Demon's Ball
Summary: The devil's nearing the gates and all Tsunade's got to protect Konoha is a demon with a fragile white eyed cage as a shield to keep him from lashing back.
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Cornering her was like cornering a jumpy deer with heightened senses or a slow and sickly wolf. He could chase her throughout the night and though he was doing this to get rid of his edginess and she to train; he wouldn't let it end. He heard something shift, a subtle shift of the rustlings of clothing being moved or rearranged out of sight and a leaf crunched delicately. His nose twitched and the slight scent of blood invaded him-it smelled fresh and warm and he could hear it drip drop to the ground slowly. The sand from his gourd popped the cork open and leaked around him in tentacles, blindly looking for the source of his current madness (obsession). His ears thumped in response to the adrenaline that resided in his blood, thick and almost diseased it stayed in him like a poison and he felt like a weak little boy from having such lack of control. The thought of snapping her neck was fleeting, and logic concluded that wouldn't due at all; without her distracting the madness from everyone else he doubted another country would take him in with such warm (warily cold) and welcome (frightened to death) arms as Konoha had (Tsunade wasn't stupid and needed another soldier against the army of Orochimaru and the Uchiha traitor).
The sand danced in intricate designs before weaving out and groping the forest floor with likeness of a blind animal, pawing here and there just to get her heartbeat up enough so that he could hear it from where he was. There it was. Beating quickly as a hummingbird's in constant motion wings, her heart seemed as though it were ready to dislodge itself from her out of fear and run out of her throat and away from him. The sand coiled around the large tree trunk and tightened its grip suddenly. The trunk began to splinter and crack, till it finally gave way under another harsh crunch much like jaws closing over a bone. The tree broke like a dry twig and fell heavily to its side, the sand retreating from it and Gaara was irritated (excited) to find that the short haired girl had up and vanished-had fled yet again. He scowled a little more deeply and his pale grey green eyes locked on the small, barely there puddle of blood that had come from the wrapped wound on her shoulder-the one she'd gotten from a recent mission by way of a spiked sword. It was a dark, glittery thing that reached up with vibrant, vivacious color and held his attention, noting that the sand brushed over the puddle, sponging it almost.
It whisked itself back into the form of a gourd atop his back and Gaara leapt up with the quick, quiet ease of a predator, despite the gourd's awkward heaviness. He jumped from branch to branch, barely stirring the leaves as he continued with the nightly hunt. His redhead was like a beacon and Shukaku was becoming increasingly agitated with his lack of participation in killing-to him, the Hyuuga was much more to toy with. Though her eyes widened in fear, the Byakugan flickered on with an angry air, when she trembled in terror, her legs pushed her forward to face the doom with false bravado and when she whimpered, she quietly whispered the names of her attacks with a softly powerful air. Her opal eyes were blankly warm and vulnerably powerful. A contradiction within another contradiction, an artful masterpiece of calamities and he found that it made his blood heat a little more when he thought would happen if she could contradict herself…just a little darker. Just a little. He unconsciously licked his lips when he caught the metallic scent of her blood just to his left up ahead carried by the cold night air.
He changed direction fluidly and was back on the ground, running because he felt he'd be cheating if he went by way of his sand while the pale eyed female ninja ran and ran like a terrified little rabbit-rabbits were chased by wolves with starvation in their eyes, or trapped by the sly eyes of a serpent, not a sand demon. His nostrils flared and the scent was closer, but near water; the Hyuuga girl's natural element. He bent lower while running, sending himself at an angle where he could either tackle her or be ready to dodge the hit she probably already planned out for him. His sandals crunched over roots and rocks, snapped twigs and pounced off the ground like a coiled spring when fallen trees met his head on hunting will. He was nearer he noticed as he saw proof of a bloodied handprint on an old tree with moss. In the distance he vaguely heard a wolf howl to the moon in rejoice of the hunt. He dodged to the right when a kunai flew his way and ducked and rolled to the left when two shuriken fell in his path. He rolled and was on his feet within the span of two seconds, already warmed up enough to meet the water barrage that would assault him soon enough.
