser than Naruto…' she sighs. "I'm a vampire and a succubus. A demon." She says nonchalantly. The boy in green faints, his mind blown.
-
Shiyan laughed, "She called that scary guy a retard?!"
"I guess she's isn't trying to hide it anymore," Misaki smiled, "It took her a while to realize people are more accepting these days."
"Well, it's not like it matters what you are anyways. The only thing that matters is how you are." Kuro said with a nod.
Rosu giggled, "You sound so adult these days Kuri-kun." Kuro scratched the back of his neck sheepishly in response.