Words: 1,728
Pairing: SakuIno
Rating: T
The Dark Arts are a bloody and violent thing. Those who wield it are called witches and are hung in a long, painful suffocation from a short drop with a rope tied around their neck. It is said to be used by the most evil and scornful of humanity, to make those who have wronged suffer and burn. They themselves are scorned and hated through out the kingdoms, but that does not stop them from producing and converting.
It is why Ino is doing it.
Yes, you heard right. Ino Yamanaka, the first and only princess from Inoichi Yamanaka, the current King.
She has had enough from them, the courts that demand her to marry one of the near-by kingdom's sons', like Shikamaru Nara or- or Hyuuga Neji. She refuses to marry those men, she refuses to marry anyone the courts want her to marry. She has tried using her words, her power, but nothing will stop them.
This is her last resort.
She says the last verse of the incredibly complex and long spell, and places her hands on the dead - and bloody - horse.
The air around her and the carcass thickens in what Ino might've called evil energy if she were still eight and not twenty eight, and she allows a small gasp, an intake of air. The dead, tawny horse convulses and trembles in a mock seizure. She knows it is dead, she saw it herself as it just fell from his usual post in the middle of the pasture. He was an old thing, probably older than her.
She knells beside it, hands frozen above her knees and face white in shock.
An unearthly sound starts erupting from it's pale-bronzed stomach, and she sees something moving, rubbing inside of its belly. The- the creature summoned inside of the dead horse stops moving for a heartbeat, and Ino is afraid something went wrong and she was denied. The sound comes again, softer and more muted, higher in pitch and clear in tune.
Then she sees a hand press out from within the beautiful beast, the skin stretching and fur sticking out to follow the hands direction. She can see claws, or long, pointed nails, tailing the hand as it seemingly mapped the soft underside of the belly that belongs to the horse. The sounds get a little louder, and she thinks the demon is humming.
The hand stops moving, right where the stomach disappears between the two back legs of the horse, the claw-like-nails pressing against the skin, threatening to pierce the flesh. It is quiet for a moment, the humming continues, and Ino becomes paler, eyes wide and heartbeat racing irregularly.
Then the world seemingly stops. The humming stops, and Ino feels herself worried at this. There is no wind(none to begin with, tonight), there is no light other than her dimming candle(it is a New Moon, you see, almost darker than a room with no window nor light in sight), and she sees something flicker at the side of her sight(sometimes gossip is bad for the imagination).
Her heart squeezes almost painfully in her chest, body pale and sweaty, and her used and worn servants dress that she took clung to her sides.
She takes a shaky breath, wondering if she could walk out now and never have to hear about this again.
The moment she releases the breath, the claws slash open the horse, blood squirting virtually everywhere and almost all over her, splattering her face in the red, thick, and warm liquid. She lets out a small screech, and stops the moment she spots something crawl out of the horses exposed stomach. It looks like it was almost as large as her, sliding and crawling out of the horses insides like it was infinite and she was what occupied that infinite space.
It's finally out of the once beautiful horse, and slowly lifts itself up from the bloody puddle and lifts it head, hands still planted firmly on the ground next to its obvious knees.
Surprisingly green eyes stare back at her, pupils nothing but a slit, and a heart-shaped face holds those eyes along with a small, narrow nose and small, plump lips below it. It's hair is short, and possibly a light shade of red if the sight of its bare roots is to go by.
It grins at her, a pleased and victorious grin.
"And he said I could no longer do it!" It declares in a rather feminine voice, excited for a reason Ino wouldn't dare think of. "Damn Uchiha's think they can say what they want. Well, ha, take that, Sasuke!"
When Ino finally caught control of her body, she gasps. This draws the attention of the feminine demon, and its grin falters into a grimace.
It sighs, and scoots closer to the blonde who stumbles on to her backside and tries to get further away from the demon who was dripping blood on the barn floor. It stops and sits there, something like what Akamaru would do when Kiba stopped playing with him when they were younger, waiting for an order to do or to fetch a ball or stick. Its green eyes are wide and expectant, obviously waiting for the blond to calm down.
"Wh-Who are you!" Ino finally stutters out, more than five feet away from the demon that she summoned.
Said demon scoffs, scratching its chin. "Nobody teaches their offspring about demons and summoning nowadays." It says, like it was well known that everyone knew of witchcraft and magic and all of that. It sighs dejectedly, "I'm the One Who Destroys, Mountain Demolishor, the Second Coming of the Obliteration, or what you humans used to call me, Sakura."