His breath came before him in white clouds, puffing in the cool night air while he waited for her next move. The Hyuuga girl was taking too long to attack, he decided, she was planning something or waiting for him to do something foolish. The moon above him hung low and large, its delicate white face pale in the likes and enough to give off a surreal like light to the clearing he was at. With the moon lighting everything about him, he felt as though he was standing within someone's dreams…perhaps Hinata's? Or would this be another nightmare experience she was so often plagued by? The sand trickled out and swamped the entire area, all while Shukaku snarled in his head, Continue to have this obsession and I'll kill her for both our sakes. Gaara felt Shukaku begin to eat away at the barrier he'd tried to erect between them; he was preparing for a take over. The sand swathed around him in tentacles and twisted imageries of curled wings as though he were some hellish dream thought up by a demon. Gaara felt that old need bubble up in him as it bled into his hunting excitement, the one that craved screams and broken bones and so much blood on his face and hands. In the sand so that when Shukaku churned it, it would roll and create a gruel of thick blood and light, white sand.
Another shift and she was already on the move again. Shukaku snarled out in raging disappointment and excitement for the continuing of the hunt and chase. Gaara shifted and angled after her, the gourd on his back reforming and vibrating with Shukaku's raw adrenaline and though he never admitted it openly to Gaara, he knew she was also a source of amusement to the raccoon demon as well. He leapt over the trees and dodged rogue branches with grace of a lithe predator. Like a red haired tiger or a green eyed wolf, he moved through the forest like a shadow along the greenery with his nostrils flared to the scent of her trailed blood spots on the floor his very aura screamed predator. A hunter, born and bred. He caught the kunai that had been flung back at him betwixt his fingers and deftly flung it behind him. He didn't notice that his lips had pulled away from his teeth to reveal carnivorous canines pointed to nightmarish like tips. He salivated slightly from his cross between Shukaku happening, eyes impossibly brought wide with dimensions of different reds devouring each other and the demonic spheres called his pupils bringing forth a layer of hell.
He looked down and could see the faint prints her tiny feet left behind. Shukaku chuckled hoarsely in the dark corner of his mind, his mental chains on the demon already withering and rusting while the raccoon spoke; You really are hunting her, aren't you? Gaara replied with a snort and a hurried change of direction to hopefully cut off his sneaky prey. Swinging his weight to the side suddenly which nearly sent him to crash into a trunk of an enormous tree, he stopped and saw wide opal eyes without the Byakugan, like they'd agreed, no Byakugan for survival training. She tried to turn but he vanished from his spot to be in front of her, ivory fangs glinting with malicious intent for flesh rendering. His tongue slid over his thin lips and teeth, leaving a gleaming trail of saliva to further enhance the look of deadly predator. He snapped his jaws at the girl who glared back with an almost shy intensity. He saw in his peripheral vision which had been extended due to the unbelievable widening of his eyes that she was reaching for a kunai, slowly, her hand urging itself with a forced calm towards the pouch.
Hinata's legs tensed, thigh muscles twitching before she hurriedly flung a kunai at his face, and he caught it with one hand and flung it back when she lifted off the ground, she spun though and caught between her fingers with ease. Twirling away, she fled and Gaara was left to hunt her though Shukaku was snarling about being let out. The moon was being hidden behind the clouds and Gaara felt the night was still young. A wolf howled in the distance for the hunting song. His blood felt heated and pumped faster. His head was starting to hurt, but he paid it no mind before rushing after the girl. His irises were impossibly small and the red veins became more visible, looking like cracks in porcelain. His eyes looked like replicas of the hell hounds that roamed the underworld, fangs glinting and white hot skin glowing.
I want to taste her blood, Gaara. It's her fault after all that we're in Konoha, her fault we will be used as a mindless soldier once more for a lost cause. Kill her and relish the look in her eyes while you dig into her ribs and pull her heart out and devour it. Shukaku was restless as the moon was full and the scent of his prey was heavy in the air. Shukaku knew Gaara wouldn't kill her unless she left him, if she went along with the Hyuuga proposal of being married off in the Rain country. Then, he'd snap her neck. The raccoon knew that she was currently their weakness as Gaara wouldn't let go of her and almost, seemingly depended on her. Just kill her, she should die by our hands, not when the Sound attacks and she and her team are dispatched for the front line defense. They will kill her or rape her beforehand. Kill her now. Now. Tonight is the night she is fitting to die, that wound we didn't cause and she allowed him to cut her because she was too weak to kill him herself. Kill her…she must die by our hands.