Ino squeaks weakly, and the now named 'Sakura' looks closer at her. "Wow, you're pretty small and beautiful for someone to have summoned me of all demons. Are you alright? Need anything to eat or...?" It trails off, and Ino is fairly aware that the demon she summoned is a woman, and that said demon woman is offering food and assistance.
Ino sucks in a deep breath, and lets it go.
"I-I am truly sorry for any inconvenience that my-my actions may have made, pl-please accept my apol-apology." She finally says, head low and eyes squeezed shut.
All is quiet for a moment, no wind, only her ragged breathing, and the thrumming of her heart in her ears. She hears the demons own spaced out and even breaths, like it- she is used to this.
Then the demon- Sakura laughs. Clear like they sky on a good afternoon, sweet like bells, and soft as bunny fur, she laughs.
Ino is so startled that she looks up into the dem- Sakura's eyes, so impossibly green, and blushes at the sound. She hopes dearly that it- she cannot see her blush, even though she is sure it- she could smell it.
Th- Sakura smiles softly, warmer than anyone other than her parents and a select few of friends have ever given her, and Ino can feel the tips of her ears burning.
"Eh," the one covered in bloods says, "there was nothing to do there to begin with, I probably would've got in in a fight with Naruto if you hadn't summoned me."
"Oh," Ino says, and she understands. The d- Sakura must have friends(do demons have friends?) like hers if she would get in a fight with one of them out of boredom.
There is an awkward silence after that, each other staring into the others eyes. Ino takes in Sakura's eyes that were like jewels, so green and bright and richer than jade, she wonders if everyone where she is has eyes like those, and that if everyone there has to c-
"Was there a reason you summoned me, Mistress?" The demon says, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh! Pl-please call me Ino." The blond says distractedly, trying to remember why she wanted to summon a demon. The dem- Sakura smiles and nods her head.
Did not she want those old counsel men to stop forcing her into something? Like marriage? Yes, marriage, yes old-fart counsel men, but why did she summon a demon to do it?!
Oh, yeah, because she cannot get her hands on blackmail or assassins. Damn daddy.
"Y'know," the demon drawls, "I could always just hang here until you think of something that I could be of use to."
"Oh, no, nono," Ino denies, waving her hands in the negative, "I do not wish to waste your time on such trivial matters when you could be doing some more productive and of your tastes."
Sakura hums, nodding her head, "Yes, I do need to be more productive, but that is not my desire as I have much better things to be doing that are much more entertaining."
"Oh," Ino says, and she feels that she must look stupid at the moment, because a pretty demon is right there and she feels the need to do something productive, like what should her hands be doing? Should she be standing? Should she be sitting straight? "Oh! Uhm, yes, I wanted to know if it possible to get an-any blackmail from my Kingdoms' counsel men; Danzo Shimura, Minato Namikaze, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Hashirama Senju. Anything, really. Just enough to get them out of their positions or ridiculed for something or another."
Damn it! She is a princess! She has better things to do than to squabble like a child in the presence of a demon.
Sakura hums in acknowledgement, nodding her head and looking around the barn, like it held all of the secrets she needs. "That can be arranged. It will be, too." She turns her brilliant green eyes towards the blond again, "Is this, perhaps, the first time you have summoned a demon?"
Ino squeaks out a yes, sounding like Hinata, she realizes then.
The demon sighs in a way Ino does not know how to decipher, and slowly crawls towards the blond. "Well, things have to get done." The green eyed demon leans forward and presses her soft lips to the princesses.
Something I just thought of. I'm also pretty sure some of what I have wrote is pretty incorrect as to how a Kingdom is ran, but I'm not an expert at that kind of stuff and I'm not really interested in how it actually is until it does tickle my fancy some day.
I would imagine summoning a demon would be either terrifying or thrilling. Depends on the person.
Way back then, when they had the Salem Witch Trials and the entire thing in England where hundreds of people were executed for being involved with the witchcrafts, people thought that a witch has a 'Devil's Mark' or 'Witch's teat', which can be anywhere on the body and could be a mole or age-spot. I made it a cliff-hanger where it was because I think how the rest goes down is up for the readers, you guys, and that Ino might reject Sakura or continue with it or something.(Tell me what you think might happen!:) )
I would also think that the Uchiha's would have been demons as well, it's basically a given, given their 'Demon Eyes' and such And Naruto is there because he's a half demon because I think the Uzumaki's would have some sort of connection to being an unearthly creature(that also might get Minato killed, too, because he associated himself with Kushina, who most likely was a witch/demon herself and died pregnant with Naruto. Also why Naruto is mentioned because Kushina probably asked for another demon to keep Naruto alive despite being born from a dead woman and such.).
... I surprise myself.