Gaara wasn't listening though his head was pounding and his heart very near leaping out of his throat. He shifted directions again and took no notice of the fact that the gourd was shaking and churning quickly. He saw blue black hair shine in the moonlight too serenely though it fluttered about desperately as the Hyuuga girl thought of a tactic to drive him away or build up her defense. Not too far off from the Hyuuga girl and ex Sand ninja, a wolf pounded on the forest floor, paws outstretched and jaws open widely. A doe with quick, graceful legs leapt about trying to lose her nightmare. Her nostrils flared wide open and blood trickled out of them from fear. Her heart beat was one rapid series of thump noises. She knew, she knew, she knew…death approached with fangs filled with starvation and hellish eyes full of excitement.
Hinata looked down and the sand had curled about her legs, she'd been shocked that he didn't use it earlier but he never used it on her lest he knew it was the time to strike. The sand crawled up her legs and her thighs quivered under the pressure of the unnaturally warm sand. Her eyes did widen though, when the sand crawled up much too teasingly, almost like a caress with a sword tip and much too high, already up to her stomach now. "G-Gaara…?" he didn't answer and she saw him now, his face more clearly. A demented grin, a maddened joker's grin with canines that winked none too shyly at her in the moonlight, eyes too wide to be human with spheres made of icy green fire; bellowed from the belly of a malevolent, medieval dragon and wild red hair that wisped over the mark of love on his forehead. "G-G-Gaara…"
The black wolf leapt on the doe, claws digging into her back as she screamed from the pain and he yanked her down. Her legs tossed and flailed in the air uselessly while she tried to cover her unprotected underbelly.
Gaara took a step towards Hinata and the sand coiled about her shoulders like a friendly arm and tightened like a hideous snake.
The wolf licked his lips in delight and snatched forward, fangs closing on the doe's soft throat, and then bit down with force; slow force that crushed her larynx and blood welled from her mouth and nose in small rivers.
The sand covered Hinata's face before she whimpered and darkness fell about her and filled her senses. She whimpered again and tried to move but found herself frozen and her mouth was too dry to try to call out to the boy murderer of thirteen, like her.
In the faint distance, a wolf howled to the pale white moon; witness to blood and sin.
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The streets of Konoha were quiet since tomorrow night was the annual festival; a congratulatory for all ninja in Konohagakure and the street vendors were closed. The warehouses which stored the rice and grain were open however, making home deliveries to houses that had volunteered to cook food for the festival. Bottles of sake were perched atop sacks of rice or grain as the men used wheelbarrows to deliver the items. Other warehouses carried barrels of fresh fish or bags of strung chicken or duck or pork to houses, but other than the quiet commotion from the warehouses, it was near silent in Konoha.
A woman's nose wrinkled in her sleep and her blonde hair fell about her almost delicately, save when she gave a quiet snore and her hand twitched, knocking her sake flask off her desk. It bounced, rolling on the polished floor and Tsunade snapped awake at the noise. She yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Looking out the window into the night, 'Ugh…not even half of this damn stack of paperwork is done…damnit…' she thought dejectedly, sighing in exhaustion and boredom. The moon was pale and white, pure. She smiled faintly, forgetting about the paperwork and the Uchiha traitor and Orochimaru, forgetting that she'd taken Sabaku no Gaara into Konoha's care, forgetting that the Hyuugas were thinking of marrying Hinata off to make Hanabi the heir; she just let it go. The stars winked back at Tsunade's hazel eyes. She closed her eyes peacefully and the serene silence was shattered with the bone chilling howl of a wolf in the distance.
Tsunade's eyes slid open and she felt a shadow with red eyes and claws clawing at her heart; delicately pulling on her heartstrings. The howl resounded through the ears of the forest, echoing in her ears as well and it was silent. Not peaceful, but ominous now. Her eyes stared back at the moon, the innocent pale face grinning back at her with shadows.
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…fin. For now. …This was a really crappy (also very short...-.-)chapter, but it'll get better, hopefully. O.o…REVIEW! …Please?